The/. summary kind of cherry-picks the bits that it mentions. If you read the Star-Tribune article, you'll note that the protesters had buckets of urine at the ready, in addition to the slingshots, bow and arrows, and gun that police seized. It's pretty clear that whatever protest these people were planning was going to go beyond peaceful words, unless someone has a better (serious) explanation for the buckets of urine.
My uncle owns most of those things - he's a hunter.
Once they left the house armed to the teeth, then the police can have a word with them. Until then, they were doing nothing wrong. And the proof is simple: if they had done something (anything!) wrong, the cops wouldn't have released them without charge.
Well, it's a little harder than you're making it out to be.
All well and good to say "we won't build New Orleans". But where are you going to put all those people? They won't all fit in Minnesota and Colorado, you know. (And on a world scale, Finland won't hold all 6 billion of us. Well, maybe if we're really familiar with each other).
Where in the world *isn't* there a natural disaster waiting to happen. If it isn't hurricane, it's general flooding. If not flooding, then earthquakes. If not earthquakes, then wildfires, or tornadoes, or whatever your local flavor of emergency is.
Make sure you're willing to pay for your emergency before you decide you don't want to pay for theirs.
I have seen micropayments done properly -
Puzzle Pirates runs separate subscription and pay-as-you-go servers, and it's reasonably fair. You get basic gameplay for free, and pay to gain access to extra content. Works rather well, IMO. (I only stopped playing after two years out of general "been and done" boredom).
Shaw is already in Alberta, and if their home service is any indication, I don't expect much of the wireless service
Just last year Shaw decided to add two new tiers to the high-speed internet. To manage that they throttled back my old high-speed internet, and then offered to give me part of the bandwidth back for just $10 more a month. (Oh, and for 2.95 a month they'll turn off the throttle for a few seconds at a time for "speed bursts").
And the frustrating thing is Telus' service is still worse.
Actually, I think they've found quite the solution to it - you *can* read the first part, and it's (to me, anyway) obvious that there's more. You'll pull out whatever passes for a magnifying glass, see more detail, including text too small for the mag. glass to see. Which will prompt you to find/build a better one.
Necessity (and curiosity) being the mother of invention, and all that.
No. I'm not American for a start. It's "human" morality. Though I despise many of the recent acts of the USA, this is one of the times they are doing the right thing.
Meh - when the US stops bombing random countries for giggles, then we can start talking about "right things" and "morality". While China does a whole lot of things I disapprove of, at least they only do them to their own citizens.
A lawyer may well advise the company NOT to do a prior art search for that reason. If you go and do one contrary to legal advice you could get into some pretty severe trouble, including definitely getting fired.
Which brings us into sneaky territory. Just how involved *are* you in the patent process? Has a lawyer talked to you about prior art? (Strictly speaking, have they told you *not* to look?). If not, then you have the defense of ignorance - you did some reading on patents, did the search, and hey, lookie here! No-one told me *not* to look, after all...
Now, this plan relies on your ability to look helpfully innocent (ideally, the lawyers should catch flak for not covering this contingency up front). The best way to poison the well is to be helpful in all the wrong ways, after all...
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, or even American, so who knows if this is useful advice? (I'm wondering how lawyers can get away with advising against searching for prior art - isn't ignorance specifically *not* a defense?)
Some companies (I presume mine isn't the only one) have a straight policy that says no-one except Human Resources can provide a work reference. And all they'll say is the "from X to Y".
I think it's a great policy - I can provide "personal" references for the co-workers/bosses that appreciate me, and the less-desirables never even get a phone call on the subject.
Your mileage will vary depending on the ethics of your HR department, I suppose.
*Sigh*. I know, but the children are busy having a tantrum. Hopefully once they calm down, they'll RTFA later, and ponder for a second whether they'd like to be living next door to this fellow once they move out of their parents' basements.
Well, the first thing that struck me is that after all the scary talk about proper disposal and such, that they've made no charges, no citations, and thus far have found nothing that he was doing wrong. Heck, they haven't even found anything more dangerous than what's under your sink right now.
My sense is that our chemist friend (and remember folks, he's a *retired* chemist - I think we can spot him a few points in the "not blowing oneself up" skill) is waiting quietly and cooperating while the authorities slowly figure out that they just did an illegal search and seizure.
Also, lets get real, most of thepiratebays content links users to content which is being provided contrary to the laws of their countries.
Lots of people use their cars to speed, which is contrary to the laws of their countries - I don't see anyone advocating banning automobiles.
It's the same as the old VCR case - just because you could use something for illegal purposes doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to use it for legal purposes.
Actually, it's the problem with the party system. Each area chooses their own representative, who should vote on issues accordingly. Instead, we vote for a party, and it's *their* representative we send, who votes according to the party's wishes.
For example, here in Canada my MP (read: Congressman) is a member of the Reform party. When a vote comes up, he (as well as all the other MPs) are far more likely to vote according to how the party wants him to vote, rather than how the constituency wants him to vote.
Local band around here (Captain Tractor) had a long-running career with full album releases, but no contract (for reasons more political than musical, from what I understand). With respectable sales as well.
On a more middle scale, Reel Big Fish ditched their label about a year ago.
I suspect this plan works better for bands that either (a) tour extensively or (b) are in niches where promotion doesn't have the same kick. I wouldn't expect to see the next teeny-bopper make it as an indy artist, for example.
You can't be charged for incoming text if text messaging is disabled on an account.
You can't avoid the charges if the phone company won't allow you to disable inbound texting.
My roommate is a Crackberry addict, but doesn't text (just not his thing). His phone bill is $150 a month. Telus will not disable texting on his phone (apparently they don't have the technical capability).
He's currently exploring options to get out of his contract entirely, but he had the bad luck of signing up just before this hit.
For people who are missing the point - this is me knocking on your door to sell you something and charging you $1 whether you answer the door or not.
Besides, didn't we cover this back in the "unsolicited fax" days?
While I agree the stunt is a little immature I commend them for drawing attention to such an important issue- Nancy Pelosi. She has refused to allow the house to vote on offshore drilling.
Now, I'm not American, but I was under the impression that the majority party had the right/privilege to decide what did or did not come up for votes. (Or at least, I'm sure I remember Democratic initiatives getting buried by Republicans when the shoe was on the other foot).
Granted, you guys spend more time campaigning than governing, it seems. (They're trying to install fixed election dates here, and I hope it fails - I like having 60 day limits on campaigns)
Actually, I hope the representative in question *does* get cited for "hacking" - we could use the precedent of his acquittal for all the other stupid hacking charges out there.
It's like not picking up a $5 bill you find on the ground because it's such a small fraction of your yearly pay.
(And other people say it's a lot more than $5 though. But you won't even let them look.)
I'd say it's more like digging up your backyard to find that silver dollar you dropped, and figuring that since it's a positive number, that's a good way to pay your mortgage.
It's because you don't care about people. The opponents of oil drilling simply don't care about people.
Horse hockey.
The only reason North America is hurting on oil is because we decided to build the entire continent on cars. Want to lower your gas prices? Ride your bike. Take a bus. Carpool. Use less gas. You'll save money, and our grandkids will be able to breath the air.
The assumption that I don't believe on offshore drilling is - why would the oil companies want to reduce oil prices? The Alberta oilsands are only profitable *because* prices are so absurdly high. And that pattern is only going to continue - we've burned the cheap oil. Now we have to burn the expensive stuff.
The reason Tom Cruise (or any other Hollywood A-lister) makes stupid money isn't talent, it's distribution.
I can spend $15 on a movie ticket or on a local theatre ticket. The theatre can only seat 200 people, and hundreds of thousands of people can watch the movie. Both sets of actors have put in the same amount of work (and arguably, the live theatre is harder since it's live). But the movie actor will make magnitudes more money.
Try the other way: If you were the accused "scum bag", and you're being convicted because the genetic lottery says you're "close enough" to the DNA found on scene, wouldn't you want the math to be exact?
Justice isn't just about punishing the guilty - it's about exonerating the innocent as well. Any time we say "meh, good enough", we've done ourselves a disservice.
Too many in the US have this "gimmie something" attitude, not the attitude of "how I can be a better worker", or "how I can enhance my value to the company".
You must have to have a pretty empty life for those things to be the most important issues in it.
That's chugging the kool-aid if I ever did see it.
I like my job, I enjoy my co-workers. But I never forget that it's a corporation, and they will take advantage of me if I let them. I think of myself as part of a small family business - if I'm working for free at work, then I'm cheating my family.
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The /. summary kind of cherry-picks the bits that it mentions. If you read the Star-Tribune article, you'll note that the protesters had buckets of urine at the ready, in addition to the slingshots, bow and arrows, and gun that police seized. It's pretty clear that whatever protest these people were planning was going to go beyond peaceful words, unless someone has a better (serious) explanation for the buckets of urine.
My uncle owns most of those things - he's a hunter.
Once they left the house armed to the teeth, then the police can have a word with them. Until then, they were doing nothing wrong. And the proof is simple: if they had done something (anything!) wrong, the cops wouldn't have released them without charge.
All well and good to say "we won't build New Orleans". But where are you going to put all those people? They won't all fit in Minnesota and Colorado, you know. (And on a world scale, Finland won't hold all 6 billion of us. Well, maybe if we're really familiar with each other).
Where in the world *isn't* there a natural disaster waiting to happen. If it isn't hurricane, it's general flooding. If not flooding, then earthquakes. If not earthquakes, then wildfires, or tornadoes, or whatever your local flavor of emergency is. Make sure you're willing to pay for your emergency before you decide you don't want to pay for theirs.
I have seen micropayments done properly - Puzzle Pirates runs separate subscription and pay-as-you-go servers, and it's reasonably fair. You get basic gameplay for free, and pay to gain access to extra content. Works rather well, IMO. (I only stopped playing after two years out of general "been and done" boredom).
Just last year Shaw decided to add two new tiers to the high-speed internet. To manage that they throttled back my old high-speed internet, and then offered to give me part of the bandwidth back for just $10 more a month. (Oh, and for 2.95 a month they'll turn off the throttle for a few seconds at a time for "speed bursts").
And the frustrating thing is Telus' service is still worse.
Broadcast TV has been made a free service based on government regulation.
My understanding of broadcast TV is that the people get it for free, in exchange for not getting charged for use of the public airwaves.
I wish there were more over-the-air channels, myself.
Actually, I think they've found quite the solution to it - you *can* read the first part, and it's (to me, anyway) obvious that there's more. You'll pull out whatever passes for a magnifying glass, see more detail, including text too small for the mag. glass to see. Which will prompt you to find/build a better one. Necessity (and curiosity) being the mother of invention, and all that.
Its US morality you're speaking of though.
No. I'm not American for a start. It's "human" morality. Though I despise many of the recent acts of the USA, this is one of the times they are doing the right thing.
Meh - when the US stops bombing random countries for giggles, then we can start talking about "right things" and "morality". While China does a whole lot of things I disapprove of, at least they only do them to their own citizens.
A lawyer may well advise the company NOT to do a prior art search for that reason. If you go and do one contrary to legal advice you could get into some pretty severe trouble, including definitely getting fired.
Which brings us into sneaky territory. Just how involved *are* you in the patent process? Has a lawyer talked to you about prior art? (Strictly speaking, have they told you *not* to look?). If not, then you have the defense of ignorance - you did some reading on patents, did the search, and hey, lookie here! No-one told me *not* to look, after all...
Now, this plan relies on your ability to look helpfully innocent (ideally, the lawyers should catch flak for not covering this contingency up front). The best way to poison the well is to be helpful in all the wrong ways, after all...
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, or even American, so who knows if this is useful advice? (I'm wondering how lawyers can get away with advising against searching for prior art - isn't ignorance specifically *not* a defense?)
I think it's a great policy - I can provide "personal" references for the co-workers/bosses that appreciate me, and the less-desirables never even get a phone call on the subject.
Your mileage will vary depending on the ethics of your HR department, I suppose.
*Sigh*. I know, but the children are busy having a tantrum. Hopefully once they calm down, they'll RTFA later, and ponder for a second whether they'd like to be living next door to this fellow once they move out of their parents' basements.
Well, the first thing that struck me is that after all the scary talk about proper disposal and such, that they've made no charges, no citations, and thus far have found nothing that he was doing wrong. Heck, they haven't even found anything more dangerous than what's under your sink right now.
My sense is that our chemist friend (and remember folks, he's a *retired* chemist - I think we can spot him a few points in the "not blowing oneself up" skill) is waiting quietly and cooperating while the authorities slowly figure out that they just did an illegal search and seizure.
Also, lets get real, most of thepiratebays content links users to content which is being provided contrary to the laws of their countries.
Lots of people use their cars to speed, which is contrary to the laws of their countries - I don't see anyone advocating banning automobiles.
It's the same as the old VCR case - just because you could use something for illegal purposes doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to use it for legal purposes.
For example, here in Canada my MP (read: Congressman) is a member of the Reform party. When a vote comes up, he (as well as all the other MPs) are far more likely to vote according to how the party wants him to vote, rather than how the constituency wants him to vote.
On a more middle scale, Reel Big Fish ditched their label about a year ago.
I suspect this plan works better for bands that either (a) tour extensively or (b) are in niches where promotion doesn't have the same kick. I wouldn't expect to see the next teeny-bopper make it as an indy artist, for example.
Good to know - I'll pass the word along.
You can't be charged for incoming text if text messaging is disabled on an account.
You can't avoid the charges if the phone company won't allow you to disable inbound texting.
My roommate is a Crackberry addict, but doesn't text (just not his thing). His phone bill is $150 a month. Telus will not disable texting on his phone (apparently they don't have the technical capability).
He's currently exploring options to get out of his contract entirely, but he had the bad luck of signing up just before this hit.
For people who are missing the point - this is me knocking on your door to sell you something and charging you $1 whether you answer the door or not.
Besides, didn't we cover this back in the "unsolicited fax" days?
I'm sorry, but you are not entitled to any email address you want.
So, I can't have my own name, but I can sue you for my own domain name?
Can't have it both ways...
While I agree the stunt is a little immature I commend them for drawing attention to such an important issue- Nancy Pelosi. She has refused to allow the house to vote on offshore drilling.
Now, I'm not American, but I was under the impression that the majority party had the right/privilege to decide what did or did not come up for votes. (Or at least, I'm sure I remember Democratic initiatives getting buried by Republicans when the shoe was on the other foot).
Granted, you guys spend more time campaigning than governing, it seems. (They're trying to install fixed election dates here, and I hope it fails - I like having 60 day limits on campaigns)
Actually, I hope the representative in question *does* get cited for "hacking" - we could use the precedent of his acquittal for all the other stupid hacking charges out there.
It's like not picking up a $5 bill you find on the ground because it's such a small fraction of your yearly pay.
(And other people say it's a lot more than $5 though. But you won't even let them look.)
I'd say it's more like digging up your backyard to find that silver dollar you dropped, and figuring that since it's a positive number, that's a good way to pay your mortgage.
It's because you don't care about people. The opponents of oil drilling simply don't care about people.
Horse hockey.
The only reason North America is hurting on oil is because we decided to build the entire continent on cars. Want to lower your gas prices? Ride your bike. Take a bus. Carpool. Use less gas. You'll save money, and our grandkids will be able to breath the air.
The assumption that I don't believe on offshore drilling is - why would the oil companies want to reduce oil prices? The Alberta oilsands are only profitable *because* prices are so absurdly high. And that pattern is only going to continue - we've burned the cheap oil. Now we have to burn the expensive stuff.
If there was a piracy tax, we'd see DRM software cheaper than non-DRM, where it's been the opposite in my experience.
Server-side is cheaper than on-disc (My Gametap subscription is proof of that), but that's a different issue than piracy.
You're paying exactly what they want you to pay. No less.
The reason Tom Cruise (or any other Hollywood A-lister) makes stupid money isn't talent, it's distribution. I can spend $15 on a movie ticket or on a local theatre ticket. The theatre can only seat 200 people, and hundreds of thousands of people can watch the movie. Both sets of actors have put in the same amount of work (and arguably, the live theatre is harder since it's live). But the movie actor will make magnitudes more money.
Justice isn't just about punishing the guilty - it's about exonerating the innocent as well. Any time we say "meh, good enough", we've done ourselves a disservice.
Too many in the US have this "gimmie something" attitude, not the attitude of "how I can be a better worker", or "how I can enhance my value to the company".
You must have to have a pretty empty life for those things to be the most important issues in it.
That's chugging the kool-aid if I ever did see it.
I like my job, I enjoy my co-workers. But I never forget that it's a corporation, and they will take advantage of me if I let them. I think of myself as part of a small family business - if I'm working for free at work, then I'm cheating my family.