During the investigations into 9/11, Ashcroft banned the FBI from searching gun purchase files to see if any of the suspects had purchased weapons in the previous months
Why look into it? They didn't use guns in the hi-jackings...
There is no legitimate reason for law enforcement to be looking into those records.
Considering the contempt Ashcroft has shown for the other nine ammendments, his enthisiasm for protecting the second is a little disturbing IMO.
Ashcroft hasn't done anything that could even remotely be considered to to infringe upon the 3rd, 7th, or 9th amendments either.
Apple used to "Think Different" because they had found a better way of doing things than the rest of the industry. Apple was the first major manufacturer to include built-in networking(local talk and SCSI), 3.5" floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, built in SCSI, a GUI based OS and numerous other things than made made me a "Mac Guy" for over a decade.
Now they are doing things differently just to be different. Their decisions to lock out the Cloners, to kill Copeland, to only make machines out of clear shiney plastic and most importantly that I can't play the games that I want to play on a Mac are the reasons why I haven't bought any new Apple hardware in the past 7 years.
Yes, idiots who don't know what they're talking about always need to be heard.
I was one of the top 3 Mac repair guys in Pittsburgh from 1996-2001. With's Apple's repair dispatches this means that I personally have been everywhere between Sarver PA and Cadiz County OH to do Apple repairs. I replaced more analog/power boards in Summer 2000 iMacs than you've probably even seen, I've replaced more front panel boards in PowerMac G4s than you can imagine. Hundreds of 3.6v lithium and 4.5v alkaline batteries. Countless OS upgrades. I assisted one of my clients and Apple's engineers with determining that there was a problem with their Desktop Beige G3, Mac OS 8.0 and 768 MB of memory. I remember the driver problem with the hard drives on x400s and System 7.6 that caused the entire contents of hard drives to be lost. I still have copies of Mac OS 8 cds that were sent to me by Apple. I still have a couple of the Mac OS 8 temporary tattos and Tee shirts that were sent to me by Apple. I scored enough points in Apple's "Learn n Earn" program that I won an Apple Laptop Backpack. I know every Apple Machine from the Mac Plus through the Sawtooth G4s inside and out.
My first Mac was a Mac Plus, 8mhz, 1MB of RAM System 6.0.x and a 20MB hard drive. I started coding for the Mac with Codewarrior 1 and Symantec C++ version 7.
I could go on for a while, but suffice it to say that I know Macs.
How about you?
With all I know, I have chosen to not purchase any new Apple hardware.
This isn't just a Mac story: the RTA statement noted, "The Apple rollout is a continuation of RTA usage of open standards-based software and systems.
Um, HELLO!!!! Apple is far less open with regard to their systems than any other major manufacturere of consumer grade computers. Microsoft's OS is less open than Apple's, but their systems are definately NOT "open stardards-based".
I know I'm going to get mod bombed by the Apple Zealots, but I have the karma and this needed to be said.
You are assuming that google is so stupid they would be unable to determine what is a joe job and what is a legitimate link.
You assume that Google has psychics working for them. A Joe Job and true spam are indistinguishable from one another. A Joe Job consists of spam that is sent out just like all other spam, the only difference is the target of the links.
For example, Bill has a website www.BuyBillsWidgets.com and he's doing fairly well.
Jack has a website that sells a similar widget www.BuyJacksWidgets.com and he isn't doing quite as well as Bill.
Jack enlists a spammer to send out 500k emails that link to www.BuyBillsWidgets.com. Google has no way of knowing who commissioned the sending of the spam. With your system Bill will be punished by the downranking of his page because Jack Joe Jobbed him.
Not even Google has the ability to determine the purpose of spam.
I guess maybe you need to learn what a Joe Job is.
Google can use algorithms on mail that gets marked and checked as spam to nerf the page rankings of those webpages.
Which would make Joe Jobs much more common. Let's pretend that you don't like someone's politics, or your a competitor in a business field. Find a spammer and spam the shit out of people with links to your opponent's page. The page gets nerfed, you laugh about it, and the poor innocent person has no idea why.
John Ashcroft using their PageRank sorting technology to indicate which e-mails are most relavant to his desire to repeal every amendment in numbered order...
Ashcroft is a conservative, he'll never think of touching the 2nd amendment.
But all you are really doing is cracking music files in your bedroom.
I neither use iTMS nor AAC audio files.
When the RIAA or Apple start setting about you with sticks and large boots,
What do you think the threat of legal action is? Governments have authority because they CAN use physical force or violence to make you comply with their wishes. To threaten legal action is to threaten to make the goverment violently force your will by proxy.
Till then you are just making excuses for petty criminality.
To remove DRM from files that YOU have paid for is NOT criminality. You may be breaching a contract ( I can't say for certain, I've never agreed to Apple's terms for iTMS), but that is a civil matter, not a criminal one.
I read an article today about music listening habits. One guy they talked to had a 120GB of music collection. The other had 2000 songs that he hadn't yet listened to.
Yeah...And? That's not what this is about.
You aren't telling me that either of them purchased this quantity of music. They ripped it off, pure and simple. These are the people being served by the "DRM is evil" brigade.
These people probably did rip off that music. That has nothing to do with this discussion. To be completely honest, I have some music that I have ripped off. Some of that I downloaded because I couldn't find the CD anywhere. Some of it I downloaded because I was lazy. But the majority of my 5.3GB MP3 collection is music that I bought, ripped and encoded myself. From DMX and Scarface to Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana, I BOUGHT the music because I like it. No one, not you or anyone else will tell me how to listen to it.
Non-techies don't even have this attitude about cars, and why should they?
No they don't and it's precisely why they get fucked when they take their cars to repair shops.
$800 for $40 in parts and two hours labor. If you have the money to remain ignorant, better for you and those who are making their living off of you.
I used to think that I should charge people based upon the amount of work that I do for them. I no longer feel this way. I charge people for the amount of work I do and an ignorance fee.
If someone fuxors their computer and it won't operate properly due to virus or spyware infestation, I will charge that person more than I would to install a HDD and reinstall windows.
It's really easy to overlook just how much more you know than the average person does, and it's easy to forget how much time it took you to accumulate this knowledge.
When people ask how I know so much about computers, I'm reminded of it as I tell them. I do this for at least 8 hours per day at work. I do this for at least 4 more hours when I get home. EVERY DAY. I'm always learning and always practicing. I have bought so many books & magazines that they outweigh me. As much as I know, there are people out there with knowledge that dwarfs mine.
My step-father used to say that there was more to owning a car than putting gas in it and driving it. Even if you choose to pay someone else to do it, you should at least know how to change the oil on your car. Even if you choose to pay someone else to do it, you should know how to change a flat tire on your car. Even if you choose to pay someone else to maintain them, you should at least have an idea of what brakes are and how they work. This is true in every aspect of life. If you don't know the basics of maintaining something, you shouldn't be using it. Period.
My GF's best friend asked me to take a look at her computer earlier this week. The first thing I did was download and install Ad Aware. It found over 300 objects.
All of thost cutesy little cursors and searchbars and tons of other stupid bullshit that newbies install is teaming with spyware.
The difference is that they publically demonstrated and were willing to face the legal consequences to publicise their cause. They weren't running off to another country where they think the laws weren't enforced as strongly.
David doesn't defeat Goliath by trying to match his strength. Gaining publicity was easy when you were showing footage of police and southern rednecks beating the shit out of teenage kids. Sending an "evil hacker" to jail is someone that most people won't care about.
The only cause you are serving is yourself.
The people doing this are doing it on your behalf as well, even if you choose to not take part.
If you truly object to it, organise a demonstration outside Apple offices and get the press in.
The mainstream media are not capable of understanding the issue much less reporting it accurately.
DRM isn't the equivalent of segregation by a long chalk.
Perhaps not morally, but legally it's very similar. A segregationist who owned a diner had the right to control the use of his property. Apple and whatever record company controls the IP for the music, as such they have the right to control how that music is used.
Sit Ins were as much of a violation of someone's property rights as stripping DRM from music files.
They can use a free Blog to post a PGP Public Key so that the integrity of the files can be verified. I'd like to see Apple go after a host for putting up a PGP Key.
Download the tarball from your favorite P2P, check the signature with the Public PGP Key and you're in business.
Signature checks aren't something for lay people, but neither is PlayFair.
As a child I watched almost nothing but educational programs. As an adult I continue to watch lots of educational programs.
You speak of TV as if it's inherently bad. It's not.
I suppose that as the number of available channels has increased the signal to noise ratio has gotten much worse, but there is still a lot of good programming out there.
Why didn't they just charge $1 or some nominal fee for changing the Picks?
Eventually they started to charge a $5.00 transaction fee for dropping a channel, but that was after they stopped offering Dish Picks.
I suspect that a part of the reason was that at that time their billing system would never show a past due balance if you changed your programming EVERY DAY. I saw accounts that were two years old, had $800+ balances, had never been paid upon and were still active.
I feel better all of the time that I didn't join the MandrakeClub. I LOVE the distro. It is my distro of choice, it has been since 6.0. I flat out REFUSE to spend more money on "free software" than I do on commercial software. I don't spend $120 per year for windows. There is no way in hell that I'm willing to spend that for ANY OS.
This is NOT a troll, I am addressing the issues that have lead me to not join Mandrake Club even though I use the distro; mod me down, whatever, I have the karma.
EchoStar is game but says Viacom and others are refusing to go along.
I used to work for Echostar, they HAD a la carte programming once, it was called Dish Picks. They discontinued the service because of cheapskates who'd call in several times per day to add/remove channels as the shows that they liked came on.
I suspect that they are now getting in line with the idea knowing full well that it won't ever happen. I believe that they're trying to get some congressmen to think that they're good guys so there will be less opposition to them buying DirecTV. The last time they tried, the sale was blocked.
There was a rumor floating around the call center when I was there, it was a rumor and I can't vouch for the veracity of the claim so take this with a HUGE grain of salt; but the rumor was that before the last time they tried to buy DirecTV Charlie Ergan (the president of the company) had John McCain over to his house to "watch a football game", the game was blacked out in the area due to NFL restrictions, but Charlie had them override the NFL blackout and SHVIA restrictions and put the game on at his house. If this really happened and they got caught the company would have been subject to a $10k fine, I'm sure that Charlie would have paid it out of pocket but that's not the point. Once again, if this really happened, I think I have a good idea of what they talked about.
Finally as a CMA, I'd like to say again that this was just an office rumor and I can't personally vouch for its veracity. The fact that there was a rumor is 100% fact, but the contents of that rumor are not known to me as being factual.
I never looked, so I couldn't tell you if Charlie Ergan actually had a DishNetwork system at his house. If I did know about it, I would be prohibited from discussing it with anyone outside of EchoStar.
But, you'd be surprised at what porno certain celebrities order.(I can't be any more specific than that)
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During the investigations into 9/11, Ashcroft banned the FBI from searching gun purchase files to see if any of the suspects had purchased weapons in the previous months
Why look into it? They didn't use guns in the hi-jackings...
There is no legitimate reason for law enforcement to be looking into those records.
Considering the contempt Ashcroft has shown for the other nine ammendments, his enthisiasm for protecting the second is a little disturbing IMO.
Ashcroft hasn't done anything that could even remotely be considered to to infringe upon the 3rd, 7th, or 9th amendments either.
LK
not being able to build it does not make it closed.
Sure it does, so does not being able to get specs for the hardware. Ask the guys from Be why they stopped supporting Apple hardware on the BeOS.
LK
But I fix more Macs more quickly with less hassle than just about any Windows shitbox you could put in front of me. And they stay fixed.
Leaves me with the question "How did they get 'broken' in the first place?"
I'll make the assumption that it was a user problem, there is no way to prevent that from happening again.
LK
Great. Why not buy it? You didn't give reasoning.
Good point. I didn't explain that.
Apple used to "Think Different" because they had found a better way of doing things than the rest of the industry. Apple was the first major manufacturer to include built-in networking(local talk and SCSI), 3.5" floppy drives, CD-ROM drives, built in SCSI, a GUI based OS and numerous other things than made made me a "Mac Guy" for over a decade.
Now they are doing things differently just to be different. Their decisions to lock out the Cloners, to kill Copeland, to only make machines out of clear shiney plastic and most importantly that I can't play the games that I want to play on a Mac are the reasons why I haven't bought any new Apple hardware in the past 7 years.
LK
Yes, idiots who don't know what they're talking about always need to be heard.
I was one of the top 3 Mac repair guys in Pittsburgh from 1996-2001. With's Apple's repair dispatches this means that I personally have been everywhere between Sarver PA and Cadiz County OH to do Apple repairs. I replaced more analog/power boards in Summer 2000 iMacs than you've probably even seen, I've replaced more front panel boards in PowerMac G4s than you can imagine. Hundreds of 3.6v lithium and 4.5v alkaline batteries. Countless OS upgrades. I assisted one of my clients and Apple's engineers with determining that there was a problem with their Desktop Beige G3, Mac OS 8.0 and 768 MB of memory. I remember the driver problem with the hard drives on x400s and System 7.6 that caused the entire contents of hard drives to be lost. I still have copies of Mac OS 8 cds that were sent to me by Apple. I still have a couple of the Mac OS 8 temporary tattos and Tee shirts that were sent to me by Apple. I scored enough points in Apple's "Learn n Earn" program that I won an Apple Laptop Backpack. I know every Apple Machine from the Mac Plus through the Sawtooth G4s inside and out.
My first Mac was a Mac Plus, 8mhz, 1MB of RAM System 6.0.x and a 20MB hard drive. I started coding for the Mac with Codewarrior 1 and Symantec C++ version 7.
I could go on for a while, but suffice it to say that I know Macs.
How about you?
With all I know, I have chosen to not purchase any new Apple hardware.
LK
Did you even read my post?
I conceded that Apple's OS is much more open than the industry leader, but I am talking about their computers.
Just try to build a compatible system if you doubt me.
LK
Come again?
Not Open in the least. Just read it for yourself.
LK
This isn't just a Mac story: the RTA statement noted, "The Apple rollout is a continuation of RTA usage of open standards-based software and systems.
Um, HELLO!!!! Apple is far less open with regard to their systems than any other major manufacturere of consumer grade computers. Microsoft's OS is less open than Apple's, but their systems are definately NOT "open stardards-based".
I know I'm going to get mod bombed by the Apple Zealots, but I have the karma and this needed to be said.
LK
You are assuming that google is so stupid they would be unable to determine what is a joe job and what is a legitimate link.
You assume that Google has psychics working for them. A Joe Job and true spam are indistinguishable from one another. A Joe Job consists of spam that is sent out just like all other spam, the only difference is the target of the links.
For example, Bill has a website www.BuyBillsWidgets.com and he's doing fairly well.
Jack has a website that sells a similar widget www.BuyJacksWidgets.com and he isn't doing quite as well as Bill.
Jack enlists a spammer to send out 500k emails that link to www.BuyBillsWidgets.com. Google has no way of knowing who commissioned the sending of the spam. With your system Bill will be punished by the downranking of his page because Jack Joe Jobbed him.
Not even Google has the ability to determine the purpose of spam.
I guess maybe you need to learn what a Joe Job is.
LK
Google can use algorithms on mail that gets marked and checked as spam to nerf the page rankings of those webpages.
Which would make Joe Jobs much more common. Let's pretend that you don't like someone's politics, or your a competitor in a business field. Find a spammer and spam the shit out of people with links to your opponent's page. The page gets nerfed, you laugh about it, and the poor innocent person has no idea why.
LK
John Ashcroft using their PageRank sorting technology to indicate which e-mails are most relavant to his desire to repeal every amendment in numbered order...
Ashcroft is a conservative, he'll never think of touching the 2nd amendment.
LK
But all you are really doing is cracking music files in your bedroom.
I neither use iTMS nor AAC audio files.
When the RIAA or Apple start setting about you with sticks and large boots,
What do you think the threat of legal action is? Governments have authority because they CAN use physical force or violence to make you comply with their wishes. To threaten legal action is to threaten to make the goverment violently force your will by proxy.
Till then you are just making excuses for petty criminality.
To remove DRM from files that YOU have paid for is NOT criminality. You may be breaching a contract ( I can't say for certain, I've never agreed to Apple's terms for iTMS), but that is a civil matter, not a criminal one.
I read an article today about music listening habits. One guy they talked to had a 120GB of music collection. The other had 2000 songs that he hadn't yet listened to.
Yeah...And? That's not what this is about.
You aren't telling me that either of them purchased this quantity of music. They ripped it off, pure and simple. These are the people being served by the "DRM is evil" brigade.
These people probably did rip off that music. That has nothing to do with this discussion. To be completely honest, I have some music that I have ripped off. Some of that I downloaded because I couldn't find the CD anywhere. Some of it I downloaded because I was lazy. But the majority of my 5.3GB MP3 collection is music that I bought, ripped and encoded myself. From DMX and Scarface to Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana, I BOUGHT the music because I like it. No one, not you or anyone else will tell me how to listen to it.
LK
Non-techies don't even have this attitude about cars, and why should they?
No they don't and it's precisely why they get fucked when they take their cars to repair shops.
$800 for $40 in parts and two hours labor. If you have the money to remain ignorant, better for you and those who are making their living off of you.
I used to think that I should charge people based upon the amount of work that I do for them. I no longer feel this way. I charge people for the amount of work I do and an ignorance fee.
If someone fuxors their computer and it won't operate properly due to virus or spyware infestation, I will charge that person more than I would to install a HDD and reinstall windows.
It's really easy to overlook just how much more you know than the average person does, and it's easy to forget how much time it took you to accumulate this knowledge.
When people ask how I know so much about computers, I'm reminded of it as I tell them. I do this for at least 8 hours per day at work. I do this for at least 4 more hours when I get home. EVERY DAY. I'm always learning and always practicing. I have bought so many books & magazines that they outweigh me. As much as I know, there are people out there with knowledge that dwarfs mine.
My step-father used to say that there was more to owning a car than putting gas in it and driving it. Even if you choose to pay someone else to do it, you should at least know how to change the oil on your car. Even if you choose to pay someone else to do it, you should know how to change a flat tire on your car. Even if you choose to pay someone else to maintain them, you should at least have an idea of what brakes are and how they work. This is true in every aspect of life. If you don't know the basics of maintaining something, you shouldn't be using it. Period.
LK
My GF's best friend asked me to take a look at her computer earlier this week. The first thing I did was download and install Ad Aware. It found over 300 objects.
All of thost cutesy little cursors and searchbars and tons of other stupid bullshit that newbies install is teaming with spyware.
LK
The difference is that they publically demonstrated and were willing to face the legal consequences to publicise their cause. They weren't running off to another country where they think the laws weren't enforced as strongly.
David doesn't defeat Goliath by trying to match his strength. Gaining publicity was easy when you were showing footage of police and southern rednecks beating the shit out of teenage kids. Sending an "evil hacker" to jail is someone that most people won't care about.
The only cause you are serving is yourself.
The people doing this are doing it on your behalf as well, even if you choose to not take part.
If you truly object to it, organise a demonstration outside Apple offices and get the press in.
The mainstream media are not capable of understanding the issue much less reporting it accurately.
DRM isn't the equivalent of segregation by a long chalk.
Perhaps not morally, but legally it's very similar. A segregationist who owned a diner had the right to control the use of his property. Apple and whatever record company controls the IP for the music, as such they have the right to control how that music is used.
Sit Ins were as much of a violation of someone's property rights as stripping DRM from music files.
You just think one of them is a noble crime.
LK
If you don't like being threatened to be taken to court, don't break the law.
You sound like the people who were opposed to Sit Ins and other "Illegal" efforts to abolish segregation.
LK
They can use a free Blog to post a PGP Public Key so that the integrity of the files can be verified. I'd like to see Apple go after a host for putting up a PGP Key.
Download the tarball from your favorite P2P, check the signature with the Public PGP Key and you're in business.
Signature checks aren't something for lay people, but neither is PlayFair.
LK
for the most part, the web is pull content. I am not having content forced down my throat.
Pop ups? Banners? Spam? Overbearing editorial opinions on "news" sites?
LK
As a child I watched almost nothing but educational programs. As an adult I continue to watch lots of educational programs.
You speak of TV as if it's inherently bad. It's not.
I suppose that as the number of available channels has increased the signal to noise ratio has gotten much worse, but there is still a lot of good programming out there.
LK
Why didn't they just charge $1 or some nominal fee for changing the Picks?
Eventually they started to charge a $5.00 transaction fee for dropping a channel, but that was after they stopped offering Dish Picks.
I suspect that a part of the reason was that at that time their billing system would never show a past due balance if you changed your programming EVERY DAY. I saw accounts that were two years old, had $800+ balances, had never been paid upon and were still active.
LK
Oh, come on. Does Michael Jackson have the kiddies bouncing up and down on pogo sticks channel?
If I had any information about that, I'd be contractually prohibited from telling you.
LK
I feel better all of the time that I didn't join the MandrakeClub. I LOVE the distro. It is my distro of choice, it has been since 6.0. I flat out REFUSE to spend more money on "free software" than I do on commercial software. I don't spend $120 per year for windows. There is no way in hell that I'm willing to spend that for ANY OS.
This is NOT a troll, I am addressing the issues that have lead me to not join Mandrake Club even though I use the distro; mod me down, whatever, I have the karma.
LK
Millions? Millions of what? Mandrake just came out of bankruptcy not that long ago. Where'd you come up with "millions"?
What the fuck do you think they were spending to get into financial trouble? It wasn't clamshells you jackass.
LK
EchoStar is game but says Viacom and others are refusing to go along.
I used to work for Echostar, they HAD a la carte programming once, it was called Dish Picks. They discontinued the service because of cheapskates who'd call in several times per day to add/remove channels as the shows that they liked came on.
I suspect that they are now getting in line with the idea knowing full well that it won't ever happen. I believe that they're trying to get some congressmen to think that they're good guys so there will be less opposition to them buying DirecTV. The last time they tried, the sale was blocked.
There was a rumor floating around the call center when I was there, it was a rumor and I can't vouch for the veracity of the claim so take this with a HUGE grain of salt; but the rumor was that before the last time they tried to buy DirecTV Charlie Ergan (the president of the company) had John McCain over to his house to "watch a football game", the game was blacked out in the area due to NFL restrictions, but Charlie had them override the NFL blackout and SHVIA restrictions and put the game on at his house. If this really happened and they got caught the company would have been subject to a $10k fine, I'm sure that Charlie would have paid it out of pocket but that's not the point. Once again, if this really happened, I think I have a good idea of what they talked about.
Finally as a CMA, I'd like to say again that this was just an office rumor and I can't personally vouch for its veracity. The fact that there was a rumor is 100% fact, but the contents of that rumor are not known to me as being factual.
I never looked, so I couldn't tell you if Charlie Ergan actually had a DishNetwork system at his house. If I did know about it, I would be prohibited from discussing it with anyone outside of EchoStar.
But, you'd be surprised at what porno certain celebrities order.(I can't be any more specific than that)
LK
Better yet, make it a reverse peep hole.
In Soviet Russia, holes peep at YOU!
LK