Alright, Devil's Advocate - I say that nothing should be "locked down" because it's a deceptive practice. Both you and I have our geek sides, and we can look at a phone, computer, console, or other electronic device, and satisfy ourselves that we are, or we are not, getting value for our money. But, what about the REST of the world? That 92% or more who don't have a geeky bone in their bodies? They see the claims of (fill in the blank) but fail to see how restrictive all the REST of that contract really is.
I want the phone companies to put those phones up for sale, with the real prices on them. Doesn't matter if the phone costs 40 bucks, 400 bucks, or 4000 bucks - put the real price tag on them. I don't much care if the phone company finances the phones - just send out an ITEMIZED bill each month, showing that x amount was applied to the outstanding purchase price, and the rest was applied to whatever services. When the phone is paid off, you see it, you know it, because your monthly bill drops by 25, 50, or 100 dollars - depending on your purchase price and financing agreement.
As is, the largest part of the American population is being deceived, and they aren't smart enough to figure it out.
The only serious comment I can make is, "Who the hell cares if it's legal?" As so many others have pointed out - when I buy it, it's mine. I WILL do as I please with my own property, licenses be damned. It might actually cause me to feel a little bit of pride if the American public finally stood up, and told Corporate America that "We aren't honoring ANY licensing schemes! We'll use what we buy in any manner we dream of, and we don't NEED your permission!"
I'd pay to see a video of Bill Gates reading such a manifesto to his board of directors, LOL
What I think is, you watch to many of those moronic movies. Game starved youths? WTF? Did you seriously mean what you typed? Let's face it - any "game starved youths" that you might meet are totally incapable of interacting with the power brokers of the world in any meaningful way. In your little scenario, those youths would just become a blip on police statistics charts. NYT headline reads, "Three more demented kids shot dead while trying to break into corporate offices in Manhattan."
Foreigner or not, your thinking makes sense to me. I swear, my fellow Americans are all freaking brain dead lunatics. And, having put that statement into print, I'm certain that one or more of the brain dead lunatics will be dragging me to court soon.
Yes, the internet has precluded all sorts of threats to the existence of mankind. Putting men, and colonies, into space wouldn't help to ensure mankind's survival is the least, in the event of a cataclysmic impact, would it?
Get your priorities. Playing with computers is exactly that - child's play for the most part. Putting a gene pool onto another planet is vastly more important, by many orders of magnitude.
You send robots. I want to go keep an eye on the robots. I'm human, I'm inquisitive, I'm in love with the idea of conquest. Your robots? Far more expensive than sending a man, and all they'll do is muddle about, waiting for you to tell them what to do. Phhht.
Sorry, but the local radio station was playing that stupid song about the woman obsessed with 1985 when I left work. She wanted to shake her ass on the hood of Whitesnake's car, or something like that. I know, crazy word association, or whatever, LOL
The girls in MY generation were obsessed with the Beatles and Michael Jackson, and Donny Osmond, among others.
Sexist bigotry? Oh - come on. I've accused many MALE politicians of being whores, as well. Sounds like you're overly sensitive. How 'bout if I go take a sensitivity class? Nahhh - I don't guess I will. I don't really care much about people's sensitivities, LOL
Troll? I didn't think so. Maybe you missed the precise language I used. Here, let me quote myself: "kinda like Windows users who click through dozens of warnings". See? I didn't say that ALL Windows users are like that. I clearly pointed out that this is one type of Windows user.
Yeah, sure, there are some of those people who use Unix-like systems - but they are so few and far between, that we can mostly ignore them.
Live free, or die, baby.
I've not succumbed, nor do I intend to. They'll have to kill me first. What was it Ben said? "Those who would trade essential liberties for security, deserve neither?" Or something real close to it.
All you need is a couple of burly hardcore guards to "extract" the phone from whichever orifice is transmitting. In fact, I'm sure you can find at least one guard in each prison who would enjoy doing that nasty job. Reach up there, grab hold, turn it SIDEWAYS, and twist as you drag it into the daylight again. Whoo-hooo! Good redneck fun - especially considering it's against the law to take your frustrations out on the wife, the kids, or even the family dog!
Wait... does this mean that it's not illegal to smuggle certain things into prisons?
They can't keep cell phones and other items too, like drugs out of prisons. Out of PRISONS. Yet we really think we can have a War on (some) Drugs applied to the general population. Idiocy. Unlike a cell phone, drugs have a flexible shape, don't broadcast electromagnetic radiation, and don't have an attached account with somebody's name on it.
Prisons are designed to keep people in, not keep stuff out.
You are, of course, correct. However - the same walls, and tools that keep people IN could be used to keep stuff OUT. Unfortunately, no one has the brass to use the tools at their disposal. To much inconvenience - kinda like Windows users who click through dozens of warnings that opening some attachment will cause their computer to burst into flames, consuming everything within a 100 yard radius.
Napolitano has been bought and paid for. She belongs to (has whored herself to) RIAA and their ilk.
Visit Ice's homepage. They boast of busting dozens sometimes hundreds, of illegal aliens. Whoo-de-fucking-do - 20 million illegals in the nation, and they can find a few dozens.
BUT - keep reading that homepage. The REAL boasting concerns "counterfeiters".
Yeah, Janet - go get those teeny-boppers, downloading the latest Whitesnake (or whatever it is that today's teeny-boppers download, LOL) Terrorists, all of them.
Skanky old whore, I hope you die a horrible death, and soon.
Some "rules of employment" are totally unreasonable, of course. Suppose that I were your employer, and I made a rule that you must polish my boots with your tongue each morning when you arrive at work. Would you think that reasonable?
How about those pigs who tell pretty young women that they can have a nice, cushy job in exchange for sexual favors?
EVERYONE has the right to bitch about their job, and the boss('s) just need to suck it up, and get on with business.
Stop being a moron, alright?
I'll have to disagree with Svartalf here. You're obviously not savvy, because you lack tons of money. The target audience, ie, the wealthy, are savvy enough to understand this marketing ploy. "If you throw enough money at ANY problem, the problem will go away!" And, the ploy works! Witness how many people purchase AV and firewall software from the "security" companies!
I'm not really cynical - just a Linux guy.
All I could come up with, was flint arrowheads. They must be dead, because they've all been buried, right? Then, you go and ruin my lame attempt at a joke by pointing out that Scouts still craft these kind of things. *sigh*
LOL - just for info, I'm not a Google fanboi, so much as I'm a Microsoft hater. I mean, I like Google - but I still block Google Analytics and crap. I stopped using some of their products, because I thought they were to prying. Why on earth do I want Google to index my hard drives, anyway? If I were to do such a thing, then I might as well allow Bing to do the same, and Yahoo - hell, just post the entire contents of my drives to one of those Yahoo sites where the script kiddies hang out, and talk about "hacking" their girlfriend's email . . . .
Ho-hum. Don't get me started. I could rant for a long time on human stupidity.
They should be GIVEN plane tickets? GIVEN?!? Are you serious?
Make the little freaks WORK for them! Let them do menial labor on a pig farm to pay for their flights. Or, let them do some medical research - like, submit to exploratory brain surgery, performed by some blind students.
Always, we candy ass Americans are trying to GIVE shit away.
Incompetence is the last resort of the violent?
Oh - your logic? If it were that simple, maybe. But, how do you explain the fake results that made it into Bing searches? I mean - simply watching Google might be alright, but stealing Google's data - be it real or fake - is not alright.
You really didn't RTFA, did you? Google set up FALSE, or FAKE results, and Bing copied them right onto their own search pages. Bing wasn't just watching Google - they outright stole Google's faked data. In the car analogy, Toyota would have watched to see what Ford was building, but Ford would have caught on, and set up a parking lot full of plywood cars without motors. Toyota then stole the fake cars, rebranded them as Toyota, and sold them on the market.
Geeez.
Microsoft fanbois will go to extremes to justify anything and everything that Microsoft does.
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Alright, Devil's Advocate - I say that nothing should be "locked down" because it's a deceptive practice. Both you and I have our geek sides, and we can look at a phone, computer, console, or other electronic device, and satisfy ourselves that we are, or we are not, getting value for our money. But, what about the REST of the world? That 92% or more who don't have a geeky bone in their bodies? They see the claims of (fill in the blank) but fail to see how restrictive all the REST of that contract really is. I want the phone companies to put those phones up for sale, with the real prices on them. Doesn't matter if the phone costs 40 bucks, 400 bucks, or 4000 bucks - put the real price tag on them. I don't much care if the phone company finances the phones - just send out an ITEMIZED bill each month, showing that x amount was applied to the outstanding purchase price, and the rest was applied to whatever services. When the phone is paid off, you see it, you know it, because your monthly bill drops by 25, 50, or 100 dollars - depending on your purchase price and financing agreement. As is, the largest part of the American population is being deceived, and they aren't smart enough to figure it out.
The only serious comment I can make is, "Who the hell cares if it's legal?" As so many others have pointed out - when I buy it, it's mine. I WILL do as I please with my own property, licenses be damned. It might actually cause me to feel a little bit of pride if the American public finally stood up, and told Corporate America that "We aren't honoring ANY licensing schemes! We'll use what we buy in any manner we dream of, and we don't NEED your permission!" I'd pay to see a video of Bill Gates reading such a manifesto to his board of directors, LOL
Dammit - either gitorious has been slashdotted, or Homeland Insecurity has beaten me to it!
You may possibly be an evil bastard. Just possibly. I'm not real sure yet. NOTE: Sometimes, an evil bastard is just what the people need, LOL
What I think is, you watch to many of those moronic movies. Game starved youths? WTF? Did you seriously mean what you typed? Let's face it - any "game starved youths" that you might meet are totally incapable of interacting with the power brokers of the world in any meaningful way. In your little scenario, those youths would just become a blip on police statistics charts. NYT headline reads, "Three more demented kids shot dead while trying to break into corporate offices in Manhattan."
Foreigner or not, your thinking makes sense to me. I swear, my fellow Americans are all freaking brain dead lunatics. And, having put that statement into print, I'm certain that one or more of the brain dead lunatics will be dragging me to court soon.
Yes, the internet has precluded all sorts of threats to the existence of mankind. Putting men, and colonies, into space wouldn't help to ensure mankind's survival is the least, in the event of a cataclysmic impact, would it? Get your priorities. Playing with computers is exactly that - child's play for the most part. Putting a gene pool onto another planet is vastly more important, by many orders of magnitude.
You send robots. I want to go keep an eye on the robots. I'm human, I'm inquisitive, I'm in love with the idea of conquest. Your robots? Far more expensive than sending a man, and all they'll do is muddle about, waiting for you to tell them what to do. Phhht.
Why hasn't the judge taken Darl's computer away? He probably can't afford to replace it, LOL
Sorry, but the local radio station was playing that stupid song about the woman obsessed with 1985 when I left work. She wanted to shake her ass on the hood of Whitesnake's car, or something like that. I know, crazy word association, or whatever, LOL The girls in MY generation were obsessed with the Beatles and Michael Jackson, and Donny Osmond, among others.
Sexist bigotry? Oh - come on. I've accused many MALE politicians of being whores, as well. Sounds like you're overly sensitive. How 'bout if I go take a sensitivity class? Nahhh - I don't guess I will. I don't really care much about people's sensitivities, LOL
Troll? I didn't think so. Maybe you missed the precise language I used. Here, let me quote myself: "kinda like Windows users who click through dozens of warnings". See? I didn't say that ALL Windows users are like that. I clearly pointed out that this is one type of Windows user. Yeah, sure, there are some of those people who use Unix-like systems - but they are so few and far between, that we can mostly ignore them.
Live free, or die, baby. I've not succumbed, nor do I intend to. They'll have to kill me first. What was it Ben said? "Those who would trade essential liberties for security, deserve neither?" Or something real close to it.
All you need is a couple of burly hardcore guards to "extract" the phone from whichever orifice is transmitting. In fact, I'm sure you can find at least one guard in each prison who would enjoy doing that nasty job. Reach up there, grab hold, turn it SIDEWAYS, and twist as you drag it into the daylight again. Whoo-hooo! Good redneck fun - especially considering it's against the law to take your frustrations out on the wife, the kids, or even the family dog!
Hooray for Yodelboy. The guy has a few clues to understanding real life. My hat is off to you, for seeing through the smoke and mirrors!
Wait... does this mean that it's not illegal to smuggle certain things into prisons?
They can't keep cell phones and other items too, like drugs out of prisons. Out of PRISONS. Yet we really think we can have a War on (some) Drugs applied to the general population. Idiocy. Unlike a cell phone, drugs have a flexible shape, don't broadcast electromagnetic radiation, and don't have an attached account with somebody's name on it.
Prisons are designed to keep people in, not keep stuff out.
You are, of course, correct. However - the same walls, and tools that keep people IN could be used to keep stuff OUT. Unfortunately, no one has the brass to use the tools at their disposal. To much inconvenience - kinda like Windows users who click through dozens of warnings that opening some attachment will cause their computer to burst into flames, consuming everything within a 100 yard radius.
Napolitano has been bought and paid for. She belongs to (has whored herself to) RIAA and their ilk. Visit Ice's homepage. They boast of busting dozens sometimes hundreds, of illegal aliens. Whoo-de-fucking-do - 20 million illegals in the nation, and they can find a few dozens. BUT - keep reading that homepage. The REAL boasting concerns "counterfeiters". Yeah, Janet - go get those teeny-boppers, downloading the latest Whitesnake (or whatever it is that today's teeny-boppers download, LOL) Terrorists, all of them. Skanky old whore, I hope you die a horrible death, and soon.
Some "rules of employment" are totally unreasonable, of course. Suppose that I were your employer, and I made a rule that you must polish my boots with your tongue each morning when you arrive at work. Would you think that reasonable? How about those pigs who tell pretty young women that they can have a nice, cushy job in exchange for sexual favors? EVERYONE has the right to bitch about their job, and the boss('s) just need to suck it up, and get on with business. Stop being a moron, alright?
"degrades gracefully"? Mmm. You must be acquainted with a lot of elderly women . . .
I'll have to disagree with Svartalf here. You're obviously not savvy, because you lack tons of money. The target audience, ie, the wealthy, are savvy enough to understand this marketing ploy. "If you throw enough money at ANY problem, the problem will go away!" And, the ploy works! Witness how many people purchase AV and firewall software from the "security" companies! I'm not really cynical - just a Linux guy.
All I could come up with, was flint arrowheads. They must be dead, because they've all been buried, right? Then, you go and ruin my lame attempt at a joke by pointing out that Scouts still craft these kind of things. *sigh*
LOL - just for info, I'm not a Google fanboi, so much as I'm a Microsoft hater. I mean, I like Google - but I still block Google Analytics and crap. I stopped using some of their products, because I thought they were to prying. Why on earth do I want Google to index my hard drives, anyway? If I were to do such a thing, then I might as well allow Bing to do the same, and Yahoo - hell, just post the entire contents of my drives to one of those Yahoo sites where the script kiddies hang out, and talk about "hacking" their girlfriend's email . . . . Ho-hum. Don't get me started. I could rant for a long time on human stupidity.
They should be GIVEN plane tickets? GIVEN?!? Are you serious? Make the little freaks WORK for them! Let them do menial labor on a pig farm to pay for their flights. Or, let them do some medical research - like, submit to exploratory brain surgery, performed by some blind students. Always, we candy ass Americans are trying to GIVE shit away.
Incompetence is the last resort of the violent? Oh - your logic? If it were that simple, maybe. But, how do you explain the fake results that made it into Bing searches? I mean - simply watching Google might be alright, but stealing Google's data - be it real or fake - is not alright.
You really didn't RTFA, did you? Google set up FALSE, or FAKE results, and Bing copied them right onto their own search pages. Bing wasn't just watching Google - they outright stole Google's faked data. In the car analogy, Toyota would have watched to see what Ford was building, but Ford would have caught on, and set up a parking lot full of plywood cars without motors. Toyota then stole the fake cars, rebranded them as Toyota, and sold them on the market. Geeez. Microsoft fanbois will go to extremes to justify anything and everything that Microsoft does.