You know, that was an idea doomed for failure. Sure, anybody can just come up with e-currency, but backed by gold? Did I miss something here? Doesn't Cryptonomicon say gold is the death of value? After all, none of the big world goverments find in necessary to back their currency with real goods (be it metals, produce, etc). It's a real problem to do so. When you base your currency off of a real item, you can't just print more and more with impunity whenever you need some. And man, that really holds you back with e-cash, 'cause bits are reproducable for free!
Well to draw strongly upon the American Revolution as a paralell, from what I see we haven't really revolted yet.
The American Colonists were in revolt against the Brittish at least a decade before they declared independence. There was a whole bunch of riots (the most famous are the Boston Tea Party and Massacre) and they occured in differing amounts all over the colonies. From this we can see that
1) revolutions aren't ever homogonous- different areas will change at different times and with varing speeds- and stop changing at different times and
2) what we're seeing now may not really be 'the Revolution' but only a front-runner, something that will get people informed about the problem before the final (adopted) solution comes along.
...iff (if and only if) I was able to download the game and all of the packaged 'goodies' (as PDFs of course). Remember the Infocom games? Those weren't just copy protection schemes, but your introduction into the virtual world of the game. The price would have to be right, you know, about $1-2. Though, any game with a 'pure' copy protection scheme (code wheel/req'd disk) would have that protection removed, or if I needed an emulator, they should give one to me.
For me, the equation balances as follows: if the game was good enough to hunt for and download, why shouldn't I support the people who make/distribute good games? After all, I don't want to be awash in a world of Quake-clone games!
Yes, I see how you could get around the conservation of momentum. But the physics is entirely theoretical...
First, get the magnet's start-up judder to be at a relatavistic (> ~.5 c) speed. Then, by reducing the current slowly (non-instantanious), make the return-to-center movement at sub-relatavistic speeds. Since relativity says that as you accelerate you get heavier, the momentum of the judder will be greater than the momentum of the return movement.
In fact, the closer to lightspeed the judder is, the faster your acceleration will be (the greater the difference in momentum.)
Oh, and for reference, if you'd like to play with the math/physics of this, the relatavistic ratio is sqrt( 1 - (v*v / c*c)): where v is your speed and c is the speed of light. This ratio affects mass, time dilation, and length (along axis of movement).
Let me conclude with: IANAPhysicist! However, this does seem to be the logic that these physicists are following.
Okay, your numbers are wrong.
1 person pays $5m *.44 = $2.2m
19 each pay $10k *.30 = $3k
Total: $2,203,000
Here's a little more math.
Let's say we tax them BOTH at 30%.
1 person pays $5m *.3 = $1.5m
19 each pay $10k *.30 = $3k
Even if we sum up the small taxes, 3kx19 = 57k! That's still only 1/3 of the tax the 1 person at $5m paid!
A flat tax might raise everyone's taxes to keep the same income, but if we're considering that level of reform in the gov't then the excess programs would be cut, too. (It is left as a reader exercise to determine what programs are excess).
And, after all, with a 'progressive' tax, it is possible for my gross income to increase my taxes to the point that my net income drops! (I've heard that in Brittain you can be taxed at 99%). A progressive tax is really, really socialist.
Ha! My concept of the 'flat tax'- not per head, percent - is that every dollar that you get this year - no matter how it is spent - is taxed. So if you get capital gains, taxed. 'Bonus pay' used for taking classes, taxed. Money earned at a garage sale - taxed. So if it were 10%, a a CEO making 100mil pays 10mil and Joe Q Public at (say) 50k pays a whole lot less! And it doesn't matter if the CEO got that money as stock, cash/check, or by selling his Bev. Hills mansion.
I'd really put meat in the process of progressive taxation. The richer people are, the more the percentage you pay. After all, it's their influence that rigged the system to get them that rich to begin with.
Hmm, let me see if I understand this. The rich use their influence to tip the scales in their favor. And because they are favored, they got rich. So with their new-found riches, they tip the scales in their favor so they can be rich....
If the police are searching your house for illegal copies of a movie and find pot, they can't do anything about the pot (except go back to the judge and say we saw some pot lying around, can we have a warrent for that?).
Don't you watch any of those law shows? If the police have a warrant for the area, or are let in for any reason and find evidence in 'plain sight', it can be used. (Law & Order does this often - cops go to door with super, say 'If he's not been seen the past few days shouldn't we check on him?' and super lets them in where they grab evidence and suspect.)
What it comes down to is this: Know your rights. Keep your rights. And make dead certain that you don't attract the law's attention, because the US is a police state.
Direct quote from the Ruling: From the comments and testimony presented, it is clear that, at present, most works available in DVD format are also available in analog format (VHS tape) as well.
Excuse me? Are they saying that because it isn't a problem today that we don't have to think about when it will be a problem?
Either I'm misreading the statement, or the goverment has no forsight at all. Just because VHS is around today doesn't mean it will dissapear tomorrow! (Case in point: LP records).
Please, give us the source for the Carnivore system. I can imagine the FBI tracking every internet action under the 'new' legal idea of a retroactive wiretap. So the fact that I could (in the future) become a criminal would allow them to monitor my actions now, when I am a law-abiding citizen, in the interest of getting me convicted of a future crime I may-or-may-not commit. And it would become legal, because they can got a wiretap order once I am a criminal, and the data is then relevant. (And in case you doubt the reality of this scenario, just watch a few episodes of Law & Order- or any other realistic police/justice show- this is how the legal system thinks.) Never mind that the evidence from Carnivore sparked the investigation that got tap orders for carnivore.... Either Carnivore was planned by Big Brother to further his agenda, or someone will arise to be said Big Brother, as they have the power to do so (with Carnivore).
If we want to kill Carnivore (or at least the secrecy of the source code), why not try arguing that since the system intercepts every internet transmission, whether it is logged or not, it violates the privacy of every other 'net user? I don't want something reading my packets if I'm not the one under investigation!
Way back in the beginning, when man was young, there was no goverment. People lived only in traveling family groups (hunter-gatherer societies) and life was good.
Fast forward through the next 25,000 or so years. Man discovers agriculture, sailing, writing, and finally the Modern Standard Legal System (Hammurabi's Code). Is life as good? No. We're crammed into filthy cities, frightened of one another, and to top it all off, here's a dumb bloke telling us what we can and cannot do. Life became unbearable. And why? People forgot how to get along with one another.
The internet won't solve anything if you don't have good interpesonal skills to begin with!
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't we be better off calling a supercharged Rijndael "RMS" for "Rijndael Maximized Security"?
Oh wait, never mind, that acronym's already been taken...
You know, that was an idea doomed for failure. Sure, anybody can just come up with e-currency, but backed by gold? Did I miss something here? Doesn't Cryptonomicon say gold is the death of value? After all, none of the big world goverments find in necessary to back their currency with real goods (be it metals, produce, etc). It's a real problem to do so. When you base your currency off of a real item, you can't just print more and more with impunity whenever you need some. And man, that really holds you back with e-cash, 'cause bits are reproducable for free!
Well to draw strongly upon the American Revolution as a paralell, from what I see we haven't really revolted yet.
The American Colonists were in revolt against the Brittish at least a decade before they declared independence. There was a whole bunch of riots (the most famous are the Boston Tea Party and Massacre) and they occured in differing amounts all over the colonies. From this we can see that
1) revolutions aren't ever homogonous- different areas will change at different times and with varing speeds- and stop changing at different times and
2) what we're seeing now may not really be 'the Revolution' but only a front-runner, something that will get people informed about the problem before the final (adopted) solution comes along.
...iff (if and only if) I was able to download the game and all of the packaged 'goodies' (as PDFs of course). Remember the Infocom games? Those weren't just copy protection schemes, but your introduction into the virtual world of the game. The price would have to be right, you know, about $1-2. Though, any game with a 'pure' copy protection scheme (code wheel/req'd disk) would have that protection removed, or if I needed an emulator, they should give one to me.
For me, the equation balances as follows: if the game was good enough to hunt for and download, why shouldn't I support the people who make/distribute good games? After all, I don't want to be awash in a world of Quake-clone games!
Yes, I see how you could get around the conservation of momentum. But the physics is entirely theoretical...
First, get the magnet's start-up judder to be at a relatavistic (> ~.5 c) speed. Then, by reducing the current slowly (non-instantanious), make the return-to-center movement at sub-relatavistic speeds. Since relativity says that as you accelerate you get heavier, the momentum of the judder will be greater than the momentum of the return movement. In fact, the closer to lightspeed the judder is, the faster your acceleration will be (the greater the difference in momentum.)
Oh, and for reference, if you'd like to play with the math/physics of this, the relatavistic ratio is sqrt( 1 - (v*v / c*c)): where v is your speed and c is the speed of light. This ratio affects mass, time dilation, and length (along axis of movement).
Let me conclude with: IANAPhysicist! However, this does seem to be the logic that these physicists are following.
Okay, your numbers are wrong. .44 = $2.2m
.30 = $3k
.3 = $1.5m
.30 = $3k
1 person pays $5m *
19 each pay $10k *
Total: $2,203,000
Here's a little more math.
Let's say we tax them BOTH at 30%.
1 person pays $5m *
19 each pay $10k *
Even if we sum up the small taxes, 3kx19 = 57k! That's still only 1/3 of the tax the 1 person at $5m paid!
A flat tax might raise everyone's taxes to keep the same income, but if we're considering that level of reform in the gov't then the excess programs would be cut, too. (It is left as a reader exercise to determine what programs are excess).
And, after all, with a 'progressive' tax, it is possible for my gross income to increase my taxes to the point that my net income drops! (I've heard that in Brittain you can be taxed at 99%). A progressive tax is really, really socialist.
Ha! My concept of the 'flat tax'- not per head, percent - is that every dollar that you get this year - no matter how it is spent - is taxed. So if you get capital gains, taxed. 'Bonus pay' used for taking classes, taxed. Money earned at a garage sale - taxed. So if it were 10%, a a CEO making 100mil pays 10mil and Joe Q Public at (say) 50k pays a whole lot less! And it doesn't matter if the CEO got that money as stock, cash/check, or by selling his Bev. Hills mansion.
I'd really put meat in the process of progressive taxation. The richer people are, the more the percentage you pay. After all, it's their influence that rigged the system to get them that rich to begin with.
Hmm, let me see if I understand this. The rich use their influence to tip the scales in their favor. And because they are favored, they got rich. So with their new-found riches, they tip the scales in their favor so they can be rich....
If the police are searching your house for illegal copies of a movie and find pot, they can't do anything about the pot (except go back to the judge and say we saw some pot lying around, can we have a warrent for that?).
Don't you watch any of those law shows? If the police have a warrant for the area, or are let in for any reason and find evidence in 'plain sight', it can be used. (Law & Order does this often - cops go to door with super, say 'If he's not been seen the past few days shouldn't we check on him?' and super lets them in where they grab evidence and suspect.)
What it comes down to is this: Know your rights. Keep your rights. And make dead certain that you don't attract the law's attention, because the US is a police state.
Direct quote from the Ruling:
From the comments and testimony presented, it is clear that, at present, most works available in DVD format are also available in analog format (VHS tape) as well.
Excuse me? Are they saying that because it isn't a problem today that we don't have to think about when it will be a problem? Either I'm misreading the statement, or the goverment has no forsight at all. Just because VHS is around today doesn't mean it will dissapear tomorrow! (Case in point: LP records).
Please, give us the source for the Carnivore system. I can imagine the FBI tracking every internet action under the 'new' legal idea of a retroactive wiretap. So the fact that I could (in the future) become a criminal would allow them to monitor my actions now, when I am a law-abiding citizen, in the interest of getting me convicted of a future crime I may-or-may-not commit. And it would become legal, because they can got a wiretap order once I am a criminal, and the data is then relevant. (And in case you doubt the reality of this scenario, just watch a few episodes of Law & Order- or any other realistic police/justice show- this is how the legal system thinks.) Never mind that the evidence from Carnivore sparked the investigation that got tap orders for carnivore.... Either Carnivore was planned by Big Brother to further his agenda, or someone will arise to be said Big Brother, as they have the power to do so (with Carnivore).
If we want to kill Carnivore (or at least the secrecy of the source code), why not try arguing that since the system intercepts every internet transmission, whether it is logged or not, it violates the privacy of every other 'net user? I don't want something reading my packets if I'm not the one under investigation!
Way back in the beginning, when man was young, there was no goverment. People lived only in traveling family groups (hunter-gatherer societies) and life was good.
Fast forward through the next 25,000 or so years. Man discovers agriculture, sailing, writing, and finally the Modern Standard Legal System (Hammurabi's Code). Is life as good? No. We're crammed into filthy cities, frightened of one another, and to top it all off, here's a dumb bloke telling us what we can and cannot do. Life became unbearable. And why? People forgot how to get along with one another.
The internet won't solve anything if you don't have good interpesonal skills to begin with!