"Why do you think Americans travel the world with a Canadian flag sewn on their backpacks?"
Because they are cunts.
Hey, I happen to love and admire Canada. But, I will never attempt to pass myself off as Canadian. I'm an American citizen. Wherever I go, I'm just as American. Anyone who lacks the balls to be American in - Tehran, or Beruit, or wherever, should just move their asses to whatever country it is that they prefer. Hell - let them stay in Mogudishu, for all I care. They don't need to come home to wave a flag on July 4th. Wave the American flag in Beijing, or don't wave it at all.
"if a US law enforcement entity with a warrant makes a request "
I don't know for sure, but I get the impression that you've been sleeping for most of a decade. Remember all the hoopla over warrantless taps? Warrantless searches and seizures? In one single instance, virtually all United States telcos were ordered by the US government to cooperate with federal officials to monitor email communications for hints of terroristic threats. Long afterward, the courts started to get involved, and started to find all that shit was unconstitutional. In fact, Congress passed a special law to indemnify all those telcos against being sued for cooperating with the government.
Obsessions? Pal - the government may or may not "be out to get you", but if you believe for one moment that the government is your friend, then you are a fool.
The very men who created this country warned us that it was our duty to guard against government intrusion on our rights.
To which "other OS's" do you refer? Maybe AC answered your question after all. I can't believe that anyone who is worthy of the "Geek" title would be using a WINDOWS PHONE! At best, a Windows phone would be a neat toy to play with. When you get tired of it, hand it off to unsuspecting fool who doesn't understand, need, or want any security.
You and AC both have it wrong. They aren't subsidizing us, nor are we subsidizing them. We're both being anally raped by the corporations. Goods and services simply do not cost what we are being charged, even allowing for reasonable profits. Companies that have billions in liquid assets which they don't even have a use for are proof of that.
Oh - those drugs? Most of them are shit anyway. Where is the cure for cancer? Alzhiemers? Diabetes? I read an article just a few days ago, about the number of Americans who are on life-time regimens of various drugs. The pharmaceutical companies don't want to cure any thing - they just want consumers to become dependent on their drugs. Psychologically dependent, or physically dependent - it doesn't matter. It's the revenue that matters. Lives mean shit to them.
It is common practice to price things at "what the market will bear". When Australians stop bearing the price, the prices will come down. It's really that simple.
These liabilities you speak of? Well - if I'm offering free or almost free software, filled with disclaimers that the software may not be fit for any use whatsoever, then the consumer's perception of liability isn't going to be very high.
On the other hand, if I'm touting my software as necessary, trustworthy, efficient, and simply THE BEST solution on earth, while charging a month or more wages from the average consumer - the customer is going to have very high expectations. And, after taking all his money, he most certainly will consider taking me to court when he finds that my software is just so much shit
Need a car analogy?
I'm looking at a used car. Blue book is $1000, let's say. It's pretty - but the engine sounds rough. The dealer agrees that the car may not be very dependable, and we arrive at a price of $600. I buy it, the damned thing burns up, and I'm out $600. I'm a bit disappointed - but I'm not pissed at the car dealer. He worked with me, recognized my risk, and we did arrive at decent agreement. Plus, I still have the car with a burned up engine, which I can use for parts, sell for scrap, or tow to the junkyard to recover part of my investment. Or, maybe even put a new(er) engine into.
Same car, same circumstances, but the dealer drives a hard bargain. He assures me that the car was a single owner vehicle, some little old lady only drove it to the store once a week, the roughness I hear is due to not being driven enough, blah blah blah ad nauseum - AND, he says he stands behind all his vehicles. I pay the $1200 he is asking, take it home, and it burns up. Yes - I'm pissed. The bastard won't take it back, won't allow me anything on another car, and I'm out about $1000 even if I tow the hulk to the junkyard.
Are you serious? I get the impression that you believe a Republican would have done better, or more fairly? There really is a "kinder, gentler" way of trashing people's business, I imagine.
No, things aren't going to change, unless and until people stop patronizing the rat bastards who fund MPAA/RIAA and their ilk.
If we, the human population of the world, just stopped buying their shit tomorrow, within the year, MPAA/RIAA would be pretty much irrelevant. Let them spend their remaining billions buying politicians. If we just stop doing business with them, there will be no more billions with which to buy newly elected politicians. It's simple, really.
Ditto Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and all the others with huge patent portfolios, though they are less vulnerable to direct consumer pressure than the MAFIAA's of the world.
I like your idea. It actually gives corporations like Disney as much as, or more than, I wanted to give them. But, the people benefit even more. 50, 60, even 70 year old Mickey Mouse films basically can't be seen today, because it's mostly all buried in Disney's vaults. If the government decreed that after some reasonable number of years, it was all public domain, I'll bet a lot of that stuff would make it back into circulation.
Nope. That's the thing, it isn't a "business expense". They actually have to PAY for the renewal, no tax deductions. For a billion dollars, they'd probably let Mickey slide into the public domain. They might not make any new Mickey stuff, but in the public domain, they could still USE Mickey, just as freely as you or me.
I can see that some things should be renewable. I loathe Disney for advocating all these crazy laws that we have today. But - they do have something of a point with renewable copyrights. Mickey Mouse would have gone out of copyright well before I graduated high school. Probably before I graduated elementary school - he's been around that long. But, Mickey Mouse has been a money generator all these decades.
Let them have renewable copyrights. First renewal, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Second renewal, millions of dollars. Third renewal, tens of millions. Fourth renewal, hundreds of millions. Just keep upping the ante by an order of magnitude. If they want to pay, the government benefits. If they don't want to pay, the people benefit. At some stage, even Mickey Mouse will be retired. I don't think they would renew even Mickey for a billion dollars!
Bingo. Money, money, money. If we can't rape the uploaders, we'll rape the gate keepers. Money, money, money.
Meanwhile, RIAA and the MPAA aren't giving a goddamned thing to the artists. Nothing. Not one settlement has ever netted an artist a single dollar. Raping the artists is so much FUN, but they get bored, and they want someone else to rape.
If I weren't permitted to board a plane in England, and if I didn't have the time to wait for a ship, then I would just DRIVE out of England.
Before you get started, yes, I realize perfectly well that the UK is an island kingdom. I also realize that Manhattan is an island, but cars and trucks drive onto the island all day, every day.
So, what I would do, is to drive through that cute little tunnel they have, going under the English Channel. I'd call around, and find out what airlines in EUROPE I could make connections with. So, no, you're not "trapped" in England simply because they refuse to allow you to board a plane.
The last time I entered and left New Jersey, the bridge across the Delaware Water Gap was toll-free in both directions. I believe that there are a number of routes by which you can exit New Jersey without paying, some are major highways, others are secondary and tertiary roads.
I've danced around that real name policy. They've "warned" me twice now, and they still don't have my real name attached to my account. That real name policy is the one thing that really gets under my skin. If I wanted everyone in the world to know my real name, and where I live, etc ad nauseum, I'd write a frigging newsletter.
"It makes sense to store valuable information on xboxes, just like Microsoft Windows versions which retain a lot of information unless you use CCLeaner"
How, and why, does it make sense to store "valuable" information? And, who determines what "valuable" means, anyway? Personally, I store almost nothing on my machine. And, Microsoft doesn't store ANYTHING on my machine. I dumped Windows years ago, when I discovered how easy it is to retrieve data that most people don't even know is saved.
Crap, you can pretty much write a person's biography, if you can get his computer!
Far to true. I learned your 3 1/3 and 3 2/3 as a child in the '50's, and had it reinforced when I finally got my driver's license in the '60's. We actually observed those rules, until around the early '70's - at least in my limited experience. I was shocked when I started traveling across the nation, to find that most people have no concept of "travel lanes" and "passing lanes".
Re-read. I said "navigate". I said nothing about spreading your fucking city library across your steering wheel. Navigate. Look at the map. Maybe make a couple of notes, ie, "turn right on 101, about twelve miles look for county road 64 and make a right". Tiny notepad on the dash, dude. Put the Rand McNally on the passenger seat - no - the BACK SEAT - where it belongs.
- - - because there is NO PLACE in all of Washington State that a person can safely stop for five minutes while they read the map again, and possibly make a couple of notes.
Dude, I've driven Washington many times, north-south, east-west, kitty-corner, and loopty-loop. Even the biggest cities have nice wide shoulders on the interstates, where you can safely study your map. Primary, secondary and tertiary roads all have businesses located on them, unless you're out in the countryside, where there are nice big pulloffs and shoulders.
But, go ahead - make excuses for your own lack of planning, your own need for speed while endangering those around you.
I've spoken with a number of German drivers. That famous Autobahn sounds awesome. In general, Germans seem to have no patience with food and drink in vehicles. I like their attitude. Step one - know where you are going. Step two - know how to get there. Step three - drive like the devil is chasing you. Step four - say hello to whoever the hell it is you were traveling to meet.
In the US, we're such pussies, we can't safely drive any faster than 70mph. No wonder everyone needs to bring a picnic along!
Like compgenius3 - I need a source. I figure you're pulling facts out of your ass, because you can't pull them from anywhere else. What RoccamOccam says is true as well. Except for small children, passengers at least have a clue that you are concentrating on something important. The schmuck on the other end of the phone has an inherent belief that he is the center of your attention, that your very being revolves around his words.
Mmmm. You were in the army, I guess? Navy here. Our maps were always layed out on the chart table, with true north oriented with the bow of the ship, or relative north. The world rotates around us, I guess.
I would get confused for a moment or two if someone were to rotate the charts or maps as we traveled . . .
"This recommendation would essentially make navigation unusable. "
What utter fucking nonsense. Drivel.
I've suggested as much in other posts here at slashdot - here I'll spell it out.
IF YOU CAN'T NAVIGATE WITH A RAND MCNALLY PAPER MAP, THEN YOU SHOULD STAY THE FUCK OFF THE HIGHWAYS!!! Just tear up your driver's license, put it in an envelope, mail it back to the DMV, with a note that you are mentally inadequate, and that you wish to spare the world of yet one more total fucking idiot on the highway.
Slashdot Mirror
"Why do you think Americans travel the world with a Canadian flag sewn on their backpacks?"
Because they are cunts.
Hey, I happen to love and admire Canada. But, I will never attempt to pass myself off as Canadian. I'm an American citizen. Wherever I go, I'm just as American. Anyone who lacks the balls to be American in - Tehran, or Beruit, or wherever, should just move their asses to whatever country it is that they prefer. Hell - let them stay in Mogudishu, for all I care. They don't need to come home to wave a flag on July 4th. Wave the American flag in Beijing, or don't wave it at all.
"if a US law enforcement entity with a warrant makes a request "
I don't know for sure, but I get the impression that you've been sleeping for most of a decade. Remember all the hoopla over warrantless taps? Warrantless searches and seizures? In one single instance, virtually all United States telcos were ordered by the US government to cooperate with federal officials to monitor email communications for hints of terroristic threats. Long afterward, the courts started to get involved, and started to find all that shit was unconstitutional. In fact, Congress passed a special law to indemnify all those telcos against being sued for cooperating with the government.
Obsessions? Pal - the government may or may not "be out to get you", but if you believe for one moment that the government is your friend, then you are a fool.
The very men who created this country warned us that it was our duty to guard against government intrusion on our rights.
To which "other OS's" do you refer? Maybe AC answered your question after all. I can't believe that anyone who is worthy of the "Geek" title would be using a WINDOWS PHONE! At best, a Windows phone would be a neat toy to play with. When you get tired of it, hand it off to unsuspecting fool who doesn't understand, need, or want any security.
You and AC both have it wrong. They aren't subsidizing us, nor are we subsidizing them. We're both being anally raped by the corporations. Goods and services simply do not cost what we are being charged, even allowing for reasonable profits. Companies that have billions in liquid assets which they don't even have a use for are proof of that.
Oh - those drugs? Most of them are shit anyway. Where is the cure for cancer? Alzhiemers? Diabetes? I read an article just a few days ago, about the number of Americans who are on life-time regimens of various drugs. The pharmaceutical companies don't want to cure any thing - they just want consumers to become dependent on their drugs. Psychologically dependent, or physically dependent - it doesn't matter. It's the revenue that matters. Lives mean shit to them.
It is common practice to price things at "what the market will bear". When Australians stop bearing the price, the prices will come down. It's really that simple.
These liabilities you speak of? Well - if I'm offering free or almost free software, filled with disclaimers that the software may not be fit for any use whatsoever, then the consumer's perception of liability isn't going to be very high.
On the other hand, if I'm touting my software as necessary, trustworthy, efficient, and simply THE BEST solution on earth, while charging a month or more wages from the average consumer - the customer is going to have very high expectations. And, after taking all his money, he most certainly will consider taking me to court when he finds that my software is just so much shit
Need a car analogy?
I'm looking at a used car. Blue book is $1000, let's say. It's pretty - but the engine sounds rough. The dealer agrees that the car may not be very dependable, and we arrive at a price of $600. I buy it, the damned thing burns up, and I'm out $600. I'm a bit disappointed - but I'm not pissed at the car dealer. He worked with me, recognized my risk, and we did arrive at decent agreement. Plus, I still have the car with a burned up engine, which I can use for parts, sell for scrap, or tow to the junkyard to recover part of my investment. Or, maybe even put a new(er) engine into.
Same car, same circumstances, but the dealer drives a hard bargain. He assures me that the car was a single owner vehicle, some little old lady only drove it to the store once a week, the roughness I hear is due to not being driven enough, blah blah blah ad nauseum - AND, he says he stands behind all his vehicles. I pay the $1200 he is asking, take it home, and it burns up. Yes - I'm pissed. The bastard won't take it back, won't allow me anything on another car, and I'm out about $1000 even if I tow the hulk to the junkyard.
See the difference there?
Are you serious? I get the impression that you believe a Republican would have done better, or more fairly? There really is a "kinder, gentler" way of trashing people's business, I imagine.
No, things aren't going to change, unless and until people stop patronizing the rat bastards who fund MPAA/RIAA and their ilk.
If we, the human population of the world, just stopped buying their shit tomorrow, within the year, MPAA/RIAA would be pretty much irrelevant. Let them spend their remaining billions buying politicians. If we just stop doing business with them, there will be no more billions with which to buy newly elected politicians. It's simple, really.
Ditto Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and all the others with huge patent portfolios, though they are less vulnerable to direct consumer pressure than the MAFIAA's of the world.
I like your idea. It actually gives corporations like Disney as much as, or more than, I wanted to give them. But, the people benefit even more. 50, 60, even 70 year old Mickey Mouse films basically can't be seen today, because it's mostly all buried in Disney's vaults. If the government decreed that after some reasonable number of years, it was all public domain, I'll bet a lot of that stuff would make it back into circulation.
I could be wrong - but I still like your idea.
Nope. That's the thing, it isn't a "business expense". They actually have to PAY for the renewal, no tax deductions. For a billion dollars, they'd probably let Mickey slide into the public domain. They might not make any new Mickey stuff, but in the public domain, they could still USE Mickey, just as freely as you or me.
I can see that some things should be renewable. I loathe Disney for advocating all these crazy laws that we have today. But - they do have something of a point with renewable copyrights. Mickey Mouse would have gone out of copyright well before I graduated high school. Probably before I graduated elementary school - he's been around that long. But, Mickey Mouse has been a money generator all these decades.
Let them have renewable copyrights. First renewal, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Second renewal, millions of dollars. Third renewal, tens of millions. Fourth renewal, hundreds of millions. Just keep upping the ante by an order of magnitude. If they want to pay, the government benefits. If they don't want to pay, the people benefit. At some stage, even Mickey Mouse will be retired. I don't think they would renew even Mickey for a billion dollars!
Bingo. Money, money, money. If we can't rape the uploaders, we'll rape the gate keepers. Money, money, money.
Meanwhile, RIAA and the MPAA aren't giving a goddamned thing to the artists. Nothing. Not one settlement has ever netted an artist a single dollar. Raping the artists is so much FUN, but they get bored, and they want someone else to rape.
Oh - there's a toll there now. It's been a number of years. Probably twenty years, I'm not real sure. I guess times change . . .
If I weren't permitted to board a plane in England, and if I didn't have the time to wait for a ship, then I would just DRIVE out of England.
Before you get started, yes, I realize perfectly well that the UK is an island kingdom. I also realize that Manhattan is an island, but cars and trucks drive onto the island all day, every day.
So, what I would do, is to drive through that cute little tunnel they have, going under the English Channel. I'd call around, and find out what airlines in EUROPE I could make connections with. So, no, you're not "trapped" in England simply because they refuse to allow you to board a plane.
Technically, one isn't trapped just because he is denied permission to board a plane - or any planes, for that matter.
Uhhh - which bridge do you refer to?
The last time I entered and left New Jersey, the bridge across the Delaware Water Gap was toll-free in both directions. I believe that there are a number of routes by which you can exit New Jersey without paying, some are major highways, others are secondary and tertiary roads.
I've danced around that real name policy. They've "warned" me twice now, and they still don't have my real name attached to my account. That real name policy is the one thing that really gets under my skin. If I wanted everyone in the world to know my real name, and where I live, etc ad nauseum, I'd write a frigging newsletter.
"It makes sense to store valuable information on xboxes, just like Microsoft Windows versions which retain a lot of information unless you use CCLeaner"
How, and why, does it make sense to store "valuable" information? And, who determines what "valuable" means, anyway? Personally, I store almost nothing on my machine. And, Microsoft doesn't store ANYTHING on my machine. I dumped Windows years ago, when I discovered how easy it is to retrieve data that most people don't even know is saved.
Crap, you can pretty much write a person's biography, if you can get his computer!
Far to true. I learned your 3 1/3 and 3 2/3 as a child in the '50's, and had it reinforced when I finally got my driver's license in the '60's. We actually observed those rules, until around the early '70's - at least in my limited experience. I was shocked when I started traveling across the nation, to find that most people have no concept of "travel lanes" and "passing lanes".
Sarcasm noted.
Sarcasm: A dismissive form of flattery used by those who are unwilling to make the effort to do things right.
Re-read. I said "navigate". I said nothing about spreading your fucking city library across your steering wheel. Navigate. Look at the map. Maybe make a couple of notes, ie, "turn right on 101, about twelve miles look for county road 64 and make a right". Tiny notepad on the dash, dude. Put the Rand McNally on the passenger seat - no - the BACK SEAT - where it belongs.
- - - because there is NO PLACE in all of Washington State that a person can safely stop for five minutes while they read the map again, and possibly make a couple of notes.
Dude, I've driven Washington many times, north-south, east-west, kitty-corner, and loopty-loop. Even the biggest cities have nice wide shoulders on the interstates, where you can safely study your map. Primary, secondary and tertiary roads all have businesses located on them, unless you're out in the countryside, where there are nice big pulloffs and shoulders.
But, go ahead - make excuses for your own lack of planning, your own need for speed while endangering those around you.
I've spoken with a number of German drivers. That famous Autobahn sounds awesome. In general, Germans seem to have no patience with food and drink in vehicles. I like their attitude. Step one - know where you are going. Step two - know how to get there. Step three - drive like the devil is chasing you. Step four - say hello to whoever the hell it is you were traveling to meet.
In the US, we're such pussies, we can't safely drive any faster than 70mph. No wonder everyone needs to bring a picnic along!
Like compgenius3 - I need a source. I figure you're pulling facts out of your ass, because you can't pull them from anywhere else. What RoccamOccam says is true as well. Except for small children, passengers at least have a clue that you are concentrating on something important. The schmuck on the other end of the phone has an inherent belief that he is the center of your attention, that your very being revolves around his words.
Mmmm. You were in the army, I guess? Navy here. Our maps were always layed out on the chart table, with true north oriented with the bow of the ship, or relative north. The world rotates around us, I guess.
I would get confused for a moment or two if someone were to rotate the charts or maps as we traveled . . .
"This recommendation would essentially make navigation unusable. "
What utter fucking nonsense. Drivel.
I've suggested as much in other posts here at slashdot - here I'll spell it out.
IF YOU CAN'T NAVIGATE WITH A RAND MCNALLY PAPER MAP, THEN YOU SHOULD STAY THE FUCK OFF THE HIGHWAYS!!! Just tear up your driver's license, put it in an envelope, mail it back to the DMV, with a note that you are mentally inadequate, and that you wish to spare the world of yet one more total fucking idiot on the highway.