The way I understand, which is how the courts have interpreted for us in the U.S., when we purchase a product, software, hardware, or whatever, we own that copy. It is ours to do with however we wish. Companies can try and assert control over a product have it is purchased, but that will just make for another interesting court battle.
I do believe that the creator has developmental control over their product and they have the right to create/develop the product any way they wish. The issue I have is what the creator tries to assert after they sell a certain product. This is found in other products that the consumer purchases.
What is a car manufacturer decided that they no longer like a certain "after-market" manufacturer? If the product fits and improves the car to my liking, then the car manufacturer has no right to assert control over the copy of their product I purchased. I have the right, as long as it does not violate the motor vehicle statues in my state, to alter my vehicle any way I wish.
I do not have the right to make copies of the vehicle and sell those copies under the same name and license that the original manufacturer is selling them under. This is where software and hardware manufacturing, in the IT field, falls. While I cannot steal software, or making copies of the software that I have purchase and sell them, I do have the right to use, alter, and sell any and all copies of software and hardware that I have paid for.
The Hague has no authority anywhere. It is, at best, a "kangaroo court" and nothing that it decides as any real effect on people outside of Europe. That conglomerate of countries might abide by what that idiot court decides, but the United States could care less. If I decide to exercise my free speech rights, but someone tries to have "The Hague" step in and sanction me or impose penalties on me, I can and will tell that court to go fuck itself and continue to exercise my free speech rights here in the U.S.
I am a citizen of the United States, not a citizen of "the world" or some "global community". I am beholden to no one.
To clarify this more: The International Criminal Court(ICC) is like a neighborhood watch group in the United States that has even less power that a real watch group would have. I would not be surprised if the ICC considered me a violent and dangerous criminal for owning too many guns, or any guns. They would probably consider me a criminal for discussing the court in a negative light, or talking about anyone or any group in a negative light.
It is time for people to quit bringing up the issues that have with the most previous U.S. President. The Bush Administration is gone and a new one has replaced it. It is too bad that your choice for president has been a failure, but it is time to quit worrying about the previous failure.
Of course, we might has well get use to failure in government, as that is all we will probably ever get.
This idea would cause the U.S. Constitution to start dinging like a damned pinball machine. No government, within the United States, has the authority to monitor a citizen's communications without a warrant or the dumb and Constitutional-violating NSL(National Security Letter). Since the government cannot obtain either until after the fact(ex post facto), or when they have proper cause to show a need for either before an illegal action, then this type of illegal surveillance cannot occur.
It is not the right of the Federal Government to tell a corporation who they can and cannot hire, within a certain extent(illegal aliens and such would be an obvious exemption). If you have five people applying for a position and all five people can legally work in the United States, then that is where the power of any government in the United States stops. This sounds like a load of bullshit and a waste of taxpayer money.
If a company is recruiting people from other companies, then I see no problem with this. This is how the process works. If a company has evidence that another company is trying to steal "trade secrets", then they need to report that. Otherwise, then government needs to keep its fucking nose out of this.
I am going to patent the patent system in the US, then sue everyone who has obtained a patent. Sadly, I am sure the U.S. Patent Office would issue me a patent, then continue to violate my patent. Of course, I am sure the courts will hear all of my cases, then issue injunctions against everyone. Shortly after that, someone would divide by zero and reset the entire world. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Unless there is an extreme state of emergency and the FCC declares that the amateur radio bands are needed for emergency communications, then the FCC cannot stop transmission on the amateur bands. Even if they revoke a license, they cannot actually stop transmission over those bands. A state can revoke a citizen's drivers license, but it cannot actually suspends the citizen's ability to drive. Sure, they can arrest the citizen for driving on a suspended license, but they cannot delete the skill the driver has, nor their actual freedom of movement(prior to arrest). The best the FCC could do is try and shutdown a repeater, but even that would be an exercise in futility.
I do know about the license requirement for the GMRS equipment, but you just mail in a fee to obtain the license. You do not have to take a test, which is a requirement for Amateur(Ham) radios licenses. I believe the license requirements on GMRS is outdated and rather useless. I would rather not spend $80 to $90 USD on a license for GMRS access and spend far less to obtain a Technician Class Amateur Radio license and have far greater capabilities.
You study for about a day, maybe two, and you can start communicating with people all over the world. You also obtain a hands-on education in electronics, RF technology, and a whole host of other worth-while skills.
Obtain your amateur radio license, then hook a computer to your radio and communicate that way. You can send emails, files, etc over amateur radio bands and there is no "shutoff" button for the President to get to on that. In a way, you are tell the President to fuck off and leave my communication means alone. Sure, the connection will be slow, but it is better than nothing.
In the end, I have a feeling this will die quickly. This is a violation of our personal freedoms and violates so many laws that is is not funny. This will probably end up giving the President, or someone in government, the ability to shut off the Federal Governments private networks from the backbones of what we refer to as "the internet". I could be wrong, but this will not survive for very long. If the bill is passed, then the courts will chew it up and nullify it.
In the end, we will find a way to work around any cut offs. Unless the President is going to send agents to every home to shut of their computers, there is nothing that can stop this massive network. That and corporations are not interested in pissing off their customers so bad that they leave in droves and take their money elsewhere.
I have had an iphone for some time and it was one of the worst purchases I ever made. Regardless, I am sure most of us have heard great rumors surrounding new iPhone generations in the past. The reality is that Apple is too consumed with the "Sony Process"(i.e. small incremental improvements). Really, anyone with an iPhone 3G or 3G S should wait another generation or two before they upgrade. Chances are we might see a better camera, with an extremely low chance of a flash for said camera, along with a slightly faster processor and a slightly better display.
As with any of us Technophiles, I really enjoy being on the "bleeding edge"(which the iPhone is not on), but I also like to tinker with any currently used technology. After playing with the iPhone for a while, I am ready to run back to the edge.
Just what the hell are you talking about? Do I pay movie studios to watch a movie preview? No. I do not pay to watch the preview because it is their way to entice me to see their movie(which, today, will probably suck and the preview will probably have all the good portions of the movie). Demonstrations and betas are just another marketing technique that can really ramp up a studio's sales. If they have a shitty game, then that is their fault, not mine.
No one(at least no one with any sense) is asking to get copies of full games for free. What people are saying is that demonstrations of games should be free. Why should we have to pay $15 to preview a game, then have to turn around and pay $60 USD, or more, to play the entire game?
I am all for some changes in the health care system in the United States, but I am vehemently against this bill. It was talk of this bill that provoked me to change my education goals and go into law rather than medicine. My dream was to become a doctor, but I gave up on that to become a law enforcement officer. After getting hurt and still being rather young(23 years old at the time of my injury), I decided to return to college and work towards that goal.
I completed a double major(Chemistry and History) and was poised to enter medical school. After talking to many of my friends and family, I decided to take a year off and get my health problems under control and it was during this time that I began to shy away from medical school. It is not about the possible income for that career, and it was never about the income, but I dislike the way that this bill ignores doctors and its ability to hurt patients.
It is sad when a person can make more money arguing in a room than saving lives. While I believe that being a lawyer is a respectable career(as I will become one soon enough), I just think that our priorities are skewed. Our government is more worried about forcing unless change on us and not listening to the voice of the people they serve.
I am interested to see how the legal challenges will play out in the courts. You can attempt to argue that the states have no power to bring such legal challenges, but it is each state's right and responsibility to do so. The Federal Government cannot require a citizen purchase a service or good in order to simply be alive and a citizen. Congress can use the Commerce Clause as a defense, but it is not a valid defense.
There were so many other options for the Federal Government to consider, aside from this horrible bill, such as opening up nation-wide competition for insurance providers, tort reform, and many others. I would be for allowing citizens to purchase the same insurance that government employees have(similar to what Senators and Representatives have). There are also other options that I would be for, but I am not going to make this comment that long-winded.
I just believe that the liberals/progressives are so focused on doing something, rather than doing the right thing, that they have become too short-sighted. This bill is going to ruin this country.
You could not be more wrong. Receiving illegal contraband does not require that you continue to possess said contraband for any length of time. It is illegal to possess, receive, distribute, and/or produce child pornography(see 18 U.S.C. 2251, 2252, 2252A). You can try and double-talk all you want, but I will promise you that you will be looking at the long end of a bad prison sentence if you try and obtain child porn; even for 30 seconds.
People always believe they are more intelligent that the government, but I always proved people wrong. There is no excuse or story that I have not heard during my time in law enforcement, and 99% of them never worked.
It is an excellent reason to seize a computer. If someone is dealing/purchasing drugs in their vehicle or house, those items can and will be seized. Deal in child pornography(regardless of whether or not you are obtaining it for yourself or peddling the disgusting smut) will net the same effect.
If you do not like that fact, then do not commit the crime. It cannot be any simpler.
This kind of crap would not fly in the United States. The computer user might not have knowingly possessed the images through his computer's browser cache, but I am sure he knowingly viewed the images through his browser. His intent was to view the images and he was too dumb to know that his browser was storing copies of the photographs. That is enough to get a warrant and obtain an indictment. Hell, you could get a conviction with that evidence.
I will cede that, if the user was checking email and stupidly clicked a link and sent him to some child porn site, then he would not be committing a criminal act. If I found one site and only one page on that site were visited, then I would not pursue charges against the man. If he has visited multiple sites over multiple days and had viewed multiple pages, then I would tell me to prepare to be on the receiving end of one of the prison's Rectal Olympics games.
I have no sympathy for disgusting piece of shit that get off on child pornography.
This is the way capitalism and and open-and-free market works. If someone it selling a product, then you are free to purchase it. If the product is bad or does not work as promised, then you never use or purchase their product(s) again. Once enough people get the word out that a certain manufacturer or service company is not providing a proper product, then they end up losing their business because of lack of customer interest.
It seems that Classmates.com is either providing a service that many people enjoy or they are doing some heavy black-market work to keep up their failing business(which is unlikely). Sure, there are some that were probably scammed through these emails(of which I got a few, but ignored), but it seems that there are more than a few people that like the service they are receiving. If Classmates.com continues to provide a faulty service, then their revenues will start to decline and the end of said service will come rather quickly.
It is not up to the government to be your nanny or mother; you have to decide what is best for your money. Spread the word that Classmates.com is providing a bad service and "nature will take its course", so to speak.
As an ex-law enforcement agent of our government, I can tell you that it will not take a bill to silence those the government does not want talking. Sure, you can sit there and "take a stand" or "speak truth to power", but there is little you can do to stop an organization as large as a government. The founders of the United States gave citizens the ability to fight the government, when it gets out of control, but no one ever utilizes that power. In the end, we only have ourselves to blame.
I will agree with you on your statements about politicians, but only to a certain point. When politicians want something passed, they will do whatever it takes. It does not matter what ideology a certain politicians believes in, they all want to stay in power. When someone or something threatens their ability to retain power, then they will fight it in any way they can.
You can attempt to seem righteous and say, "oh, but I would NEVER do THAT". I am here to tell you that you would do exactly what any other politician would do and probably even worse. It is not that you are not a decent person; it is just that any human that is in power wants to retain that power. Thousands of years of human history has shown us this again and again.
You think that just because you do not find what the first poster to be insightful, that it is not insightful? While I feel that Obama does not have the backbone to try and impose censorship on the United States, I am sure we will see some type of oppressive censorship in the relatively near future. Anyone that does not believe this probably is not paying attention to who is in control of the various governments within the United States.
Regardless, you do not speak for everyone that visits this site. Those who modded the post as "Insightful" probably read the post and marked it as such because they feel it is insightful.
This just gets more funny as the days go by. I wonder how long it will be before Ubisoft gives up and patches the game to play without having to connect to their useless servers? It would be pretty interesting to see how many people utilize the third-party patch to not have to use Ubisoft's servers to play the game and/or access saved games.
When people put out that they are homosexual, then they are putting me into their private matters. It is these same people, probably like yourself, that then bitch and bemoan the fact that I exercise my right to free speech and free choice. I choose to not accept your false stance that people are born homosexual and if you cannot deal with this, then I suggest to move to a country that does not allow its people free choice and free speech. Well, pretty much all of those countries to not allow openly homosexuality, nor do they tolerate such people.
I, on the other hand, have no problem with people that are homosexuals. I do not wish to discuss the matter with the person, but I am more than willing to be associated with those people at work, at school, and in my private life. Of course, none of that matters to you or that is how you are making it seem.
If you exercise your beliefs that homosexuality is normal and good, then everyone should applaud you and tell you how "strong and wonderful" you are. If I do the same and exercise my beliefs that homosexuality is wrong(which it is) and unnatural(you choose to be a homosexual; you are not born that way), then I am disgusting and horrible. You believe that I should be ashamed and probably even persecuted for my beliefs. This just shows how much of a bigot you are.
I have no need to masturbate, as I am in a loving relationship with a woman(I am a man) and have all of the sexual intercourse that I wish. Homosexuality does not interest me in the slightest, as it is disgusting and unnatural. There is a reason there are more heterosexual relationships than homosexual relationships: a penis and a vagina are designed to work together. You cannot build a car with just nuts or just bolts.
I could care less what occurred in the past. So what if blacks were mistreated; there were all sorts of groups that had to endure the same treatment they did. Many of my ancestors were treated far worse than any black person was in those times, but you never hear the bleeding hearts take up their cause. You now have people that fall all over themselves to appease blacks, none of whom were ever mistreated. Someone's great-great-great grandfather might have been a slave and some white people, whose relatives were probably indentured servants, are supposed to feel shame?
Regardless of all of that, the color's of a person's skin is not obtained by choice; it is obtained through genetics. The science is simple enough and any idiot could understand such a thing. The same does not, nor will ever apply to sexual choice. If you engage in sexual relationships with people of the same sex, then that is a choice that you make. You can just as simply choose to act properly and engage in heterosexual relationships. To try and say that homosexuality is something a person is born with is a farce. There is not a piece of genetic code that anyone will ever find that will push a person into a homosexual lifestyle.
The only thing I dislike is the homosexual lifestyle. The person I hold no ill will towards, unless they attempt to indoctrinate my children, or the children of my family and friends, with such bullshit. I will respect any human, as long as they respect me. The only time I would ever hurt another human is if they place myself or someone around me in danger of great bodily harm or death. Saying that, I do not have to accept their beliefs, nor do I have to bad choices. It is what makes the United States a great country.
Posting my opinion is not an attempt my me to troll. You need to respect my opinion and quit down-ranking my posts. If I am threatening others, then you do not have to respect my opinion, but I am doing no such thing. If you cannot handle someone having an opinion that is different from your own, then I quite frankly do not give a shit. Grow up.
It is difficult for sites to operate when people block their means of income, but it is also the fault of many of these sites that so many block ads. Some ads are ok; they are minimal and simply a picture that is really a link to the advertising site. There are others that balance on the line of irritating, then there are other that are bulky and completely maddening. You then have a rather small number that can be dangerous(no the advertisement, but the place that advertisement takes you).
If sites would require ads to be minimal and more "professionally produced", then people like me would be more inclined to suffer them(for those that do not know, suffer is not always negative, which is how I am using it). It is good to see that Ars Technica and Mr. Fisher are not just throwing up and ole ad(or at least they are claiming they are), but there are many sites that do not. The more sites that respect their readership, the more that readers might migrate to reducing their ad-blocking code use.
For me, if I like the site and make use of the site frequently, then I will enable the ads on that site. The moment that the site gets out of control and starts using a bunch of epileptic seizure-inducing ads, that is the moment that their ads get blocked.
The people that ran this study started off their article ok, but it turned in a heap of false information. There is so much wrong with the entire bullshit "science" used to support the argument that cellular phones and non-ionizing radiation causes cancer and "other health problem" that it is starting to become a real problem. This is turning into another carbon dioxide(CO2) scare and I am getting tired of some people attempt to scare the shit out of the majority of the populous.
Hell, I believe the fact that the "alarmist" article was in GQ, and not some respectable scientific journal, is a great indicator of the uselessness of the information contained in said article. It is people like the author, Christopher Ketcham, and frauds, like Michael Kundi, that perpetuate false information, like the existence of "Electro-Hypersensitivity"(EHS). These people have done nothing more than give hypochondriacs another excuse to seek attention from the medical community and given lazy people a way out of contributing to society. The article should be titled, "Examples of Why Sweden is Out of Touch with Reality".
The really sad and dangerous issue in this article is the obvious misdiagnosis of Mr. Segerbäck. First off, his getting sick when he heard a phone ring points to Pavlov's Dog Experiment. Any living being can be conditioned to react a certain way to external(and internal) stimulation and this is an obvious example. I am willing to bet that if someone stuck a cellular phone in his out, without Mr. Segerbäck being aware, then left the phone continually connected to a call, Mr. Segerbäck would show no adverse reactions.
What is Mr. Segerbäck has some type of cancer(no, not from a cellular phone, as you cannot get it from such a device) and it is a paraneoplastic syndrome that is causing his adverse reactions? At best, Mr. Segerbäck is a hypochondriac and at worst, he has real and serious health problem, which he needs to seek immediate treatment(which, again, would not be caused my electromagnetic/non-ionizing radiation, because it is impossible).
Until real scientist in truly objective setting run a study on EHS and give honest and objective scientific evidence that it exist, then I will continue to believe such a condition to be utterly false.
I am sure they would ban one of us for doing that, but we had better god-damned respect this crap. This has no place in the gaming world and it is only done to provoke people into getting into fights. There is no need for this and Microsoft needs to grow a backbone. I doubt Microsoft would allow me to put into my profile, "Straight male that enjoying sleeping with hot women", so why should others be allowed to put that they enjoy unnatural sexual activity?
Headkase: You could not be more wrong. People discriminating based on skin color(which does not make a human apart of another race) is, in no way, similar to being a homosexual or transsexual. The latter is a choice; a person cannot choose his or her skin color.
It seems obvious to me that you did not read the original article, or at least did not full comprehend it. Check out this portion,..."if I buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blu-ray, I don't own the movie but only a copy (whose usage is restricted by the terms of the licence))..."(the author does not seem to own the rights to a spell check). It is a comment like this that show the author's lack of knowledge on the subject.
The only legal restrictions on the used of intellectual property is copyright law, not "licensing terms". A creator can attempt to fill a software license with all types of restrictive shit, but they cannot strip an owner of his or her legal rights. If I, being the owner of some item(software, hardware, etc), then I am free to use said item any way I wish(as long as I am not breaking the law). I can sell it to someone after I am done using it. I can burn it. I could even reverse engineer it to work with something I am creating.
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The way I understand, which is how the courts have interpreted for us in the U.S., when we purchase a product, software, hardware, or whatever, we own that copy. It is ours to do with however we wish. Companies can try and assert control over a product have it is purchased, but that will just make for another interesting court battle.
I do believe that the creator has developmental control over their product and they have the right to create/develop the product any way they wish. The issue I have is what the creator tries to assert after they sell a certain product. This is found in other products that the consumer purchases.
What is a car manufacturer decided that they no longer like a certain "after-market" manufacturer? If the product fits and improves the car to my liking, then the car manufacturer has no right to assert control over the copy of their product I purchased. I have the right, as long as it does not violate the motor vehicle statues in my state, to alter my vehicle any way I wish.
I do not have the right to make copies of the vehicle and sell those copies under the same name and license that the original manufacturer is selling them under. This is where software and hardware manufacturing, in the IT field, falls. While I cannot steal software, or making copies of the software that I have purchase and sell them, I do have the right to use, alter, and sell any and all copies of software and hardware that I have paid for.
The Hague has no authority anywhere. It is, at best, a "kangaroo court" and nothing that it decides as any real effect on people outside of Europe. That conglomerate of countries might abide by what that idiot court decides, but the United States could care less. If I decide to exercise my free speech rights, but someone tries to have "The Hague" step in and sanction me or impose penalties on me, I can and will tell that court to go fuck itself and continue to exercise my free speech rights here in the U.S.
I am a citizen of the United States, not a citizen of "the world" or some "global community". I am beholden to no one.
To clarify this more: The International Criminal Court(ICC) is like a neighborhood watch group in the United States that has even less power that a real watch group would have. I would not be surprised if the ICC considered me a violent and dangerous criminal for owning too many guns, or any guns. They would probably consider me a criminal for discussing the court in a negative light, or talking about anyone or any group in a negative light.
It is time for people to quit bringing up the issues that have with the most previous U.S. President. The Bush Administration is gone and a new one has replaced it. It is too bad that your choice for president has been a failure, but it is time to quit worrying about the previous failure.
Of course, we might has well get use to failure in government, as that is all we will probably ever get.
This idea would cause the U.S. Constitution to start dinging like a damned pinball machine. No government, within the United States, has the authority to monitor a citizen's communications without a warrant or the dumb and Constitutional-violating NSL(National Security Letter). Since the government cannot obtain either until after the fact(ex post facto), or when they have proper cause to show a need for either before an illegal action, then this type of illegal surveillance cannot occur.
Nice try, but it will not happen.
It is not the right of the Federal Government to tell a corporation who they can and cannot hire, within a certain extent(illegal aliens and such would be an obvious exemption). If you have five people applying for a position and all five people can legally work in the United States, then that is where the power of any government in the United States stops. This sounds like a load of bullshit and a waste of taxpayer money.
If a company is recruiting people from other companies, then I see no problem with this. This is how the process works. If a company has evidence that another company is trying to steal "trade secrets", then they need to report that. Otherwise, then government needs to keep its fucking nose out of this.
I agree; it is pretty enticing.
I am going to patent the patent system in the US, then sue everyone who has obtained a patent. Sadly, I am sure the U.S. Patent Office would issue me a patent, then continue to violate my patent. Of course, I am sure the courts will hear all of my cases, then issue injunctions against everyone. Shortly after that, someone would divide by zero and reset the entire world. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Unless there is an extreme state of emergency and the FCC declares that the amateur radio bands are needed for emergency communications, then the FCC cannot stop transmission on the amateur bands. Even if they revoke a license, they cannot actually stop transmission over those bands. A state can revoke a citizen's drivers license, but it cannot actually suspends the citizen's ability to drive. Sure, they can arrest the citizen for driving on a suspended license, but they cannot delete the skill the driver has, nor their actual freedom of movement(prior to arrest). The best the FCC could do is try and shutdown a repeater, but even that would be an exercise in futility.
I do know about the license requirement for the GMRS equipment, but you just mail in a fee to obtain the license. You do not have to take a test, which is a requirement for Amateur(Ham) radios licenses. I believe the license requirements on GMRS is outdated and rather useless. I would rather not spend $80 to $90 USD on a license for GMRS access and spend far less to obtain a Technician Class Amateur Radio license and have far greater capabilities.
You study for about a day, maybe two, and you can start communicating with people all over the world. You also obtain a hands-on education in electronics, RF technology, and a whole host of other worth-while skills.
Obtain your amateur radio license, then hook a computer to your radio and communicate that way. You can send emails, files, etc over amateur radio bands and there is no "shutoff" button for the President to get to on that. In a way, you are tell the President to fuck off and leave my communication means alone. Sure, the connection will be slow, but it is better than nothing.
In the end, I have a feeling this will die quickly. This is a violation of our personal freedoms and violates so many laws that is is not funny. This will probably end up giving the President, or someone in government, the ability to shut off the Federal Governments private networks from the backbones of what we refer to as "the internet". I could be wrong, but this will not survive for very long. If the bill is passed, then the courts will chew it up and nullify it.
In the end, we will find a way to work around any cut offs. Unless the President is going to send agents to every home to shut of their computers, there is nothing that can stop this massive network. That and corporations are not interested in pissing off their customers so bad that they leave in droves and take their money elsewhere.
I have had an iphone for some time and it was one of the worst purchases I ever made. Regardless, I am sure most of us have heard great rumors surrounding new iPhone generations in the past. The reality is that Apple is too consumed with the "Sony Process"(i.e. small incremental improvements). Really, anyone with an iPhone 3G or 3G S should wait another generation or two before they upgrade. Chances are we might see a better camera, with an extremely low chance of a flash for said camera, along with a slightly faster processor and a slightly better display.
As with any of us Technophiles, I really enjoy being on the "bleeding edge"(which the iPhone is not on), but I also like to tinker with any currently used technology. After playing with the iPhone for a while, I am ready to run back to the edge.
Just what the hell are you talking about? Do I pay movie studios to watch a movie preview? No. I do not pay to watch the preview because it is their way to entice me to see their movie(which, today, will probably suck and the preview will probably have all the good portions of the movie). Demonstrations and betas are just another marketing technique that can really ramp up a studio's sales. If they have a shitty game, then that is their fault, not mine.
No one(at least no one with any sense) is asking to get copies of full games for free. What people are saying is that demonstrations of games should be free. Why should we have to pay $15 to preview a game, then have to turn around and pay $60 USD, or more, to play the entire game?
I am all for some changes in the health care system in the United States, but I am vehemently against this bill. It was talk of this bill that provoked me to change my education goals and go into law rather than medicine. My dream was to become a doctor, but I gave up on that to become a law enforcement officer. After getting hurt and still being rather young(23 years old at the time of my injury), I decided to return to college and work towards that goal.
I completed a double major(Chemistry and History) and was poised to enter medical school. After talking to many of my friends and family, I decided to take a year off and get my health problems under control and it was during this time that I began to shy away from medical school. It is not about the possible income for that career, and it was never about the income, but I dislike the way that this bill ignores doctors and its ability to hurt patients.
It is sad when a person can make more money arguing in a room than saving lives. While I believe that being a lawyer is a respectable career(as I will become one soon enough), I just think that our priorities are skewed. Our government is more worried about forcing unless change on us and not listening to the voice of the people they serve.
I am interested to see how the legal challenges will play out in the courts. You can attempt to argue that the states have no power to bring such legal challenges, but it is each state's right and responsibility to do so. The Federal Government cannot require a citizen purchase a service or good in order to simply be alive and a citizen. Congress can use the Commerce Clause as a defense, but it is not a valid defense.
There were so many other options for the Federal Government to consider, aside from this horrible bill, such as opening up nation-wide competition for insurance providers, tort reform, and many others. I would be for allowing citizens to purchase the same insurance that government employees have(similar to what Senators and Representatives have). There are also other options that I would be for, but I am not going to make this comment that long-winded.
I just believe that the liberals/progressives are so focused on doing something, rather than doing the right thing, that they have become too short-sighted. This bill is going to ruin this country.
You could not be more wrong. Receiving illegal contraband does not require that you continue to possess said contraband for any length of time. It is illegal to possess, receive, distribute, and/or produce child pornography(see 18 U.S.C. 2251, 2252, 2252A). You can try and double-talk all you want, but I will promise you that you will be looking at the long end of a bad prison sentence if you try and obtain child porn; even for 30 seconds.
People always believe they are more intelligent that the government, but I always proved people wrong. There is no excuse or story that I have not heard during my time in law enforcement, and 99% of them never worked.
It is an excellent reason to seize a computer. If someone is dealing/purchasing drugs in their vehicle or house, those items can and will be seized. Deal in child pornography(regardless of whether or not you are obtaining it for yourself or peddling the disgusting smut) will net the same effect.
If you do not like that fact, then do not commit the crime. It cannot be any simpler.
You obviously have no clue about how the legal system works then.
This kind of crap would not fly in the United States. The computer user might not have knowingly possessed the images through his computer's browser cache, but I am sure he knowingly viewed the images through his browser. His intent was to view the images and he was too dumb to know that his browser was storing copies of the photographs. That is enough to get a warrant and obtain an indictment. Hell, you could get a conviction with that evidence.
I will cede that, if the user was checking email and stupidly clicked a link and sent him to some child porn site, then he would not be committing a criminal act. If I found one site and only one page on that site were visited, then I would not pursue charges against the man. If he has visited multiple sites over multiple days and had viewed multiple pages, then I would tell me to prepare to be on the receiving end of one of the prison's Rectal Olympics games.
I have no sympathy for disgusting piece of shit that get off on child pornography.
They also are not allowed to keep those samples past a certain amount of time. Those that do will end up with endless numbers of lawsuits.
This is the way capitalism and and open-and-free market works. If someone it selling a product, then you are free to purchase it. If the product is bad or does not work as promised, then you never use or purchase their product(s) again. Once enough people get the word out that a certain manufacturer or service company is not providing a proper product, then they end up losing their business because of lack of customer interest.
It seems that Classmates.com is either providing a service that many people enjoy or they are doing some heavy black-market work to keep up their failing business(which is unlikely). Sure, there are some that were probably scammed through these emails(of which I got a few, but ignored), but it seems that there are more than a few people that like the service they are receiving. If Classmates.com continues to provide a faulty service, then their revenues will start to decline and the end of said service will come rather quickly.
It is not up to the government to be your nanny or mother; you have to decide what is best for your money. Spread the word that Classmates.com is providing a bad service and "nature will take its course", so to speak.
As an ex-law enforcement agent of our government, I can tell you that it will not take a bill to silence those the government does not want talking. Sure, you can sit there and "take a stand" or "speak truth to power", but there is little you can do to stop an organization as large as a government. The founders of the United States gave citizens the ability to fight the government, when it gets out of control, but no one ever utilizes that power. In the end, we only have ourselves to blame.
I will agree with you on your statements about politicians, but only to a certain point. When politicians want something passed, they will do whatever it takes. It does not matter what ideology a certain politicians believes in, they all want to stay in power. When someone or something threatens their ability to retain power, then they will fight it in any way they can.
You can attempt to seem righteous and say, "oh, but I would NEVER do THAT". I am here to tell you that you would do exactly what any other politician would do and probably even worse. It is not that you are not a decent person; it is just that any human that is in power wants to retain that power. Thousands of years of human history has shown us this again and again.
You think that just because you do not find what the first poster to be insightful, that it is not insightful? While I feel that Obama does not have the backbone to try and impose censorship on the United States, I am sure we will see some type of oppressive censorship in the relatively near future. Anyone that does not believe this probably is not paying attention to who is in control of the various governments within the United States.
Regardless, you do not speak for everyone that visits this site. Those who modded the post as "Insightful" probably read the post and marked it as such because they feel it is insightful.
This just gets more funny as the days go by. I wonder how long it will be before Ubisoft gives up and patches the game to play without having to connect to their useless servers? It would be pretty interesting to see how many people utilize the third-party patch to not have to use Ubisoft's servers to play the game and/or access saved games.
When people put out that they are homosexual, then they are putting me into their private matters. It is these same people, probably like yourself, that then bitch and bemoan the fact that I exercise my right to free speech and free choice. I choose to not accept your false stance that people are born homosexual and if you cannot deal with this, then I suggest to move to a country that does not allow its people free choice and free speech. Well, pretty much all of those countries to not allow openly homosexuality, nor do they tolerate such people.
I, on the other hand, have no problem with people that are homosexuals. I do not wish to discuss the matter with the person, but I am more than willing to be associated with those people at work, at school, and in my private life. Of course, none of that matters to you or that is how you are making it seem.
If you exercise your beliefs that homosexuality is normal and good, then everyone should applaud you and tell you how "strong and wonderful" you are. If I do the same and exercise my beliefs that homosexuality is wrong(which it is) and unnatural(you choose to be a homosexual; you are not born that way), then I am disgusting and horrible. You believe that I should be ashamed and probably even persecuted for my beliefs. This just shows how much of a bigot you are.
I have no need to masturbate, as I am in a loving relationship with a woman(I am a man) and have all of the sexual intercourse that I wish. Homosexuality does not interest me in the slightest, as it is disgusting and unnatural. There is a reason there are more heterosexual relationships than homosexual relationships: a penis and a vagina are designed to work together. You cannot build a car with just nuts or just bolts.
I could care less what occurred in the past. So what if blacks were mistreated; there were all sorts of groups that had to endure the same treatment they did. Many of my ancestors were treated far worse than any black person was in those times, but you never hear the bleeding hearts take up their cause. You now have people that fall all over themselves to appease blacks, none of whom were ever mistreated. Someone's great-great-great grandfather might have been a slave and some white people, whose relatives were probably indentured servants, are supposed to feel shame?
Regardless of all of that, the color's of a person's skin is not obtained by choice; it is obtained through genetics. The science is simple enough and any idiot could understand such a thing. The same does not, nor will ever apply to sexual choice. If you engage in sexual relationships with people of the same sex, then that is a choice that you make. You can just as simply choose to act properly and engage in heterosexual relationships. To try and say that homosexuality is something a person is born with is a farce. There is not a piece of genetic code that anyone will ever find that will push a person into a homosexual lifestyle.
The only thing I dislike is the homosexual lifestyle. The person I hold no ill will towards, unless they attempt to indoctrinate my children, or the children of my family and friends, with such bullshit. I will respect any human, as long as they respect me. The only time I would ever hurt another human is if they place myself or someone around me in danger of great bodily harm or death. Saying that, I do not have to accept their beliefs, nor do I have to bad choices. It is what makes the United States a great country.
Posting my opinion is not an attempt my me to troll. You need to respect my opinion and quit down-ranking my posts. If I am threatening others, then you do not have to respect my opinion, but I am doing no such thing. If you cannot handle someone having an opinion that is different from your own, then I quite frankly do not give a shit. Grow up.
It is difficult for sites to operate when people block their means of income, but it is also the fault of many of these sites that so many block ads. Some ads are ok; they are minimal and simply a picture that is really a link to the advertising site. There are others that balance on the line of irritating, then there are other that are bulky and completely maddening. You then have a rather small number that can be dangerous(no the advertisement, but the place that advertisement takes you).
If sites would require ads to be minimal and more "professionally produced", then people like me would be more inclined to suffer them(for those that do not know, suffer is not always negative, which is how I am using it). It is good to see that Ars Technica and Mr. Fisher are not just throwing up and ole ad(or at least they are claiming they are), but there are many sites that do not. The more sites that respect their readership, the more that readers might migrate to reducing their ad-blocking code use.
For me, if I like the site and make use of the site frequently, then I will enable the ads on that site. The moment that the site gets out of control and starts using a bunch of epileptic seizure-inducing ads, that is the moment that their ads get blocked.
The people that ran this study started off their article ok, but it turned in a heap of false information. There is so much wrong with the entire bullshit "science" used to support the argument that cellular phones and non-ionizing radiation causes cancer and "other health problem" that it is starting to become a real problem. This is turning into another carbon dioxide(CO2) scare and I am getting tired of some people attempt to scare the shit out of the majority of the populous.
Hell, I believe the fact that the "alarmist" article was in GQ, and not some respectable scientific journal, is a great indicator of the uselessness of the information contained in said article. It is people like the author, Christopher Ketcham, and frauds, like Michael Kundi, that perpetuate false information, like the existence of "Electro-Hypersensitivity"(EHS). These people have done nothing more than give hypochondriacs another excuse to seek attention from the medical community and given lazy people a way out of contributing to society. The article should be titled, "Examples of Why Sweden is Out of Touch with Reality".
The really sad and dangerous issue in this article is the obvious misdiagnosis of Mr. Segerbäck. First off, his getting sick when he heard a phone ring points to Pavlov's Dog Experiment. Any living being can be conditioned to react a certain way to external(and internal) stimulation and this is an obvious example. I am willing to bet that if someone stuck a cellular phone in his out, without Mr. Segerbäck being aware, then left the phone continually connected to a call, Mr. Segerbäck would show no adverse reactions.
What is Mr. Segerbäck has some type of cancer(no, not from a cellular phone, as you cannot get it from such a device) and it is a paraneoplastic syndrome that is causing his adverse reactions? At best, Mr. Segerbäck is a hypochondriac and at worst, he has real and serious health problem, which he needs to seek immediate treatment(which, again, would not be caused my electromagnetic/non-ionizing radiation, because it is impossible).
Until real scientist in truly objective setting run a study on EHS and give honest and objective scientific evidence that it exist, then I will continue to believe such a condition to be utterly false.
I am sure they would ban one of us for doing that, but we had better god-damned respect this crap. This has no place in the gaming world and it is only done to provoke people into getting into fights. There is no need for this and Microsoft needs to grow a backbone. I doubt Microsoft would allow me to put into my profile, "Straight male that enjoying sleeping with hot women", so why should others be allowed to put that they enjoy unnatural sexual activity?
Headkase: You could not be more wrong. People discriminating based on skin color(which does not make a human apart of another race) is, in no way, similar to being a homosexual or transsexual. The latter is a choice; a person cannot choose his or her skin color.
It seems obvious to me that you did not read the original article, or at least did not full comprehend it. Check out this portion, ..."if I buy Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Blu-ray, I don't own the movie but only a copy (whose usage is restricted by the terms of the licence))..."(the author does not seem to own the rights to a spell check). It is a comment like this that show the author's lack of knowledge on the subject.
The only legal restrictions on the used of intellectual property is copyright law, not "licensing terms". A creator can attempt to fill a software license with all types of restrictive shit, but they cannot strip an owner of his or her legal rights. If I, being the owner of some item(software, hardware, etc), then I am free to use said item any way I wish(as long as I am not breaking the law). I can sell it to someone after I am done using it. I can burn it. I could even reverse engineer it to work with something I am creating.
The Autodesk decision has a lot to do with this.