"I view signing a petition as serving the same purpose as holding up a picket sign."
Ding! That makes it clear to me. Thank you. When I saw the article headline my brain tried to wrap around the anonymous voting thing and why it's important to protect the identity of the voters and then I slowly started to grok that a petition is not a vote. Like you said, it's a protest and/or promotion; those are not better served by anonymity - quite the opposite.
Vertical and horizontal resolution is kind of a way to understand the relationship between DPI and LPI, but is disingenuous to use a monitor's vertical and horizontal resolution as a comparison since photographs (on camera film or paper prints) are reflective color which relies on at least four colors to achieve the "persistence of vision" illusion of continuous tone, while images on a screen are projected color that use only three colors.
It's why I don't understand the big deal with having ultra-high dpi on screen, and sometimes in print, since most eyes cannot distinguish between any more than 256 levels of grey; which is X4 in color print and X3 in RGB (256 levels of red, not millions of colors and many types of red, for example). Much the way most people cannot hear tones higher than 42KHz.
Hmmm, I also used to and *currently* work in the print industry. I don't have time to explain the relationship between DPI and LPI when it comes to reproducing halftones in print, plus the effects of the only three different kinds of printing technology (ink based, toner based, and ink jet based) *and* the effect that has on different kinds of paper stock.
Essentially, the "sweet spot" for color halftones is 340 dpi when you have the option of a very high linescreen with very low dot gain. There's sort of a formula for dpi, which is 2.5 X the linescreen (LPI); but it cannot be followed exactly if you're worried about tracking and other quality issues. 300 dpi is a nice round number that makes for "easy" to email files as well as a good standard for target resampling in PDFs and the like. Anything higher than 300/340 dpi and you'll have to have an LPI so high in order to prevent banding you can't keep the dots on the page (again, depending on which printing technolgoy you use). If you're LPI is too low it looks like the old newspaper photos, and also runs the risk of rosetta morie patterns being visible if the angle of the 4 inks (if using only 4 inks) isn't adjusted properly.
For toner and ink jet based printing, it's easier to get away with as little as 150 dpi for color photos since the LPI is moot at a certain point where dot gain and near continuous tone transfer of pigment is possible.
For greyscale halftones, you usually want 600 dpi for SWOP printing; again, it's not forumulaic, since that high of resolution may or may not result in banding depending on the LPI and the distance-to-amount of gradiation.
For black and white, such as text, you want the dpi to be as high as your output dpi - so you don't see any of the jagged edges between the points of black and the white of the paper underneath.
Finally, standard 35mm film is around 3,200 dpi depending on the emulsion chemistry.
In contrast, my sister became a veterinary technician in the food industry rather than practice medicine in the service of people's pets. The economy of food is more stable than what people are willing to pay for the proper care of pets, most of which are considered family members.
I have two middle names, which appear on my CA drivers license. They fit, sometimes on two lines, but the biggest advantage is when I got pulled over for a broken tailight and the officer started to write a fixit ticket until he saw my full name and said, "Really? That's too long for me to write out on the ticket. Just get it fixed soon, okay?"
I kept my Geo Metro for 14 years since it required nothing but changing oil, spark plugs, and tires. Even when it broke it was only the fan belt tensioner wheel, but I figured I'd gotten my investment of $6k out of it by that time anyway.
As for computers, I have production systems built on Mac OS 8 and have only run into problems working with the constantly upgraded systems in the rest of the company when it comes to internet and email and Office. At home my computer is 7 years old and is only now becoming as slow and unusable as my wife's Vista of 3 years.
Re:Babylon 5 / Firefly / Star Blazers
on
Lost Ends
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· Score: 1
Never knew about Star Blazers - but ther other two you highlight; spot on. Intelligent and engaging stories. I think that if all TV was as good as those then we wouldn't be able to notice as well, so I'm not disappointed.
Thanks for that - I've not gotten the impression from people at work who are from Mexico that the advantages of their (near totally) free market health care outweighs the disadvantages of a (near completely) laissez faire market so perhaps some kind of system, even an imperfect one, is better than no system.
Both my wife and I are white, however we are constantly regarded as Anglo or non-Hispanic Caucasian (especially by both Latino and Hispanic groups, for the most part) and our Saxon/Scandinavian/Germanic genealogy is overlooked. My own Native American heritage is not only ignored as much, but typically disbelieved completely (by people of all colors). But all of that "minor detail" is moot when it comes to how we're treated by native immigrants (what else to call people from Europe who immigrated from the East Coast to here), so I cannot call it racism. It also didn't give us any advantage when it came to resolving my wife's identity as a natural born citizen, either; so I can easily call it discrimination (I guess the State is obligated to discern between legal identity use by a citizen and attempted identity theft by a foreigner).
Agreed: the system is not perfect.
On-topic Corollary: giving police the power of incarceration when a person does not carry an authorized identity card is making the system more perfect?
Hard for me to see how Arizona's solution is anything but.
I'm sorry to hear about the terrible experience you had at your local hospital. I do hope that the admitting nurse was talking about the danger of catching a cold or flu in the waiting room full of sick people rather than the danger of being the only white person in a room full of mean Mexicans.
Please allow me to tell two stories of my own that may shed some light on the problems faced by people when it comes to being legal and getting health care, since I've seen some mention that the topic of illegal migrants is a problem mostly for border states and, when it comes to health care, there's a lot of complexities that need be considered.
I live in California, a border state; however I live in a town north of San Francisco so I cannot say what it's like in hospitals closer to the Mexico border. Also, since San Francisco has a much wider array of immigrant origins, I'd expect the waiting room of those hospitals have more than just white and brown skin colors. And yet again, my town is rooted in agriculture so there is a very large Latino population living here, comparable to a border town such as Mexicali or Indio. I'm not sure.
Anyway, I took my wife to emergency one night because she was experiencing chest pains and we needed to make sure, because of her history, that she wasn't having a heart attack. The waiting room wasn't crowded, and even of those who were waiting and those in the beds being treated - all white. Since her employer had recently jumbled up her health insurance trying to get cheaper rates we didn't have her new card with us, but we were admitted right away regardless - no more hassle than having me fill in her name and address and phone number.
Did I mention that my wife recently moved from Ontario, Canada to California? Did I also mention that she has a US Passport because she in an American citizen who was born in Washington, moved to California, then moved to Canada and got married, then got divorced and moved back to California? Turns out that the California DMV won't issue ID when the maiden name on her SS# doesn't match the married name on her US Passport and Canadian driver's license, and the Social Secuirty office won't change the name associated with her SS# unless she produces a picture ID card with her maiden name - regardless of the fact that she has all her marriage and divorce papers, and regardless of the fact she also has her original birth certificate. We did get it straightened out just in time to legally file income taxes, fortunately - but only because my father was a High School teacher at the school were she graduated and we were able to obtain an official school record, a State document, with both her maiden name and her SS# to prove she is who she says she is. We almost went the illegal route because it would have been easier and more to our advantage.
Anyway, turns out it wasn't a heart attack (thank God) and we only spent 2 hours getting checked out for any and all tests and Xrays and probes and blood work - even tho the first salvo of heart rate, blood pressure, and listening with the stethescope all indicated it was really bad indigestion (regardless of her family history). The hospital wanted to throw every test at their disposal at her - either to be safe and sure or just because they can then justify the $5,000 bill. We're still working that out with the new insurance company and the hospital's accounting department.
Story two is about a long time ago when I was with a group of bicyclists touring Baja California, which is close enough to Mexico to be regarded as Mexico, yes? One of the guys in the group started feeling really, really bad - sore throat, very high temperature. Another one of the guys in the group had some experience as a medic and quickly was able to determine it was strep throat. Once we got past the language barrier with the local pharmacist we were able to buy $10 worth of penicillin and continue our tour. No hospital. No doctor. No prescription. Cheap and easy, even for us foriegners who didn't speak the local langu
I don't trust any statistics about guns and crime, or that I'd be able shoot first or know for certain the intruder I kill is a real threat to me or that he/she would be threatened by my having a gun in the first place. That's why I prefer to use a batleth in cases of confrontation.
As a legal resident born in the same state in which I have lived my entire life, who happened to want marry someone who was also born in a neighboring US state but moved to Canada and got married and classified as a landed immigrant and then divorced after 20 years and who carried 1) a US Passport, 2) her *original* birth certificate, 3) her *original* Social Security Card, and 4) all marriage and divorce certificates - I'd agree. It was near impossible for her to get a driver's license and file taxes the legal way, we had to come up with photo ID to match her maiden name on her SS# record and couldn't get it without the SS# record matching her married name, which couldn't be changed unless she had photo ID that matched her married name, and no - the US Passport didn't count for some reason. It would have been far, far easier to not pay taxes and let the Feds try to track down her W4 and credit cards, happily issued without bother about the discrepancy of the last name, of someone who doesn't exist according to the maiden name, and then buy a counterfeit driver's license to get access to things like insurance and not being hassled for loans and other identity crisis moments that can come about when someone doesn't have "legal" papers.
And, no, she's not Mexican nor even looks Mexican or French or Canadian; it doesn't matter where you're from or what language you speak, all that matters is having the "legal" papers regardless of how they were acquired.
Trickle down? I for one am tired of being trickled on. It's a flawed theory - if the rich have more money they don't give it to the poor, they keep it. That's how they got rich.
I'm gonna have to agree with bonch. I've had to work a magic dance around Windows to get my scripts to play nice with the many, many, many different keystroke commands and window types compared to the same old song and dance with my OSX commands and window types.
Granted, I'm talking about WinXP not Vista or 7, and with OSX I had a steep learning curve with some new and unexpected things, plus a few things that got dropped completely - but that was only when I started going from OS8.6 to OSX.
"why can I not find anyone talking about the Apple tablet now?"
Because it's fanboy hype, not industry rumor, and fanboy numbers that hype are lower than fanboy numbers that are simply fans of Apple hardware (like me) so there's less chance of encountering the hyper fanboy in any setting.
My father did exactly that (build a scale replica of a trebuchet) as a gift to me, as well as help someone else he knows build a much larger catapult. He knows exactly why he did it: It's fun to launch objects into the sky with nothing more than wood and rope. Not because he can, nor to take pride in engineering acomplishment. Just because and only because the doing of the launching thing is fun, the building thing ain't so much fun but it's worth it.
The rest of us have a more subtle approach to social networking. Sometimes we want to share things with some people and not with others.
The subtlety anti-social behavior is lost on me; essentially, wanting to be social with some people but not with others. True it can hardly be called strange behavior, I'd call it cordial behavior or maybe even personable behavior; but calling it social behavior seems disingenious.
why not spell "dependent" as "dependant" when we have words such as "rampant, occupant," and attendant?"
Myself, I do so because I pronounce it that way, rather than as the others are pronounced. It's dee-pen-dent, not dee-pen-dant.
why do we persist in using "right" instead of "rite?"
Got me there. I think it used to have to do with making sure we don't confuse a direction and/or orientation with a ritual, but ever since I started studying the English language as an art and a science (and having a special fondness for phonetics and all languages in general) I've been unable to avoid the conclusion that English is a messed up language.
I consider that just like Microsoft. Apple's may be a bit easier to use but they suffer from the same primary flaw. You have no control over them.
Speaking as someone who learned how to completely control and automate both Apple and Adobe products, both software and some of the hardware, for print and web production by just looking at the code called AppleScript instead of studying a foreign (to me) discipline called programming in whatever flava of script, batch, or letter-plus language, I'd have to disagree. Apple's was way cheaper and way easier to implement exactly how I wanted and needed than either Microsoft's or Adobe's alone or together.
Everyone loves to freak out about this, but the reality is that there is a safe harbor provision for doctors in the patent statute.
Yeah, but are medical thoughts the only ones that get "safe harbor" or do we risk breaking the law for coming up with other ideas (unless we first check that it's not really an inspiration and somehow was copied from a previous idea that has been "owned")?
Naturally, Prometheus Labs sees this whole story differently, arguing that the Mayo Clinic will profit from treating patients with knowledge patented by them.
You say buying (or selling) a service is hardly a right, but then say you are not suggesting an sort of force or coercion stopping people from paying for any service they want. Which is it? How is encrypting a signal not a sustainable business model just because of an abstract right to "do math" translating into a right to "steal service" by reverse engineering their service and hardware? The article is about people who want to steal the service, not people who want to decrypt the signals sent into their home for academic reasons. Encrypting their service so that only paying customers can decrypt the signal with their receiver does not infringe upon your right to build your own dish, receiver, and all the math you want to do and no one is going to sue you or throw you in jail. It is your right to do what you want with what's in your home. But that doesn't extend into reselling the service or receivers or hooking up your buddies with free service. The ideal of "my rights" ends when it infringes on the rights of others, who do have the right to live where they want, buy what they want, sell what they want, and protect their interests against people who want to infringe upon them.
Slashdot Mirror
"I view signing a petition as serving the same purpose as holding up a picket sign."
Ding! That makes it clear to me. Thank you. When I saw the article headline my brain tried to wrap around the anonymous voting thing and why it's important to protect the identity of the voters and then I slowly started to grok that a petition is not a vote. Like you said, it's a protest and/or promotion; those are not better served by anonymity - quite the opposite.
Vertical and horizontal resolution is kind of a way to understand the relationship between DPI and LPI, but is disingenuous to use a monitor's vertical and horizontal resolution as a comparison since photographs (on camera film or paper prints) are reflective color which relies on at least four colors to achieve the "persistence of vision" illusion of continuous tone, while images on a screen are projected color that use only three colors.
It's why I don't understand the big deal with having ultra-high dpi on screen, and sometimes in print, since most eyes cannot distinguish between any more than 256 levels of grey; which is X4 in color print and X3 in RGB (256 levels of red, not millions of colors and many types of red, for example). Much the way most people cannot hear tones higher than 42KHz.
Hmmm, I also used to and *currently* work in the print industry. I don't have time to explain the relationship between DPI and LPI when it comes to reproducing halftones in print, plus the effects of the only three different kinds of printing technology (ink based, toner based, and ink jet based) *and* the effect that has on different kinds of paper stock.
Essentially, the "sweet spot" for color halftones is 340 dpi when you have the option of a very high linescreen with very low dot gain. There's sort of a formula for dpi, which is 2.5 X the linescreen (LPI); but it cannot be followed exactly if you're worried about tracking and other quality issues. 300 dpi is a nice round number that makes for "easy" to email files as well as a good standard for target resampling in PDFs and the like. Anything higher than 300/340 dpi and you'll have to have an LPI so high in order to prevent banding you can't keep the dots on the page (again, depending on which printing technolgoy you use). If you're LPI is too low it looks like the old newspaper photos, and also runs the risk of rosetta morie patterns being visible if the angle of the 4 inks (if using only 4 inks) isn't adjusted properly.
For toner and ink jet based printing, it's easier to get away with as little as 150 dpi for color photos since the LPI is moot at a certain point where dot gain and near continuous tone transfer of pigment is possible.
For greyscale halftones, you usually want 600 dpi for SWOP printing; again, it's not forumulaic, since that high of resolution may or may not result in banding depending on the LPI and the distance-to-amount of gradiation.
For black and white, such as text, you want the dpi to be as high as your output dpi - so you don't see any of the jagged edges between the points of black and the white of the paper underneath.
Finally, standard 35mm film is around 3,200 dpi depending on the emulsion chemistry.
Trust ze google. Do not trust anything you find on ze google, but trust ze google will find it.
The economy of manufacturing food for a nationwide market of consumers is very different than the economy of preparing that food for local customers.
Not meaning to belittle your brother's profession in any way; I'm jus' sayin'
In contrast, my sister became a veterinary technician in the food industry rather than practice medicine in the service of people's pets. The economy of food is more stable than what people are willing to pay for the proper care of pets, most of which are considered family members.
I have two middle names, which appear on my CA drivers license. They fit, sometimes on two lines, but the biggest advantage is when I got pulled over for a broken tailight and the officer started to write a fixit ticket until he saw my full name and said, "Really? That's too long for me to write out on the ticket. Just get it fixed soon, okay?"
I kept my Geo Metro for 14 years since it required nothing but changing oil, spark plugs, and tires. Even when it broke it was only the fan belt tensioner wheel, but I figured I'd gotten my investment of $6k out of it by that time anyway.
As for computers, I have production systems built on Mac OS 8 and have only run into problems working with the constantly upgraded systems in the rest of the company when it comes to internet and email and Office. At home my computer is 7 years old and is only now becoming as slow and unusable as my wife's Vista of 3 years.
YMMV
It's funny. Laugh.
Never knew about Star Blazers - but ther other two you highlight; spot on. Intelligent and engaging stories. I think that if all TV was as good as those then we wouldn't be able to notice as well, so I'm not disappointed.
Thanks for that - I've not gotten the impression from people at work who are from Mexico that the advantages of their (near totally) free market health care outweighs the disadvantages of a (near completely) laissez faire market so perhaps some kind of system, even an imperfect one, is better than no system.
Both my wife and I are white, however we are constantly regarded as Anglo or non-Hispanic Caucasian (especially by both Latino and Hispanic groups, for the most part) and our Saxon/Scandinavian/Germanic genealogy is overlooked. My own Native American heritage is not only ignored as much, but typically disbelieved completely (by people of all colors). But all of that "minor detail" is moot when it comes to how we're treated by native immigrants (what else to call people from Europe who immigrated from the East Coast to here), so I cannot call it racism. It also didn't give us any advantage when it came to resolving my wife's identity as a natural born citizen, either; so I can easily call it discrimination (I guess the State is obligated to discern between legal identity use by a citizen and attempted identity theft by a foreigner).
Agreed: the system is not perfect.
On-topic Corollary: giving police the power of incarceration when a person does not carry an authorized identity card is making the system more perfect?
Hard for me to see how Arizona's solution is anything but.
I'm sorry to hear about the terrible experience you had at your local hospital. I do hope that the admitting nurse was talking about the danger of catching a cold or flu in the waiting room full of sick people rather than the danger of being the only white person in a room full of mean Mexicans.
Please allow me to tell two stories of my own that may shed some light on the problems faced by people when it comes to being legal and getting health care, since I've seen some mention that the topic of illegal migrants is a problem mostly for border states and, when it comes to health care, there's a lot of complexities that need be considered.
I live in California, a border state; however I live in a town north of San Francisco so I cannot say what it's like in hospitals closer to the Mexico border. Also, since San Francisco has a much wider array of immigrant origins, I'd expect the waiting room of those hospitals have more than just white and brown skin colors. And yet again, my town is rooted in agriculture so there is a very large Latino population living here, comparable to a border town such as Mexicali or Indio. I'm not sure.
Anyway, I took my wife to emergency one night because she was experiencing chest pains and we needed to make sure, because of her history, that she wasn't having a heart attack. The waiting room wasn't crowded, and even of those who were waiting and those in the beds being treated - all white. Since her employer had recently jumbled up her health insurance trying to get cheaper rates we didn't have her new card with us, but we were admitted right away regardless - no more hassle than having me fill in her name and address and phone number.
Did I mention that my wife recently moved from Ontario, Canada to California? Did I also mention that she has a US Passport because she in an American citizen who was born in Washington, moved to California, then moved to Canada and got married, then got divorced and moved back to California? Turns out that the California DMV won't issue ID when the maiden name on her SS# doesn't match the married name on her US Passport and Canadian driver's license, and the Social Secuirty office won't change the name associated with her SS# unless she produces a picture ID card with her maiden name - regardless of the fact that she has all her marriage and divorce papers, and regardless of the fact she also has her original birth certificate. We did get it straightened out just in time to legally file income taxes, fortunately - but only because my father was a High School teacher at the school were she graduated and we were able to obtain an official school record, a State document, with both her maiden name and her SS# to prove she is who she says she is. We almost went the illegal route because it would have been easier and more to our advantage.
Anyway, turns out it wasn't a heart attack (thank God) and we only spent 2 hours getting checked out for any and all tests and Xrays and probes and blood work - even tho the first salvo of heart rate, blood pressure, and listening with the stethescope all indicated it was really bad indigestion (regardless of her family history). The hospital wanted to throw every test at their disposal at her - either to be safe and sure or just because they can then justify the $5,000 bill. We're still working that out with the new insurance company and the hospital's accounting department.
Story two is about a long time ago when I was with a group of bicyclists touring Baja California, which is close enough to Mexico to be regarded as Mexico, yes? One of the guys in the group started feeling really, really bad - sore throat, very high temperature. Another one of the guys in the group had some experience as a medic and quickly was able to determine it was strep throat. Once we got past the language barrier with the local pharmacist we were able to buy $10 worth of penicillin and continue our tour. No hospital. No doctor. No prescription. Cheap and easy, even for us foriegners who didn't speak the local langu
I don't trust any statistics about guns and crime, or that I'd be able shoot first or know for certain the intruder I kill is a real threat to me or that he/she would be threatened by my having a gun in the first place. That's why I prefer to use a batleth in cases of confrontation.
As a legal resident born in the same state in which I have lived my entire life, who happened to want marry someone who was also born in a neighboring US state but moved to Canada and got married and classified as a landed immigrant and then divorced after 20 years and who carried 1) a US Passport, 2) her *original* birth certificate, 3) her *original* Social Security Card, and 4) all marriage and divorce certificates - I'd agree. It was near impossible for her to get a driver's license and file taxes the legal way, we had to come up with photo ID to match her maiden name on her SS# record and couldn't get it without the SS# record matching her married name, which couldn't be changed unless she had photo ID that matched her married name, and no - the US Passport didn't count for some reason. It would have been far, far easier to not pay taxes and let the Feds try to track down her W4 and credit cards, happily issued without bother about the discrepancy of the last name, of someone who doesn't exist according to the maiden name, and then buy a counterfeit driver's license to get access to things like insurance and not being hassled for loans and other identity crisis moments that can come about when someone doesn't have "legal" papers.
And, no, she's not Mexican nor even looks Mexican or French or Canadian; it doesn't matter where you're from or what language you speak, all that matters is having the "legal" papers regardless of how they were acquired.
Trickle down? I for one am tired of being trickled on. It's a flawed theory - if the rich have more money they don't give it to the poor, they keep it. That's how they got rich.
I'm gonna have to agree with bonch. I've had to work a magic dance around Windows to get my scripts to play nice with the many, many, many different keystroke commands and window types compared to the same old song and dance with my OSX commands and window types. Granted, I'm talking about WinXP not Vista or 7, and with OSX I had a steep learning curve with some new and unexpected things, plus a few things that got dropped completely - but that was only when I started going from OS8.6 to OSX.
"Edit a complex video? what huge advantage does portability and low power consumption bring to video editing?"
Location shoots, vacation shoots, video journalism, party pranks, etc...
"why can I not find anyone talking about the Apple tablet now?"
Because it's fanboy hype, not industry rumor, and fanboy numbers that hype are lower than fanboy numbers that are simply fans of Apple hardware (like me) so there's less chance of encountering the hyper fanboy in any setting.
My father did exactly that (build a scale replica of a trebuchet) as a gift to me, as well as help someone else he knows build a much larger catapult. He knows exactly why he did it: It's fun to launch objects into the sky with nothing more than wood and rope. Not because he can, nor to take pride in engineering acomplishment. Just because and only because the doing of the launching thing is fun, the building thing ain't so much fun but it's worth it.
The subtlety anti-social behavior is lost on me; essentially, wanting to be social with some people but not with others. True it can hardly be called strange behavior, I'd call it cordial behavior or maybe even personable behavior; but calling it social behavior seems disingenious.
Myself, I do so because I pronounce it that way, rather than as the others are pronounced. It's dee-pen-dent, not dee-pen-dant.
Got me there. I think it used to have to do with making sure we don't confuse a direction and/or orientation with a ritual, but ever since I started studying the English language as an art and a science (and having a special fondness for phonetics and all languages in general) I've been unable to avoid the conclusion that English is a messed up language.
You mean, we're supposed to talk to meat?!?
I consider that just like Microsoft. Apple's may be a bit easier to use but they suffer from the same primary flaw. You have no control over them.
Speaking as someone who learned how to completely control and automate both Apple and Adobe products, both software and some of the hardware, for print and web production by just looking at the code called AppleScript instead of studying a foreign (to me) discipline called programming in whatever flava of script, batch, or letter-plus language, I'd have to disagree. Apple's was way cheaper and way easier to implement exactly how I wanted and needed than either Microsoft's or Adobe's alone or together.
Everyone loves to freak out about this, but the reality is that there is a safe harbor provision for doctors in the patent statute.
Yeah, but are medical thoughts the only ones that get "safe harbor" or do we risk breaking the law for coming up with other ideas (unless we first check that it's not really an inspiration and somehow was copied from a previous idea that has been "owned")?
Naturally, Prometheus Labs sees this whole story differently, arguing that the Mayo Clinic will profit from treating patients with knowledge patented by them.
You say buying (or selling) a service is hardly a right, but then say you are not suggesting an sort of force or coercion stopping people from paying for any service they want. Which is it? How is encrypting a signal not a sustainable business model just because of an abstract right to "do math" translating into a right to "steal service" by reverse engineering their service and hardware? The article is about people who want to steal the service, not people who want to decrypt the signals sent into their home for academic reasons. Encrypting their service so that only paying customers can decrypt the signal with their receiver does not infringe upon your right to build your own dish, receiver, and all the math you want to do and no one is going to sue you or throw you in jail. It is your right to do what you want with what's in your home. But that doesn't extend into reselling the service or receivers or hooking up your buddies with free service. The ideal of "my rights" ends when it infringes on the rights of others, who do have the right to live where they want, buy what they want, sell what they want, and protect their interests against people who want to infringe upon them.