>>>The people don't over rule the constitution, otherwise we'd be living in a mob rule nightmare.
You're mistaken. When the people get fed-up and use the constitution as fire kindling, and eventually replace it with a new social compact, then YES I'd say the people are the ultimate authority from which all power derives.
You may think that's ridiculous, but it's already happened thrice - once in 1776 when the UK'sunwritten constitution was banished from the 13 independent states never to return, again in 1789 (articles of confederation nullified), and again in 1861 (the western counties declared the Virginia Constitution nullified, and wrote a new one for the new WV state).
>>>I'm gonna go install a RAM chip in your computer and therefore mix my labor with your computer so your computer becomes my property.
First you need to get past my semi-automatic weapon. My computer is my property, purchased with 200 hours of labor at hell... oops I mean my employer's workplace, and you're not touching it.
>>>What congress did is mandate that banks must loan to minorities, but no where do regulations force them to loan to people who are high risk.
Same difference in many cases. A loan to a poor minority IS a high risk loan, and if the banks dared to say "no" then thy';d find themselves called "racist" and under investigation.
Step 4 is where you procedure falls apart. Nintendo is not going to give you a new Wii. They'll just say "too bad so sad; it's not under warranty" and leave you with your brick.
So far, yes, Paypal has always sided with me as a buyer. Several ebay sellers have tried to scam me by mailing-out broken junk, but ultimately failed due to paypal's protection.
>>>we had to scan the serial numbers of the physical machine
Good brief. You're wrong. That's a BARCODE not a serial number. All barcodes are identical across all Wiis, and therefore worthless for identifying individual machines.
>>>Your conjectures are nice, but they're purely theoretical
Not at all. I don't know about your country but in the U.S. the "people are at the top" principle is the foundation of this society. To say otherwise is to believe the lies of the politicians, and thereby make yourself a serf and them the ultimate masters. Don't just voluntarily become a serf.
I don't hate the idea of socialism. I just hate the results. I think we're better served by competing companies, and empowering the people with freedom of choice.
SSI - runs out of money in 2016 (according to the CBO) Medicare - same Post Office - deep deep in debt Amtrak - deep deep in debt U.S. government - deep deep in debt; had to beg the rich Chinese for cash, or else collapse.
>>>I think it's high time the gubbermint mandates fiber to the door
Not really practical. You can't run fiber to every farmhouse in the wilds of Idaho or Wyoming or Montana. However you could mandate DSL to every door, since everyone already has a phone line and therefore all you need is a DSLAM to enable the connection. That would be an instant upgrade for everyone from 50k to 1000k - about twenty time faster.
>>>We're ALREADY being taxed for it. We paid for the creation of their existing networks
Yes but that's a once-and-done tax. I was talking about an ongoing tax that never ends, similar to SSI or Medicare, that would be used to maintain the internet cabling under the streets. I would prefer an internet system more akin to the cellphone companies, where the networks are privately held but you still have a choice of multiple providers. Competition is preferable to a government monopoly.
>>>hold them accountable to provide a public good and open up all the last mile network to other competitors.
Agreed but corporations don't have any control over that. It's the local cities and towns that refuse to allow competition, so petition your local or state government to lift that restriction, and you will have competition. Simple as that. In a few years you'll have a choice between Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, AT&T, Verizon... all running past your house.
>>>We pay more for less than other countries
A common misconception. Here is how the United States stacks-up against other regions, for average internet speeds. We are behind Russia, but equal to our European cousins, and ahead of Canadians, Aussies, Brazilians, and the Chinese:
Russian Federation 7 Megabits per secomd European Union/U.S. 6 Mbit/s Canada, Australia 5 Brazil, China 2 Mexico 1 Mbit/s
And if you prefer to look on a state-by-state basis of the EU, US, and Canada then you get: 1 Sweden 11 Mbit/s 2 Delaware 10 3 Washington 9 4 Netherlands,Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts 8 5 Virginia,New York,Colorado,Connecticut,Arizona, Germany, British Columbia 7 Mbit/s
>>>Concast screwed them over as well as me and my wife when they terminated our internet
What the hell? They just yanked your internet without any notice. Bastards. They did the same to me with TCM where I was taping the February Oscar movie marathon and Comcast pulled the channel in direction violation of the FCC rule that they must give two months notice. (Of course the FCC did nothing.) This is why I keep dialup access for backup in case the high-speed goes down.
>>>Do you really believe that the economy is on the rise?
There are two answers I can provide:
The real answer - no we're about to experience massive devaluation of the dollar (i.e. a loss of your savings). Or the funny answer: "Yes absolutely. This I know because Obama loves me so... red, yellow, black, or white, all are equal in his sight". LINK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVrj0fBNwzk
You want more precision? Fine. YES acorn was receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money, and they were using for good things to assist inner-city communities BUT they were also using it to advise prostitutes in D.C., Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York how to (a) lie on tax forms to commit fraud (b) import illegal persons (c) set-up a prostitute house as a "dancing hall" and (d) prostitute 13-14 year old girls. Now maybe you think those actions are acceptable or even moral, but what matters is the Law which clearly specifies organizations who commit those acts are not allowed to receive government funding.
99.5% of people who download will make up random numbers to justify their behavior.
I researched (read: googled) and it took awhile, but eventually found this statistic. Out of every 2500 downloads, there's the loss of one CD sale. Figure 10-11 songs per CD, so that's one lost song sale per ~200 downloads.
If you can provide a better statistic, please share it. I'm willing to listen to rational argument if they are backed by facts.
False. There's a size limit on how big the dish or antenna can be, and there's also a limit of 12(?) feet above the roofline. I have to admit I like the idea of challenging the housing association tyranny. Bunch of control freaks.
>>>start building a public internet infrastructure
Which we will be taxed for at 5 times the current rate charged by the private companies. No. Thanks. At least with Comcast I can say, "Thanks for the call but I don't want your tv shit," and not pay them a dime. I can't do that with the government. (Heck they want to fine me $1500 because I don't want their health insurance.)
Also my DSL as actually reasonable - $15 a month. I have no complaints.
>>>they bundle their service with a home phone line, which I also don't want.
You should. When a storm knocks-out the electricity, the phone line is the only thing that still works. I will *always* have a phone line just for such emergencies, and the cost is trivial ($5).
>>>So stop doing paying for cable, I did. I download a lot of stuff...
Which is precisely why Comcast and other cable companies have contracted with TNT, USA, FX, et cetera to move their content behind a subscriber wall. That means you'll no longer be able to watch these shows for free, unless you can provide a valid Comcast, Cox, or Time-warner subscriber number.
>>>I will be living on a street with 2 competing Cable providers!!!!
Every urban street in the U.S. should have this. And not just 2 providers, but maybe 4 or 5. It is only through competition that you break the back of a monopoly, plus giving choice to the consumer empowers them to run their own lives.
Okay that isn't fair but I suspect if he were here, and completely honest, that's exactly what he would say. He argues that Comcast is not a monopoly and people have other choices, but he forgets the alternative (50k dialup) is not really a valid choice. You can do a lot over dialup including bittorrent, but you can't watch hulu.com or nbc.com or other tv sites. ----- Also even in areas that have both cable and DSL, that's still just a duopoly... no better than our current political system.
Okay so why don't the legislators do something? They just had a free trade conference of some sort in Pitssburgh - why don't they charge these companies with restraining free trade, and order them to stop using region-locking on their DVDs and Blurays?
Actually your proposal is even dumber because you defrauded a store *in your own state* and *without the protection of Visa/Mastercard* to back you up, plus your standing *in their territory* where a security guard can grab you and drag you into a backroom for interrogation. My proposal which I did about a year ago when Sony bricked my HD Radio, and with no consequences, offers several layers of protection:
- interstate lines - U.S. post office delivery confirmation ("Yes we returned the console") - the law itself which states - if the consumer can provide proof-of-return, then the business must refund the money - The credit card company
And if you used Paypal to make the credit card payment, then that's yet another layer of protection between you and the megacorp.
Sounds like protective socialism causing unintended consequences - like when Congress mandated banks *must* sell houses even if the people could not afford them, which led to the bubble and eventual crash. The free market's not perfect, but at least the bubble would be prevented if the market had been operating without Congressional interference (i.e. the banks would not have loaned to the poor).
Yes turning people's consoles into bricks IS fraud, and both the U.S. and EU governments should drag Nintendo into court and rape them for millions of dollars in punishment. BUT until that happens (if ever), we the people have a right to replace the consoles that Nintendo turned into trash, just the same as you have a right to shoot someone who stabs you in the stomach. It's called self-defense - protecting yourself from getting screwed.
Ahhhh I had not thought of that since I don't do the online gaming thing (and therefore don't register). Surely there's a way to deactivate the old Wii and move your account to the new one? Hardware does die and get replaced with new units, even just from normal usage. Surely Nintendo doesn't force people to start over with fresh accounts?
Slashdot Mirror
>>>The people don't over rule the constitution, otherwise we'd be living in a mob rule nightmare.
You're mistaken. When the people get fed-up and use the constitution as fire kindling, and eventually replace it with a new social compact, then YES I'd say the people are the ultimate authority from which all power derives.
You may think that's ridiculous, but it's already happened thrice - once in 1776 when the UK'sunwritten constitution was banished from the 13 independent states never to return, again in 1789 (articles of confederation nullified), and again in 1861 (the western counties declared the Virginia Constitution nullified, and wrote a new one for the new WV state).
>>>I'm gonna go install a RAM chip in your computer and therefore mix my labor with your computer so your computer becomes my property.
First you need to get past my semi-automatic weapon. My computer is my property, purchased with 200 hours of labor at hell... oops I mean my employer's workplace, and you're not touching it.
>>>What congress did is mandate that banks must loan to minorities, but no where do regulations force them to loan to people who are high risk.
Same difference in many cases. A loan to a poor minority IS a high risk loan, and if the banks dared to say "no" then thy';d find themselves called "racist" and under investigation.
Step 4 is where you procedure falls apart. Nintendo is not going to give you a new Wii. They'll just say "too bad so sad; it's not under warranty" and leave you with your brick.
So far, yes, Paypal has always sided with me as a buyer. Several ebay sellers have tried to scam me by mailing-out broken junk, but ultimately failed due to paypal's protection.
Now as a seller -
well that's a different story.
>>>we had to scan the serial numbers of the physical machine
Good brief. You're wrong. That's a BARCODE not a serial number. All barcodes are identical across all Wiis, and therefore worthless for identifying individual machines.
>>>Your conjectures are nice, but they're purely theoretical
Not at all. I don't know about your country but in the U.S. the "people are at the top" principle is the foundation of this society. To say otherwise is to believe the lies of the politicians, and thereby make yourself a serf and them the ultimate masters. Don't just voluntarily become a serf.
I don't hate the idea of socialism. I just hate the results. I think we're better served by competing companies, and empowering the people with freedom of choice.
SSI - runs out of money in 2016 (according to the CBO)
Medicare - same
Post Office - deep deep in debt
Amtrak - deep deep in debt
U.S. government - deep deep in debt; had to beg the rich Chinese for cash, or else collapse.
>>>I think it's high time the gubbermint mandates fiber to the door
Not really practical. You can't run fiber to every farmhouse in the wilds of Idaho or Wyoming or Montana. However you could mandate DSL to every door, since everyone already has a phone line and therefore all you need is a DSLAM to enable the connection. That would be an instant upgrade for everyone from 50k to 1000k - about twenty time faster.
>>>We're ALREADY being taxed for it. We paid for the creation of their existing networks
Yes but that's a once-and-done tax. I was talking about an ongoing tax that never ends, similar to SSI or Medicare, that would be used to maintain the internet cabling under the streets. I would prefer an internet system more akin to the cellphone companies, where the networks are privately held but you still have a choice of multiple providers. Competition is preferable to a government monopoly.
>>>hold them accountable to provide a public good and open up all the last mile network to other competitors.
Agreed but corporations don't have any control over that. It's the local cities and towns that refuse to allow competition, so petition your local or state government to lift that restriction, and you will have competition. Simple as that. In a few years you'll have a choice between Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, AT&T, Verizon... all running past your house.
>>>We pay more for less than other countries
A common misconception. Here is how the United States stacks-up against other regions, for average internet speeds. We are behind Russia, but equal to our European cousins, and ahead of Canadians, Aussies, Brazilians, and the Chinese:
Russian Federation 7 Megabits per secomd
European Union/U.S. 6 Mbit/s
Canada, Australia 5
Brazil, China 2
Mexico 1 Mbit/s
And if you prefer to look on a state-by-state basis of the EU, US, and Canada then you get:
1 Sweden 11 Mbit/s
2 Delaware 10
3 Washington 9
4 Netherlands,Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts 8
5 Virginia,New York,Colorado,Connecticut,Arizona, Germany, British Columbia 7 Mbit/s
>>>Concast screwed them over as well as me and my wife when they terminated our internet
What the hell? They just yanked your internet without any notice. Bastards. They did the same to me with TCM where I was taping the February Oscar movie marathon and Comcast pulled the channel in direction violation of the FCC rule that they must give two months notice. (Of course the FCC did nothing.) This is why I keep dialup access for backup in case the high-speed goes down.
>>>Do you really believe that the economy is on the rise?
There are two answers I can provide:
The real answer - no we're about to experience massive devaluation of the dollar (i.e. a loss of your savings). Or the funny answer: "Yes absolutely. This I know because Obama loves me so... red, yellow, black, or white, all are equal in his sight". LINK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVrj0fBNwzk
You want more precision? Fine. YES acorn was receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money, and they were using for good things to assist inner-city communities BUT they were also using it to advise prostitutes in D.C., Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York how to (a) lie on tax forms to commit fraud (b) import illegal persons (c) set-up a prostitute house as a "dancing hall" and (d) prostitute 13-14 year old girls. Now maybe you think those actions are acceptable or even moral, but what matters is the Law which clearly specifies organizations who commit those acts are not allowed to receive government funding.
I'm not trolling. I'm discussing current events.
RIAA wrote:
99.5% of people who download will make up random numbers to justify their behavior.
I researched (read: googled) and it took awhile, but eventually found this statistic. Out of every 2500 downloads, there's the loss of one CD sale. Figure 10-11 songs per CD, so that's one lost song sale per ~200 downloads.
If you can provide a better statistic, please share it. I'm willing to listen to rational argument if they are backed by facts.
False. There's a size limit on how big the dish or antenna can be, and there's also a limit of 12(?) feet above the roofline. I have to admit I like the idea of challenging the housing association tyranny. Bunch of control freaks.
>>>start building a public internet infrastructure
Which we will be taxed for at 5 times the current rate charged by the private companies. No. Thanks. At least with Comcast I can say, "Thanks for the call but I don't want your tv shit," and not pay them a dime. I can't do that with the government. (Heck they want to fine me $1500 because I don't want their health insurance.)
Also my DSL as actually reasonable - $15 a month. I have no complaints.
>>>they bundle their service with a home phone line, which I also don't want.
You should. When a storm knocks-out the electricity, the phone line is the only thing that still works. I will *always* have a phone line just for such emergencies, and the cost is trivial ($5).
>>>So stop doing paying for cable, I did. I download a lot of stuff...
Which is precisely why Comcast and other cable companies have contracted with TNT, USA, FX, et cetera to move their content behind a subscriber wall. That means you'll no longer be able to watch these shows for free, unless you can provide a valid Comcast, Cox, or Time-warner subscriber number.
>>>I will be living on a street with 2 competing Cable providers!!!!
Every urban street in the U.S. should have this. And not just 2 providers, but maybe 4 or 5. It is only through competition that you break the back of a monopoly, plus giving choice to the consumer empowers them to run their own lives.
"Yes they can go back to dialup." by donaggie03
Okay that isn't fair but I suspect if he were here, and completely honest, that's exactly what he would say. He argues that Comcast is not a monopoly and people have other choices, but he forgets the alternative (50k dialup) is not really a valid choice. You can do a lot over dialup including bittorrent, but you can't watch hulu.com or nbc.com or other tv sites. ----- Also even in areas that have both cable and DSL, that's still just a duopoly... no better than our current political system.
>>>price fixing
Okay so why don't the legislators do something? They just had a free trade conference of some sort in Pitssburgh - why don't they charge these companies with restraining free trade, and order them to stop using region-locking on their DVDs and Blurays?
Actually your proposal is even dumber because you defrauded a store *in your own state* and *without the protection of Visa/Mastercard* to back you up, plus your standing *in their territory* where a security guard can grab you and drag you into a backroom for interrogation. My proposal which I did about a year ago when Sony bricked my HD Radio, and with no consequences, offers several layers of protection:
- interstate lines
- U.S. post office delivery confirmation ("Yes we returned the console")
- the law itself which states - if the consumer can provide proof-of-return, then the business must refund the money
- The credit card company
And if you used Paypal to make the credit card payment, then that's yet another layer of protection between you and the megacorp.
>>>Protectionism (sugar import tax) + Subsidies (US Corn)
Sounds like protective socialism causing unintended consequences - like when Congress mandated banks *must* sell houses even if the people could not afford them, which led to the bubble and eventual crash. The free market's not perfect, but at least the bubble would be prevented if the market had been operating without Congressional interference (i.e. the banks would not have loaned to the poor).
>>>fraud, which is a felony.
Yes turning people's consoles into bricks IS fraud, and both the U.S. and EU governments should drag Nintendo into court and rape them for millions of dollars in punishment. BUT until that happens (if ever), we the people have a right to replace the consoles that Nintendo turned into trash, just the same as you have a right to shoot someone who stabs you in the stomach. It's called self-defense - protecting yourself from getting screwed.
Ahhhh I had not thought of that since I don't do the online gaming thing (and therefore don't register). Surely there's a way to deactivate the old Wii and move your account to the new one? Hardware does die and get replaced with new units, even just from normal usage. Surely Nintendo doesn't force people to start over with fresh accounts?