>>>The DVD drive mods that people got banned for were all about playing 'backups' which really means pirated games in 99% of these cases.
Which still leaves 1% that were playing legal backups. QUESTION: If my CD or DVD falls apart, will Microsoft, Nintendo, or any other company provide a free replacement at a nominal fee (say $2)? If not then they have ZERO right to stop per from making a backup to protect my investment (per the U.S. Court).
The article that was slashdotted last week said the *account* is banned. You cannot log-in again unless you create a fake identity. And even then they may be able to do what Ebay does - tie the new account to an older banned account via the IP address - and then ban both.
In the Paypal case the paypal lawyers made that same argument ("users signed the end user agreement and license"), which the Federal judge negated by saying citizens can Not sign-away legally-protected rights. In effect he nullified paypal's EULA. I fully-expect the same to happen with Microsoft's Xbox Live EULA.
And failed to refund upto 2 years of Xbox Live subscription, or refund dollars for games that no longer work without the online connection. That's (approximately) equivalent to a Magazine Company deciding not deliver your 24 issues because they don't like that you cut it up and hand-it-off to coworkers...... or a store selling you jeans that will disintegrate just a few months later.
I got over $50 from the Paypal lawsuit, and $20 from the CD/record company lawsuit. That seems reasonable to me, considering I didn't really lose that much money in the first place.
Also class action lawsuits are more about punishing the company. For example if Paypal and the CD Cartel has not been sued, then they would have continued business-as-usual, stealing money from customers' accounts and price-fixing CDs to be $18 or more.
>>>they use referendums to increase services yet limit what they pay in taxes
That doesn't preclude politicians from saying, "Okay. We'll keep all services but cut them by 25% across the board." That would allow them to balance the budget.
And yet that SAME court claimed it was okay for the western third of Virginia to secede from that government. They basically contradicted themselves. Either people have no right to secede from a government, or they do have the right. It can't be both ways.
>>>the entirety of the American people are helping to prop up this '8th largest economy'.
That's not really true. According to a study from 2005, for every dollar paid to the IRS in taxes, California only gets 81 cents back. If anything it's CA and other rich states (i.e. the northeast) that are propping-up the rest of the continent.
1. New Jersey ($0.62) 2. Connecticut ($0.64) 3. New Hampshire ($0.68) -4. Nevada ($0.73) 5. Illinois ($0.77) -6. Minnesota ($0.77) -7. Colorado ($0.79) 8. Massachusetts ($0.79) 9. California ($0.81) 10. New York ($0.81)
-Why do these states get back so little? Surely Las Vegas, Denver, and Minneapolis/St Paul don't generate that much wealth? Also with military bases and parkland, I'd expect them to get lots of U.S. handouts.
Tough choice. Tyranny of an oligarchy, or tyranny of the majority to smash the minority/individual underfoot. I guess a tyranny of 50%+1 is better than a tyranny of ~50 nobles/ministers, but still provides no method to protect the rights of the individual.
We still have a Republic (rule of law). But what we've done is promote Congressional law to a position higher than Constitutional law - a serious error.
>>> everyone who has lived and worked in this country for a period of one year should become a citizen. As of now. Don't like it? Too bad - you shouldn't have bought things from stores that employ illegals, you shouldn't have used illegals to mow your lawn, you shouldn't have rented apartments to illegals. >>>
Do I have a choice? There's no way for me to know if the Hispanic gentleman who helped me at JCpenney or Apple or Purdue are hiring illegals. I didn't see if he has a birth certificate or not. It's like the documentary "Food Inc" pointed out: Don't arrest just the workers... also arrest the people in HR who are hiring non-citizens. THEY should be the ones that get arrested, but too many times nothing happens to HR or the Board of Directors.
As for the issue of the actual illegals - Do you think people have a right to walk into your house, grab a spare room, and setup living quarters? No? Then neither do they have a right to enter a sovereign country without permission. My Japanese, Chinese, and Russian friends asked for an received permission to enter; so too should Mexicans and Canadians. Don't just bust in to private homes or homelands
Uh... California (Hollywood, Burbank, et cetera) already have control over what the Soviets... er, Americans watch. They also have a lot of influence in Canada and Europe. I for one welcome our tan-skinned, bikini-clad overlords.
It's a good thing most Californians like along the Pacific coast, and the Nevada line is far, far away. That makes it less practical to drive that far just to save a few sales tax dollars. It's why even though I could drive to Delaware to get tax free goods, I opt not to.
I just heard on the news last night that California's Treasury Secretary is investigating the Constitution. He's wondering if California can revert back to being a territory, in order to resolve its budget crisis!!! Wow. Frankly I don't understand this. Cuoldn't California just lay people off, and cut their costs for 2010? That's why companies do when they face a financial crisis.
But no. Instead the government raised paycheck withholding by 10%, in effect giving themselves an interest-free loan from now until April. Nice. If I lived in CA I'd raise my allowances as high as possible, because I don't trust California to offer tax refunds come April 2010.
Linux is boring? Sacrilege! You get to read all those obscure docs and get into flamewars with developers. How is that not fun?;-)
Which reminds me, what Linux needs is something like what I had on my old Amiga PC: A graphical way of interacting with the CLI so I don't have to remember all those obscure commands like "sudo -s -t/whatever"
You are correct that Opera's single vendor model is "safer" but the lack of extensions is a problem. If I see a youtube video I like, Opera has no way to grab it. Neither does it have an easy way to zoom-in on tiny photos. It's one of the reasons I've stayed with Firefox so I have the addon option if I need it.
I don't trust them, plus they use more memory (I only have 1/2 gig), and they make the machine run slower. The only extensions I have are NoScript and ImageZoom and FlashVideoDownloader. I try to keep it to a minimum to avoid security problems, memory waste, and slowdown
>>>Hopefully massive protests will stop this from happening, in both SL and in the real world.
Well ebay instituted similar policies in 2008 and 9 to discourage small-time sellers (i.e. people like us selling used games, videos, whatever), and there was widespread protest on the forums, but nothing changed. eBay simply deleted the negative posts, banned people with repeated "This is bad policy" postings, and nothing changed. Now the portal has become a place that favors big businesses with deep pockets.
If "Install Linux" was shown prominently on the Windows desktop like Internet Explorer was, then you'd be right. The best way to promote a product is put it directly in front of millions of users.
Blink can have valid uses. Like bolding or italics, it only becomes annoying when it's overused, but it can be useful in some situations. It seems odd to me that they'd disable a function that goes all the way back to the earliest PCs (C64, Atari800, Apple II all had blinking fonts), just because "we don't like it".
The FAQ doesn't say anything about not using it for modern machines. (Besides my machine is not terribly modern - it's a single-core Pentium 4 from 2002.) It appears to me that K-Meleon is simply not as fast as advertised. And KM CCF ME kept crashing for me, so it appears to me an inferior branch.
>>>You see to me this is one of the nice things about FOSS. We get so many choices instead of like the bad old days when it was Netscape VS Exploiter.
Agreed. I remember the 80s when you could download all kinds of free programs. Tons of choices were available. Open source and shareware does provide a good route towards liberty & choice. BTW I changed your spelling, because I consider Netscape the best browser of the 90s - and of course the 2000s-era Firefox/Mozilla also originated at Netscape.
Was it real malware or just tracking cookies that it found?
2 pieces of IE-connected malware, and a bunch of IE tracking cookies.
I also used to have a problem with a virus hijacking my desktop background ("Warning: Your system is infected. Click here to remove it.") I uninstalled Internet Explorer 6 and that fixed the problem. I later reinstalled IE7 and sure enough, it came back. I think I'm done with IE.
That's probably it. My Firefox doesn't have any extensions installed, except NoScript and Flash Video Downloader. So my Firefox is still functional and loads pages extremely fast, without freezing.
Slashdot Mirror
(runs off to Ebay). Since I have absolutely zero interest in online gaming, a banned console would be perfect for me. Maybe I can get it dirt cheap.
>>>I know people who had their consoles banned for no reason and MS told them to go take a leap.
Stealing Is Our Profit
by Microsoft
(sung to the theme of MASH)
.
Through electronic net I see
Visions of monopoly,
The pains I can incur are fun,
Better than owning a gun...
That stealing is our profit,
We say screw the little shit
And we can take or leave it as we please.
The game of life is hard to play,
You're going to lose it anyway,
Just give up and do it our way;
So this is all we have to say...
That stealing is our profit,
We say screw the little shit
And we can take or leave it as we please.
The only way to win is cheat
So just bow down because you're beat
And to Microsoft give your cash
Or else you'll face our cruel cruel lash.
That stealing is our profit,
We say screw the little shits
We can take their money as we please.
.
>>>The DVD drive mods that people got banned for were all about playing 'backups' which really means pirated games in 99% of these cases.
Which still leaves 1% that were playing legal backups. QUESTION: If my CD or DVD falls apart, will Microsoft, Nintendo, or any other company provide a free replacement at a nominal fee (say $2)? If not then they have ZERO right to stop per from making a backup to protect my investment (per the U.S. Court).
The article that was slashdotted last week said the *account* is banned. You cannot log-in again unless you create a fake identity. And even then they may be able to do what Ebay does - tie the new account to an older banned account via the IP address - and then ban both.
>>>You AGREED TO THAT and now it has happened.
P.S.
In the Paypal case the paypal lawyers made that same argument ("users signed the end user agreement and license"), which the Federal judge negated by saying citizens can Not sign-away legally-protected rights. In effect he nullified paypal's EULA. I fully-expect the same to happen with Microsoft's Xbox Live EULA.
>>>They booted you off THEIR NETWORK.
And failed to refund upto 2 years of Xbox Live subscription, or refund dollars for games that no longer work without the online connection. That's (approximately) equivalent to a Magazine Company deciding not deliver your 24 issues because they don't like that you cut it up and hand-it-off to coworkers...... or a store selling you jeans that will disintegrate just a few months later.
It's theft.
I got over $50 from the Paypal lawsuit, and $20 from the CD/record company lawsuit. That seems reasonable to me, considering I didn't really lose that much money in the first place.
Also class action lawsuits are more about punishing the company. For example if Paypal and the CD Cartel has not been sued, then they would have continued business-as-usual, stealing money from customers' accounts and price-fixing CDs to be $18 or more.
>>>they use referendums to increase services yet limit what they pay in taxes
That doesn't preclude politicians from saying, "Okay. We'll keep all services but cut them by 25% across the board." That would allow them to balance the budget.
And yet that SAME court claimed it was okay for the western third of Virginia to secede from that government. They basically contradicted themselves. Either people have no right to secede from a government, or they do have the right. It can't be both ways.
>>>the entirety of the American people are helping to prop up this '8th largest economy'.
That's not really true. According to a study from 2005, for every dollar paid to the IRS in taxes, California only gets 81 cents back. If anything it's CA and other rich states (i.e. the northeast) that are propping-up the rest of the continent.
1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
-4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
-6. Minnesota ($0.77)
-7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)
-Why do these states get back so little? Surely Las Vegas, Denver, and Minneapolis/St Paul don't generate that much wealth? Also with military bases and parkland, I'd expect them to get lots of U.S. handouts.
Tough choice. Tyranny of an oligarchy, or tyranny of the majority to smash the minority/individual underfoot. I guess a tyranny of 50%+1 is better than a tyranny of ~50 nobles/ministers, but still provides no method to protect the rights of the individual.
We still have a Republic (rule of law). But what we've done is promote Congressional law to a position higher than Constitutional law - a serious error.
>>> everyone who has lived and worked in this country for a period of one year should become a citizen. As of now. Don't like it? Too bad - you shouldn't have bought things from stores that employ illegals, you shouldn't have used illegals to mow your lawn, you shouldn't have rented apartments to illegals.
>>>
Do I have a choice? There's no way for me to know if the Hispanic gentleman who helped me at JCpenney or Apple or Purdue are hiring illegals. I didn't see if he has a birth certificate or not. It's like the documentary "Food Inc" pointed out: Don't arrest just the workers... also arrest the people in HR who are hiring non-citizens. THEY should be the ones that get arrested, but too many times nothing happens to HR or the Board of Directors.
As for the issue of the actual illegals - Do you think people have a right to walk into your house, grab a spare room, and setup living quarters? No? Then neither do they have a right to enter a sovereign country without permission. My Japanese, Chinese, and Russian friends asked for an received permission to enter; so too should Mexicans and Canadians. Don't just bust in to private homes or homelands
If California reverted to a territory, it would actually have MORE federal control from Washington, not less.
Uh... California (Hollywood, Burbank, et cetera) already have control over what the Soviets... er, Americans watch. They also have a lot of influence in Canada and Europe. I for one welcome our tan-skinned, bikini-clad overlords.
It's a good thing most Californians like along the Pacific coast, and the Nevada line is far, far away. That makes it less practical to drive that far just to save a few sales tax dollars. It's why even though I could drive to Delaware to get tax free goods, I opt not to.
I just heard on the news last night that California's Treasury Secretary is investigating the Constitution. He's wondering if California can revert back to being a territory, in order to resolve its budget crisis!!! Wow. Frankly I don't understand this. Cuoldn't California just lay people off, and cut their costs for 2010? That's why companies do when they face a financial crisis.
But no. Instead the government raised paycheck withholding by 10%, in effect giving themselves an interest-free loan from now until April. Nice. If I lived in CA I'd raise my allowances as high as possible, because I don't trust California to offer tax refunds come April 2010.
Linux is boring? Sacrilege! You get to read all those obscure docs and get into flamewars with developers. How is that not fun? ;-)
Which reminds me, what Linux needs is something like what I had on my old Amiga PC: A graphical way of interacting with the CLI so I don't have to remember all those obscure commands like "sudo -s -t /whatever"
You are correct that Opera's single vendor model is "safer" but the lack of extensions is a problem. If I see a youtube video I like, Opera has no way to grab it. Neither does it have an easy way to zoom-in on tiny photos. It's one of the reasons I've stayed with Firefox so I have the addon option if I need it.
I don't trust them, plus they use more memory (I only have 1/2 gig), and they make the machine run slower. The only extensions I have are NoScript and ImageZoom and FlashVideoDownloader. I try to keep it to a minimum to avoid security problems, memory waste, and slowdown
>>>Hopefully massive protests will stop this from happening, in both SL and in the real world.
Well ebay instituted similar policies in 2008 and 9 to discourage small-time sellers (i.e. people like us selling used games, videos, whatever), and there was widespread protest on the forums, but nothing changed. eBay simply deleted the negative posts, banned people with repeated "This is bad policy" postings, and nothing changed. Now the portal has become a place that favors big businesses with deep pockets.
If "Install Linux" was shown prominently on the Windows desktop like Internet Explorer was, then you'd be right. The best way to promote a product is put it directly in front of millions of users.
I disagree.
Blink can have valid uses. Like bolding or italics, it only becomes annoying when it's overused, but it can be useful in some situations. It seems odd to me that they'd disable a function that goes all the way back to the earliest PCs (C64, Atari800, Apple II all had blinking fonts), just because "we don't like it".
The FAQ doesn't say anything about not using it for modern machines. (Besides my machine is not terribly modern - it's a single-core Pentium 4 from 2002.) It appears to me that K-Meleon is simply not as fast as advertised. And KM CCF ME kept crashing for me, so it appears to me an inferior branch.
>>>You see to me this is one of the nice things about FOSS. We get so many choices instead of like the bad old days when it was Netscape VS Exploiter.
Agreed. I remember the 80s when you could download all kinds of free programs. Tons of choices were available. Open source and shareware does provide a good route towards liberty & choice. BTW I changed your spelling, because I consider Netscape the best browser of the 90s - and of course the 2000s-era Firefox/Mozilla also originated at Netscape.
Was it real malware or just tracking cookies that it found?
2 pieces of IE-connected malware, and a bunch of IE tracking cookies.
I also used to have a problem with a virus hijacking my desktop background ("Warning: Your system is infected. Click here to remove it.") I uninstalled Internet Explorer 6 and that fixed the problem. I later reinstalled IE7 and sure enough, it came back. I think I'm done with IE.
That's probably it. My Firefox doesn't have any extensions installed, except NoScript and Flash Video Downloader. So my Firefox is still functional and loads pages extremely fast, without freezing.