Oh I don't know. The guy who was printed Liberty Coins (99% pure silver) has been told he's no longer allowed to do it. Now that the precedent is set, the US government can shutdown Bitcoin or any other form of non-Reserve currency.
Lobbyists should be outlawed. The only voice Congressional representatives should be hearing are their direct constituents.
Also the Member States should be given power, via a 50% vote, to nullify any act of Congress. After all, the congress is a creation of, and a servant to, the States. (See Amendment 10 and constitutional conventions.)
>>>>>Paul's for individual rights >> >>Sure, if you are white.
Accusing (or implying) Ron Paul of being racist is a SERIOUS accusation. How about backing it up, otherwise we'll just ignore your comment as equally worthless as Alex Jones' or Bin Laden's rantings.
If you bothered to read their platforms, it is clear that Paul and other libertarians don't give a damn what color you are. You are a human being and deserve *equal* rights as given to you by your Creator (god or Nature depending upon your beliefs).
That's the kind of society we are headed towards. (Some would say we are already there, with naked body scanners, sexual assault patdowns and random stops/searches along highways.)
>>>That's because libertarianism is just like communism - looks fucking great on paper, but it doesn't take into account reality.
It seemed to work just fine from 1789 to circa 1900 (when the US government, minus a few exceptions, was basically libertarian (i.e. small and nonintrusive)).
Thanks. That's good to know. So when Comcast told the poster, repeatedly, there are no caps then they should be Bound by that. Question - But how is a commoner supposed to make them obey what they claimed?
>>>I want to hate Comcast as much as everyone else, but I am paying what I consider a fair price
I'm glad you brought this up because I don't consider it "fair" at all. I don't have Comcast but I used to, and it only cost 30/month plus tax or ~$32 . Now the same connection would cost 60 + $5 for four TVs == ~$80. That's a ridiculous increase.
Another ridiculous increase happened for my parents who used to pay $7/month for limited locals-only service, and now it jumped to $20/month. Nuts.
And Comcast internet is not much better. If I recall correctly it costs an extra $30 on top of the television service. For comparison my DSL hookup is only $15 for comparable speed.
Comcast also provides poor service. I remember when my brother discovered TCM was moved to a higher ~$100/month tier. Comcast gave almost NO notice that this was happening (one week), even though they are required by the FCC to give 90 days. They've also been caught cutting people's net access for exceeding Unpublished caps, which the FCC scolded them for doing.
Comcast is too expensive, too monopolistic, and too willing to ignore existing consumer laws They have the same attitude 1970s AT&T used to have ("We are the only choice you've got. So deal with it.")
If this keeps-up my WinXP computer will actually be *safer* than the my recent Win7 purchase.
Of course the safest OS I own is GEOS-64. No viruses whatsoever on 8 bit machines! And the second-safest is the 64-bit AmigaOS (because very few use it). Looks like XP is headed down the path of security through obscurity.
I write code (VHDL and verilog) for a living. And no I don't give a rat's ass if someone downloads it off piratebay.org, because I know that ~99% of customers buy it legally and income from those people FAR offset any losses from the downloaders.
Furthermore if the time came when I couldn't make money from coding, then I'd just have to find a new career. Wouldn't I? Like what happened with horsewhip and wagon wheel artisans. Times change - accept that rather than try to freeze history and prevent the forward march of progress.
>>>I still see the laws on the books so it appears the it hasn't been repealed.
Laws only stand until the People decide to ignore them & start revolting. It appears the People are revolting. They are copying books, music, movies, and only paying when they FEEL like paying (like when I bought Stargate seasons 1-10), not because of any law passed by a Comcast-bribed politician in Congress (or the FCC) who no longer serves the People.
They are also avoiding wasting their dollars on crap (like transformers 2 or spiderman 3). I consider it a GOOD thing when the poor and middle class citizens SAVE money rather than waste it.
Only a greedy person would be against that idea and want the middling folks to WASTE money.
I can't believe you just accused Thomas Jefferson of being a thief. He was the second-smartest president who ever served, with an IQ of ~170. That's Einstein or Hawking level intelligence.
You are like a mental midget next Mr. Jefferson and have no more right to insult him, than a monkey to call a human being "stupid".
Rather than have two nobodies (me and you) argue back and forth, let's turn to somebody who carries some significant weight (and therefore his opinion is 10x more valuable then you, and cannot be negated): Thomas Jefferson
"Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.
"Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."
i.e. There is NO natural right to you or any corporation (comcast, microsoft, ford) having a monopoly over copying ideas. It is a legal fiction. A privilege. Nothing more.
>>>So, is your repsonse that Comcast is a monopoly because while there are competitors, they are more expensive? It that what you think a monopoly is?
It is under the Antitrust Laws. It is why Microsoft was sued - because their browser was cheaper (free) than Netscape's browser (~$30), giving them an unfair trade advantage. The same argument was later used in the EU Action initiated by Opera browser.
This is not grade school. Please try to act like an adult. I did a quick review of court cases, and you are HALF correct. The 1996 Act forbids exclusive agreements (thereby allowing the phone company to offer TV service), but it does not abolish existing agreements. Many agreements have not expired yet so this comment:
>>>there hasn't been an exclusive cable franchise for 15 years
is flat wrong. Also the 1996 Law still allows local/state governments ultimate control over their rights-of-way, such as forbidding a company to lay wires in the middle of the night, or during rush hours (6-9am, 3-6pm).
You Can't do anything about it. The written contract (which you read and sign) overrules and verbal promises that a salesman or manager tells you.
Furthermore the contract allows them to change the contract whenever they wish. They could sign you up for "uncapped" today and change it to capped tomorrow. Your only recourse is to terminate the contract, when it's been changed.
>>>why link to PCWorld? Who are they? TorrentFreak broke the news
torrentfreak is also blocked for most of us (work filtering). Please link to sites that we can see. Thank you.
>>>So where are all those people claiming that network neutrality was a solution looking for a problem? Hmm?
There IS a problem. But net neutrality is not the answer. The Sherman Antitrust Act is the answer
It should be applied to all CATV monopolies as soon as possible. Time to break them up and/or bring them under strict government regulation (as is true with other utility monopolies). We need the same kind of freedom to choose our CATV and internet providers as we have with choosing what brand car we want to drive.
No actually Comcast is operating on Local Government property (roads) using a monopoly issued by the Government. There is no privacy or rights involved. It's all Government endorsed.
In fact your local government could revoke Comcast's monopoly and hand it to some other CATV provider (cox, cablevision, time-warner,etc) anytime it wishes. Which of course is why comcast generously bribes the politicians.
>>>Censorship can only be performed by a government.
Or a monopoly (phone, cable, electricity utility) given the power BY the government to censor.
Does distributed host tracking (dht:) still work for downloading piratebay files? I know on my system there are some bittorrent hosts* that refuse to connect to US users, but the dht: still lets me download their product.
* *torreactor.com is one of them, if I recall correctly
>>>what are you doing to screw up your XP installs in a year?
You made a bad assumption. I didn't say I "had" to reinstall. I simply CHOSE to do it, because I like the look of a "new" clean computer. I developed the habit during the 90s, back when Windows was really DOS with a shell on top of it (i.e. shit).
I consider our previous president (Bush) and his Republican-majority Congress to be progressives. Is that recent enough for you?
Even now the so-called "tea party" Republicans are just a small minority. The Republicans in charge are still pushing forward with a progressive, "ignore the constitution as if it doesn't exist" agenda.
>>>>>need to reinstall my favorite programs, but that would be true of any OS, whether it's Mac, Lubuntu, or Chrome >> >>You are absolutely on crack. That is not true of any OS other than Windows.
Really? So if I take my Ubuntu laptop (or G5 Mac) and wipe it with the original 9.1 (OSX10.4) CD, there's no need to reinstall VLC player or NESticle or Opera or They'll just magically appear on the wiped desktop??? Amazing.
>>You are absolutely on crack.
No but I suspect YOU are on crak, due to your poor reading skills.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh I don't know. The guy who was printed Liberty Coins (99% pure silver) has been told he's no longer allowed to do it. Now that the precedent is set, the US government can shutdown Bitcoin or any other form of non-Reserve currency.
Lobbyists should be outlawed. The only voice Congressional representatives should be hearing are their direct constituents.
Also the Member States should be given power, via a 50% vote, to nullify any act of Congress. After all, the congress is a creation of, and a servant to, the States. (See Amendment 10 and constitutional conventions.)
>>>>>Paul's for individual rights
>>
>>Sure, if you are white.
Accusing (or implying) Ron Paul of being racist is a SERIOUS accusation. How about backing it up, otherwise we'll just ignore your comment as equally worthless as Alex Jones' or Bin Laden's rantings.
If you bothered to read their platforms, it is clear that Paul and other libertarians don't give a damn what color you are. You are a human being and deserve *equal* rights as given to you by your Creator (god or Nature depending upon your beliefs).
That's the kind of society we are headed towards. (Some would say we are already there, with naked body scanners, sexual assault patdowns and random stops/searches along highways.)
"Papers please.
"Or jail.
"Choose citizen."
>>>That's because libertarianism is just like communism - looks fucking great on paper, but it doesn't take into account reality.
It seemed to work just fine from 1789 to circa 1900 (when the US government, minus a few exceptions, was basically libertarian (i.e. small and nonintrusive)).
Corporate puppets. Sellouts. That's all I have to say.
"But he's a democrat."
Oh.
Thanks. That's good to know.
So when Comcast told the poster, repeatedly, there are no caps then they should be Bound by that. Question - But how is a commoner supposed to make them obey what they claimed?
>>>I want to hate Comcast as much as everyone else, but I am paying what I consider a fair price
I'm glad you brought this up because I don't consider it "fair" at all. I don't have Comcast but I used to, and it only cost 30/month plus tax or ~$32 . Now the same connection would cost 60 + $5 for four TVs == ~$80. That's a ridiculous increase.
Another ridiculous increase happened for my parents who used to pay $7/month for limited locals-only service, and now it jumped to $20/month. Nuts.
And Comcast internet is not much better. If I recall correctly it costs an extra $30 on top of the television service. For comparison my DSL hookup is only $15 for comparable speed.
Comcast also provides poor service. I remember when my brother discovered TCM was moved to a higher ~$100/month tier. Comcast gave almost NO notice that this was happening (one week), even though they are required by the FCC to give 90 days. They've also been caught cutting people's net access for exceeding Unpublished caps, which the FCC scolded them for doing.
Comcast is too expensive, too monopolistic, and too willing to ignore existing consumer laws They have the same attitude 1970s AT&T used to have ("We are the only choice you've got. So deal with it.")
If this keeps-up my WinXP computer will actually be *safer* than the my recent Win7 purchase.
Of course the safest OS I own is GEOS-64. No viruses whatsoever on 8 bit machines! And the second-safest is the 64-bit AmigaOS (because very few use it). Looks like XP is headed down the path of security through obscurity.
>>>you've never written a line of code
I write code (VHDL and verilog) for a living. And no I don't give a rat's ass if someone downloads it off piratebay.org, because I know that ~99% of customers buy it legally and income from those people FAR offset any losses from the downloaders.
Furthermore if the time came when I couldn't make money from coding, then I'd just have to find a new career. Wouldn't I? Like what happened with horsewhip and wagon wheel artisans. Times change - accept that rather than try to freeze history and prevent the forward march of progress.
>>>I still see the laws on the books so it appears the it hasn't been repealed.
Laws only stand until the People decide to ignore them & start revolting.
It appears the People are revolting. They are copying books, music, movies, and only paying when they FEEL like paying (like when I bought Stargate seasons 1-10), not because of any law passed by a Comcast-bribed politician in Congress (or the FCC) who no longer serves the People.
They are also avoiding wasting their dollars on crap (like transformers 2 or spiderman 3). I consider it a GOOD thing when the poor and middle class citizens SAVE money rather than waste it.
Only a greedy person would be against that idea and want the middling folks to WASTE money.
I can't believe you just accused Thomas Jefferson of being a thief. He was the second-smartest president who ever served, with an IQ of ~170. That's Einstein or Hawking level intelligence.
You are like a mental midget next Mr. Jefferson and have no more right to insult him, than a monkey to call a human being "stupid".
>>>Bullshit. It is not a privilege, it's a right.
Rather than have two nobodies (me and you) argue back and forth, let's turn to somebody who carries some significant weight (and therefore his opinion is 10x more valuable then you, and cannot be negated): Thomas Jefferson
"Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.
"Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property."
i.e. There is NO natural right to you or any corporation (comcast, microsoft, ford) having a monopoly over copying ideas. It is a legal fiction. A privilege. Nothing more.
>>>So, is your repsonse that Comcast is a monopoly because while there are competitors, they are more expensive? It that what you think a monopoly is?
It is under the Antitrust Laws.
It is why Microsoft was sued - because their browser was cheaper (free) than Netscape's browser (~$30), giving them an unfair trade advantage. The same argument was later used in the EU Action initiated by Opera browser.
>>>How in fucking hell is that a monopoly?
This is not grade school. Please try to act like an adult. I did a quick review of court cases, and you are HALF correct. The 1996 Act forbids exclusive agreements (thereby allowing the phone company to offer TV service), but it does not abolish existing agreements. Many agreements have not expired yet so this comment:
>>>there hasn't been an exclusive cable franchise for 15 years
is flat wrong. Also the 1996 Law still allows local/state governments ultimate control over their rights-of-way, such as forbidding a company to lay wires in the middle of the night, or during rush hours (6-9am, 3-6pm).
You Can't do anything about it. The written contract (which you read and sign) overrules and verbal promises that a salesman or manager tells you.
Furthermore the contract allows them to change the contract whenever they wish. They could sign you up for "uncapped" today and change it to capped tomorrow. Your only recourse is to terminate the contract, when it's been changed.
>>>why link to PCWorld? Who are they? TorrentFreak broke the news
torrentfreak is also blocked for most of us (work filtering). Please link to sites that we can see. Thank you.
>>>So where are all those people claiming that network neutrality was a solution looking for a problem? Hmm?
There IS a problem.
But net neutrality is not the answer.
The Sherman Antitrust Act is the answer
It should be applied to all CATV monopolies as soon as possible. Time to break them up and/or bring them under strict government regulation (as is true with other utility monopolies). We need the same kind of freedom to choose our CATV and internet providers as we have with choosing what brand car we want to drive.
No actually Comcast is operating on Local Government property (roads) using a monopoly issued by the Government. There is no privacy or rights involved. It's all Government endorsed.
In fact your local government could revoke Comcast's monopoly and hand it to some other CATV provider (cox, cablevision, time-warner,etc) anytime it wishes. Which of course is why comcast generously bribes the politicians.
>>>Censorship can only be performed by a government.
Or a monopoly (phone, cable, electricity utility) given the power BY the government to censor.
Does distributed host tracking (dht:) still work for downloading piratebay files? I know on my system there are some bittorrent hosts* that refuse to connect to US users, but the dht: still lets me download their product.
*
*torreactor.com is one of them, if I recall correctly
>>>If they don't do what you wanted, you can safely assume that what you wanted was just wrong.
I want 10.6 and 10.7 for my Mac G5.
"NO." - Steve
I'm sorry sir. Please forgive me. I'm happy to junk the G5 and upgrade to the current model.
This "Air Keyboard" reminds of the Atari Chiclet keyboard for some reason: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_family
I wouldn't call "checking the time" to be an app. That's just a default function on virtually all modern appliances.
Checking the weather? Yep.
Reading facebooking? Yep.
Looking at the nudie pic of the day? Yep.
>>>what are you doing to screw up your XP installs in a year?
You made a bad assumption.
I didn't say I "had" to reinstall. I simply CHOSE to do it, because I like the look of a "new" clean computer. I developed the habit during the 90s, back when Windows was really DOS with a shell on top of it (i.e. shit).
I consider our previous president (Bush) and his Republican-majority Congress to be progressives.
Is that recent enough for you?
Even now the so-called "tea party" Republicans are just a small minority. The Republicans in charge are still pushing forward with a progressive, "ignore the constitution as if it doesn't exist" agenda.
>>>Try plating black ops in your c64. It won't work commodore won't let you put it on their machine.
I have that game for my C64.
Commodore doesn't care (none of their machines were locked).
>>>>>need to reinstall my favorite programs, but that would be true of any OS, whether it's Mac, Lubuntu, or Chrome
>>
>>You are absolutely on crack. That is not true of any OS other than Windows.
Really? So if I take my Ubuntu laptop (or G5 Mac) and wipe it with the original 9.1 (OSX10.4) CD, there's no need to reinstall VLC player or NESticle or Opera or They'll just magically appear on the wiped desktop??? Amazing.
>>You are absolutely on crack.
No but I suspect YOU are on crak, due to your poor reading skills.