Not to mention the loss of supersonic air travel for civilians, no more SR-71, etc. It just speaks to the entropy of the American Empire.
Soon enough we won't have the scratch to put astronauts on a bus to Detroit.
Another telling fact from the article is that the security staff and budget have both been cut by upwards of 40%...no wonder they don't want anybody talking...
You are right about it being a sad state of affairs that we didn't pick up on the sarcasm. Sorry for misinterpreting, but you know, there are a lot of nutjobs out there...it's pretty easy to mistake humor for insanity these days.
Wow...you are either a successful executive of a company that has merely a passing regard for it's customers (like, oh, say...Sony?), or the kool-aid has taken full effect. Either way, your misguided sense of what a corporation is able to do is quite amusing. Invoking the Bible is just icing on the cake.
The first sale doctrine applies here, and my rights as a consumer are being diminished by immediately devauling the resale value of the product I have purchased. This is not like driving a car off the lot and losing intrinsic value due to depreciation; it's due to the corporate interest to maximize their profit by taking away my right to a fair resale value as determined by the used game marketplace.
They could always just say "Your honor, I was having a problem with stray bears entering the house when I was away, so I set some traps. It never occurred to me that another human would enter a house that wasn't their own.". Plausible deniability, I say.
Lithium batteries that are kept at a full-charge voltage (4.2 volts/cell) will degrade faster than those that are either cycled regularly or stored at approx. 3.8 v/cell.
I haven't received a bonus in about two years. It was a $1000 check. And the only reason I got that little gift is that I MADE money for my company. One of the perks of being a contractor for a small company. Of course, that contract ended, so I went to work for a larger IT company, and haven't received a bonus since. Working directly for a company is nice, but contracting pays better.
I was a self-employed IT consultant/contractee for almost 10 years before I saw the writing on the wall 2 years ago...so I got myself a steady job in a smallish mfg. company, which by the way is the cheapest-ass industry you can ever work in, trust me on this... Although I miss the freedom and independence of being on my own, and I think it's ridiculous that I get the evil eye for walking in 3 minutes late, having a predictable paycheck is kind of nice for a change. We get free coffee (Folgers!), insurance with a reasonable kick-in, a 401k (no match last year), and that's about it. My 'bonus' check was $700 this year, which is a fraction of a percent of my actual salary... And they call me one of the lucky ones.
Me and my lady do make our own movies...oh, wait, maybe that's not what you meant...
I buy very little 'content', since most of it isn't worth the bits it's made from. I don't even pirate, so I have effectively done what you suggest. Joe the Plumber doesn't have a clue about all this digitial rights management hoopla, he just wants his TV to turn on and display stuff, and maybe DVR a little on the side. This is why the *AA's of the world have been getting more or less what they want; an uneducated public is their best friend.
And you thought this administration would be different from all the others? Silly you.
Seriously. As soon as I saw him stacking the deck with the same ol' Clintonistas from 15 years ago (Emmanuel, Panetta, et. al.), I knew our goose was cooked.
Even in the case of an auto trans., it's a.5 second operation to move the shift lever one notch forward to "N". Even if you overshot and dropped it into reverse or park, worst case would be a blown trans as opposed to death. There's also an ignition switch inches from your hand that could be turned one click to avert tragedy.
Start chasing these guys down and giving them 10 years with no chance for parole... or better yet, look the other way when a mob hunts them down and breaks their knees...
Unfortunately, that's unlikely to help. Most of this crapware originates in Eastern Europe, Russia being a prime source. Laws are lax and rarely enforced as long as locals aren't being targeted. It's been proven that AV2009 and it's ilk won't install if the setup routine detects either a Russian keyboard layout or Cyrillic language pack installed. This whole scam could easily be stopped by the Visa and Mastercard networks just shutting down the merchant accounts that are processing the payments. But as long as the chargeback rate isn't too bad and they're still making money, they couldn't care less if thousands of people get ripped off.
Slashdot Mirror
Not to mention the loss of supersonic air travel for civilians, no more SR-71, etc. It just speaks to the entropy of the American Empire. Soon enough we won't have the scratch to put astronauts on a bus to Detroit.
It was truly the WOW of it's day...I remember burning hours upon hours of modem time on that game.
Another telling fact from the article is that the security staff and budget have both been cut by upwards of 40%...no wonder they don't want anybody talking...
You are right about it being a sad state of affairs that we didn't pick up on the sarcasm. Sorry for misinterpreting, but you know, there are a lot of nutjobs out there...it's pretty easy to mistake humor for insanity these days.
Wow...you are either a successful executive of a company that has merely a passing regard for it's customers (like, oh, say...Sony?), or the kool-aid has taken full effect. Either way, your misguided sense of what a corporation is able to do is quite amusing. Invoking the Bible is just icing on the cake. The first sale doctrine applies here, and my rights as a consumer are being diminished by immediately devauling the resale value of the product I have purchased. This is not like driving a car off the lot and losing intrinsic value due to depreciation; it's due to the corporate interest to maximize their profit by taking away my right to a fair resale value as determined by the used game marketplace.
They could always just say "Your honor, I was having a problem with stray bears entering the house when I was away, so I set some traps. It never occurred to me that another human would enter a house that wasn't their own.". Plausible deniability, I say.
We can also say that if you outlaw torrents, only outlaws will...er, on second thought I guess that's redundant.
Lithium batteries that are kept at a full-charge voltage (4.2 volts/cell) will degrade faster than those that are either cycled regularly or stored at approx. 3.8 v/cell.
Kids, this is why cocaine is bad, mmmkay?
I haven't received a bonus in about two years. It was a $1000 check. And the only reason I got that little gift is that I MADE money for my company. One of the perks of being a contractor for a small company. Of course, that contract ended, so I went to work for a larger IT company, and haven't received a bonus since. Working directly for a company is nice, but contracting pays better.
I was a self-employed IT consultant/contractee for almost 10 years before I saw the writing on the wall 2 years ago...so I got myself a steady job in a smallish mfg. company, which by the way is the cheapest-ass industry you can ever work in, trust me on this... Although I miss the freedom and independence of being on my own, and I think it's ridiculous that I get the evil eye for walking in 3 minutes late, having a predictable paycheck is kind of nice for a change. We get free coffee (Folgers!), insurance with a reasonable kick-in, a 401k (no match last year), and that's about it. My 'bonus' check was $700 this year, which is a fraction of a percent of my actual salary... And they call me one of the lucky ones.
Me and my lady do make our own movies...oh, wait, maybe that's not what you meant... I buy very little 'content', since most of it isn't worth the bits it's made from. I don't even pirate, so I have effectively done what you suggest. Joe the Plumber doesn't have a clue about all this digitial rights management hoopla, he just wants his TV to turn on and display stuff, and maybe DVR a little on the side. This is why the *AA's of the world have been getting more or less what they want; an uneducated public is their best friend.
And you thought this administration would be different from all the others? Silly you.
Seriously. As soon as I saw him stacking the deck with the same ol' Clintonistas from 15 years ago (Emmanuel, Panetta, et. al.), I knew our goose was cooked.
Even in the case of an auto trans., it's a .5 second operation to move the shift lever one notch forward to "N". Even if you overshot and dropped it into reverse or park, worst case would be a blown trans as opposed to death. There's also an ignition switch inches from your hand that could be turned one click to avert tragedy.
I suppose I could also use my mobile phone's email address, but either way it's a -1 for my 250/msgs a month...
For my EnV Touch, I guess an SMS notifier would be the best solution, as I have to make a trip to the mobile web to check email..
One possible drawback is that if you have your mobile's VM forwarded to Google's VM, your mobile phone will only show a missed call and not a new VM.
Start chasing these guys down and giving them 10 years with no chance for parole... or better yet, look the other way when a mob hunts them down and breaks their knees...
Unfortunately, that's unlikely to help. Most of this crapware originates in Eastern Europe, Russia being a prime source. Laws are lax and rarely enforced as long as locals aren't being targeted. It's been proven that AV2009 and it's ilk won't install if the setup routine detects either a Russian keyboard layout or Cyrillic language pack installed. This whole scam could easily be stopped by the Visa and Mastercard networks just shutting down the merchant accounts that are processing the payments. But as long as the chargeback rate isn't too bad and they're still making money, they couldn't care less if thousands of people get ripped off.