It's an interesting perspective to see black markets driving up the price as evidence that it is more cost effective.
It's not just more cost effective because the price has gone up. Once you've decided that you're going to engage in an illegal business, then there's no reason to follow legal business practices. Labor standards? Payroll taxes? Import tariffs? Minimum wage? Why bother? You're already doing something you'll go to jail for, so save the cash on compliance as well...
Al Capone did not do as well as Anheuser-Busch does.
No, but he benefited more directly from his liquor sales than the executives at AB do. I'll bet his profit margins are way better. He didn't have to bother with any pesky labor laws, import regulations, taxes, etc... That's what they finally got him on, after all, tax evasion.
The only reason the Columbian drug cartels can stay in business is that their product is illegal. That lets them ignore laws in making and selling it and means they can charge whatever they want since there's no real market forces to keep them in line. If it were legalized, the costs of complying with labor standards, import laws, sales tax regulations, consumer safety, etc. on top of the fact that now anyone can do it, not just people willing to kill other people, would mean they couldn't turn the kind of profits they're used to making.
the general moral issue, I think it's tough to agree on what rights the Burmese have against us. It's nice to talk about justice as fairness or universal principles or rights, but laws are meant to do two things: express outrage and regulate. If society funds X outrageous enough, then it outlaws it. All those constitutional issues are hogwash; we would overcome them if we were outraged enough.
You're right, but that doesn't mean that's the way things are supposed to be. Legislation written for emotional reasons is almost always bad legislation. Look at all the suggested laws after Columbine, etc. Some people find drug use to be morally outrageous. Some people find alcohol to be morally outrageous. Some people find pornography to be morally outrageous. Once we start accepting that something being "morally repugnant"--as opposed to infringing on someone else's rights--is a good reason to to legislate it out of existence, we start down a bad path that could see homosexuality, fast food, and violent movies being felonies... Yes I'm being absurd, but you get the point.
I simply think that selling Burma this technology is something society ought to be pissed off about.
I think the fact that we haven't just assassinated the bastards in charge over there is something society out to be pissed off about. But being pissed off about something is different than passing law based on it.
And if you want to discuss it about rights, it's easy to claim that there is a universal right to live in a society where fascists do not censor my communication about what they are doing (and thus, there should be a ban on selling the means for that censorship to fascists). Who knows?
Freedom of expression is one of those inalienable human rights and anyone denying someone one of their most basic rights should be the enemy of all human beings on this planet. Regardless, filtering software, like VCRs, guns, medicine, fertilizer, etc. has legitimate uses. The fact that something COULD be used for evil is not a good reason for it to be banned--that's a pretty common refrain around here, at least.:)
All in all, I respect your points and I understand where you're coming from. I just really don't like this trade embargo BS--- 1) it doesn't work, and 2) it interferes with free markets. If someone is honestly bad enough that we're going to cut relations with them we should just take them out, not stand around twiddling our thumbs.
yeah yeah yeah, Godwin. Except that I'm exactly right to make the banal observation that selling rat poison to Hitler is a special problem.
Then at least be creative and use Pol Pot or something...:)
Some things can uniquely be used to control. We can't forsee the future, but we can use as much sense as we can to limit software that prevents human rights workers from exclaiming their distress.
Lots of things have undesirable uses. Medicines are a good example of that. I'm not saying that a company should be selling the Burmese government ANYTHING, I'm just saying it shouldn't be illegal.
Morality is the basis of law. What else are we supposed to base our laws on? Efficiency?
How about on protecting rights? If you're doing something that doesn't violate someone else's rights, why should it be illegal?
This helps to adjust the market, of course, so that it is not cost effective to sell weapons to bastards.
Are you kidding? It's infinitely more cost effective to deal in illegal merchandise than legal. Look at the Columbian drug cartels or Al Capone for good evidence of this...
Think of it like this: Adam Smith was the scientist describing Ted Bundy's physical body. Marx was the guy pointing out, for the first time, that Ted Bundy was doing specific things that were bad.
Or Aristotle described (badly) how gravitation worked and Newton actually came up with the language (math) capable of describing the system fully... Until Einstein poked holes in it, but that's not the point. Marx came up with terminology for it, but he was still describing a system that existed in some form or another in the real world, not one that he created.
I don't understand your comment about selling weapons to the freedom fighters in Burma (if there are any left). What does that have to do with what we're talking about? Specifically as a comparison to censorship software. Are you claiming that somehow this software, in the right hands, can overthrow the Burmese government?
Well I was actually originally responding to the assertion that selling weapons to Burma is/should be illegal, the bit about blocking software was just an aside to me. You can buy secondhand PIX boxes with web filtering in them, or you can come up with your own solution to the problem pretty easily in house... Actually giving the software to the dissidents probably would help, they could deploy it themselves and try to find the holes in it.
Of course, they're the easiest weapon to defend yourself with...:P
I *think* you'd be allowed to use that, on the condition that it was not capable of firing in automatic mode, plus you'd need a special category licence for a military style firearm.
Yeah it's semi-auto, a company in California specialized in importing them as sporting rifles years back... Good gun. Someone screwed up the firing mechanism on it, though, before I got it... Would occasionally fire two-round bursts due to the bolt not sliding home properly and setting off the second round. Would usually then eject the third round without firing and bend it in half in the breech. Kinda scary, actually...
Military style? I'd love to see how they define that. Any bolt action 30 caliber rifle could be argued to be a knockoff of the K98, and that's obviously a military weapon...
A PS90 is 667 mm (26.2 in) in length, and in New Zealand "pistol means any firearm designed to adapted to be held and fired in one hand. It includes any firearm that is less than 762mm in length."
My first shotgun (single shot.410) wasn't 762mm in length, it was only 28". That's patently ridiculous. They gonna call that a pistol, too? I'm assuming they're talking about barrel length, here, since total length is meaningless... You can always put a stock on a pistol to make it ten feet long if you wanted to.
Before you ask if we have drugged out hippies running the country, yes, I think we do.
Well, at least the scenery's nice? And I've had it claimed the school systems are good, too...
Regardless whether you are right about this or not, England has one of the lowest rates of guncrime in the world, and certainly compared to the US the overall rate of violent crimes is miniscule too. Don't know about Australia.
Britain's gun crime rate has been shooting up very quickly for the past couple decades. While the US's murder and rape rates are worse, the robbery/burglary/auto theft statistics are significantly worse in the UK and Australia than in America. Last time I heard a quote it was something along the lines of you're 10X more likely to be mugged in London than in New York...
You'll also easily find plenty of countries with restrictive firearms laws that have very low crime rates, so at the very least the correlation is not so straightforward.
Police states tend to have very low crime rates, as people are rarely admitted to be criminals, they simply cease existing when they start breaking the law...
I want a PS90, but some fruit loop in my country has decided that it's a pistol and has classified it as such.
A pistol? Are you serious? Based on what, exactly? What country, for that matter?
Since it is a very long pistol, and holds more than 10 rounds, it's illegal to own one.
Even though they make 10 round magazines for it? That's crazy. I mean, the Chinese knockoff AK-47 I had was legal to hunt with as long as I used the 5-round mag... That reminds me, I need to get a larger capacity mag for my 742 before some crazy congressman decides to reinstate the AWB...
Ah yes... that good ol' Lunix security model we all know... and know. Now that Vista is the most stable and secure OS on the market, the MS haters just have to keep banging the drum about how bad Vista supposedly is.
Yes, the security of an OS no one uses is pretty good, since you can't hack something that's not running...
Seriously, though, a server running out-of-date software (your posted example) is eventually going to get borked regardless of operating system. Bad troll.
The US makes firearms that are used by countries to suppress their populations.
No, US firearms are a bit too expensive and require a bit too much maintenance for two-bit thug governments to bother with, really. Especially when AK-47s are so damn cheap. Hell, look at Iraq, you'd think we'd of turned them into a client state but they're still using AKs...
Of course we shouldn't sell weapons to Burma. You're kidding, right? That's like selling bullets to a semi-Hitler.
It's not your fault if you're not aware of just how oppressive and violent the government is there (how could anyone keep up with all the monsters in the world?), but it's pretty bad there.
Well to be honest, unless we're at war with them (or they're at war with one of our allies), no, selling stuff to them shouldn't be illegal. It's immoral, yes, and I wouldn't do business with someone selling guns to the Burmese government... But that's the proper response in that case: don't do business with someone who's business practices you find disagreeable, don't legislate them out of existence...
And no disrespect intended, but being a capitalist does not mean being a nihilist in business. There is absolutely no sense to that idea. Capitalism was invented by Karl Marx, by the way, as a way of describing the absence of an economic system. In other words, nature.
1) Marx didn't "invent" capitalism any more than Newton "invented" gravity, he described a system he already observed and gave it a name.
2) People such as Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, etc. also described essentially the same system well before Marx.
In favoring free markets, there is no reason not to disincentivize barbaric governments.
If you're denying someone the ability to trade with a party, it's not a free market any more. Let the market deal with it; if people care about the people in Burma, they won't do business with a company supporting that government. Better yet, start selling the people of Burma weapons...
This is like selling rat poison to Hitler.
Hi Godwin.
It's not my business how someone uses a product I sell them. It's your business who I'm selling to, though. If you don't like who I do business with, then don't do business with me. People like Hitler have a habit of ending up dead, and if my only customer base is megalomaniacal homicidal dictators, I'll run out of customers pretty fast...
Sell Burma medicine, food, heating oil, basic things like that. Don't sell them weapons or tools whose main purpose is to impose policy. Generally speaking, there is a broad category of things that are inherently about control. Weapons and this software are included.
Weapons are just as much (if not more so) about breaking controls and defending freedoms than enforcing them and taking them away.
Honestly the patching process is already so fragile due to problems with interactions between firewalls and what have you that it's already hard to find more than two peers some times. If I was on an ISP that randomly killed the already hard to find connections, that'd be a real problem.
The thing I take issue with is the idea that something with basically the same end result is somehow illegal because you are able to observe that it's being done as opposed to real QoS which no one would have noticed except for slower BT connections.
I'm not buying the "it's illegal bit" but I also don't agree that it's quite the same thing. Slowing down delivery of packets and purposely resetting connections are very different. At least in the former the packets DO eventually get delivered. I'm too sleepy to come up with a car analogy right now, sorry...
You've already hit on the appropriate solution in your rant there, and it doesn't involve breaking anyone's service.
The problem with this is that you have to have real QoS equipment to get all this done.
They just need to invest in the proper equipment for shaping, not randomly close people's connections. Hell, as someone else already pointed out, WoW's patcher uses a BitTorrent derivative. Not being able to grab a 200MB patch because some gremlin is randomly spamming us with RSTs isn't going to make me a happy Comcast customer.
I didn't say "hard", I said "much harder".;) Yes, of course it's possible to make a broken character. One of my players was playing a minotaur paladin. That was a big mistake...
What I meant was that in third edition at least SOME thought was given to balance and how the power curve works. There's actual math behind the things going on in those (core) books. One of my older players likes to claim that in AD&D 2nd "Balance was a golden crack pipe" or something like that... Second edition characters just seemed to become naturally imbalanced very quickly.
Granted, I didn't read the whole thing, but from what I did read it says Mulberry A was an American project, which is correct. Mulberry A was the harbor built on Omaha beach for the use of American forces. No, the Americans didn't build the ships that were scuttled or the floating harbor components (hauling those from North America would have been silly, anyway.) but they did build the actual harbor on the beach using the parts provided by the British. So the document isn't claiming something untrue.
And it's not like they should be proud of it since the idiots said "Well this is just a temporary thing anyway." and didn't anchor it so it was destroyed in 1944 by a storm while the British one (Mulberry B) survived the storm just fine.
It's no less logical than your claims. It's probably a bit more logical, in fact, since there is observable evidence to back up what I've said that anyone can see. Instead of over-broad blanket statements about a large and diverse population, I've made a comment about an individual who's comments can be used to extrapolate the likelihood of my theory being true.
In fact, it doesn't even make sense.
Probably because you're so full of vitriol and spite that you can't even see it.
In fact, to the contrary, if we assume you're one of the retards addicted to MMOs, it really only just provides more evidence of my claim that you're all idiots and dickheads.
There's also people who don't consider video games their only potential avenue for socializing, and maybe even go whole *days* or (yes, really) *weeks* without playing one. They're not gamers, they just play games. Some of them might even consider that people who are so focussed on video games at all... MMO or otherwise... as the "antisocial shut-ins".
1) I kinda figured the "anti-social shut-ins" was obvious sarcasm 2) Yes, I realize this. I myself am not currently playing video games as I finish my Master's Thesis. I also rather enjoy getting together with friends for dinner, tabletop gaming/roleplaying, watching TV/movies, cooking, etc. MMOs just happen to be a way we can get together without having to actually GET together, which is convenient w/ our busy schedules (and since some of us are being spread all over the country, currently).
If you travel with a group, you'd better keep up with them, because if you get to be more than 2-3 levels behind them, you can't do the same quests as they do. So they either redo the easy quests with you, or leave you behind.
A well designed game doesn't have this problem...
No one will delete my lvl 60 party for nonpayment of fees.
I've never had a character deleted for nonpayment of fees. My WoW account was inactive for a year and everything was there when I got back. A friend of mine reactivated my old EQ account last year and everything was still there (amazingly).
I could set the game aside for 6 months, never touch it (say if I get busy, or if I simply *don't want to play it*) and everything will still be exactly as I left it. I'm not going to lose out just because I didn't have enough time to play this month.
I haven't had the time to play WoW for more than an hour or two a week for the past three weeks as I've been working on my Master's Thesis. When I do get back to the game, my character will not have gotten any less useful. But then again, PvP has always been a great thing for people like me with limited schedules...
he Wii may sell many more consoles, but it's not going to capture the hardcore gamer segment without games with substance.
Hardcore gamers are a very small percentage of the available market. Very small.
Casual gamers, on the other hand, the ones lured to the Wii because of its novelty and low price, really aren't likely to buy many games. They're not going to wear themselves out on Wii Sports and want to fill the void with dozens of other games because gaming isn't a priority in their lives.
Nintendo doesn't need them to buy games, they've already made their money. And yet, the software/hardware ratio on initial sales for the Wii was much higher at launch than any of the other consoles in recent memory, probably due directly to the cost of the console...
The only question left is whether MS and/or Sony can actually make a profit this round, and that absolutely depends on the strength of the library.
I'd say it more depends on their financial reports, which are absolutely abysmal. Nintendo is the ONLY one turning a profit. Microsoft/Sony each lost about $1.9 Billion last fiscal year while Nintendo almost cleared $2 Billion in profits.
Take a look at the ratings and sales numbers and it's clear who is winning that war.
If I offered to sell everyone who gave me $10 a $20 bill, I assure you I'd top sales charts. That doesn't mean I'm "winning" anything by any stretch of the imagination.
Maybe in EU... here in US one can hardly find a decent size TV that is not HD in one way or another.
Yeah because we change TVs in the US like we change clothes, amirite?
Dude, seriously, people hang on to TVs for FIFTEEN YEARS or more. The number one reason to buy a new TV for most people is because the old one burned out, not because you're upgrading. SD televisions still adorn the livingrooms of probably 90% of American households, I'd bet.
Seriously, the existence of the Wii has nothing to do with lousy PS3 sales and EVERYTHING to do with the PS3 being overpriced. We weren't quite willing to submit to disciplined life in Kutaragiland...
I have been a long time player. But it is rare me and the old crew will get together and play. And when we do end up getting together, it is usually a one off thing where we only play the same characters for a short time. I always felt the core books did not really address casual gamers in a way that would enhance the fun factor.
Casual gamers? This is starting to sound like a video games discussion...
The issue as I see it, relates to choices. I noticed that people like to play mages because there is a perception that magic can do neat an interesting things, and a beginning player can spend time thinking about various choices of spells they can get.
Actually in 3.5 I always wanted to play a Human fighter because I got three feats at first level, or an elf cleric because people always think the guy in studded leather with a shield and longsword is a fighter... Or any sort of rogue, because of how much trouble you can cause... For most people I think the "WOOO SPARKLIES" of playing a mage wears off, unless your DM isn't letting people do the things they should with non-magic users...
Well, one of the benefits of role playing is adjusting the rules to suit a particular style. I just wish they incorporated more interesting choices for low levels, or even an optional playing style.
There's several books that offer alternate rules. Also there's rules for creating higher level characters if your players already know how the game works. I usually start my players off at level 7+ unless there's a story reason to be level 1...
From the few comments and reviews I have read, it appears that they are spending more time incorporating ideas from MMORPG, such as having tanks that draw aggro, and talent points to customize each class. It will be interesting to see how these work to give a player more choices in making a character. I have my doubts. It is not as though MMORPG are a great bastion of role playing. Seems most people just want points, powers, and trinkets.
Roleplaying in an MMO is just silly, most of the time. But having the ability to build a powerful character in a pen and paper game doesn't rule out real roleplaying going on, either. Points/powers/trinkets give you a tangible measure of accomplishment, if nothing less.
I'm sure they'll offer "conversion" rules, but what I've seen of these new rules they're so unlike everything that's come before in D&D I'm not sure you'll want to bother with them.
Hell, we still play AD&D 2nd from time to time, so don't think that because your books will be out of print they'll suddenly be worthless...
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All in all, I respect your points and I understand where you're coming from. I just really don't like this trade embargo BS--- 1) it doesn't work, and 2) it interferes with free markets. If someone is honestly bad enough that we're going to cut relations with them we should just take them out, not stand around twiddling our thumbs.
Military style? I'd love to see how they define that. Any bolt action 30 caliber rifle could be argued to be a knockoff of the K98, and that's obviously a military weapon...
My first shotgun (single shotBritain's gun crime rate has been shooting up very quickly for the past couple decades. While the US's murder and rape rates are worse, the robbery/burglary/auto theft statistics are significantly worse in the UK and Australia than in America. Last time I heard a quote it was something along the lines of you're 10X more likely to be mugged in London than in New York...
Police states tend to have very low crime rates, as people are rarely admitted to be criminals, they simply cease existing when they start breaking the law...
A pistol? Are you serious? Based on what, exactly? What country, for that matter?
Even though they make 10 round magazines for it? That's crazy. I mean, the Chinese knockoff AK-47 I had was legal to hunt with as long as I used the 5-round mag... That reminds me, I need to get a larger capacity mag for my 742 before some crazy congressman decides to reinstate the AWB...
Yes, the security of an OS no one uses is pretty good, since you can't hack something that's not running...
Seriously, though, a server running out-of-date software (your posted example) is eventually going to get borked regardless of operating system. Bad troll.
Why would they bother? You can get ten soviet guns that are just as good (or arguably better) for the price of one American gun, secondhand or not.
Hell I just want an M1911, and I've paid less for cars than what some people are asking...
No, US firearms are a bit too expensive and require a bit too much maintenance for two-bit thug governments to bother with, really. Especially when AK-47s are so damn cheap. Hell, look at Iraq, you'd think we'd of turned them into a client state but they're still using AKs...
It's not my business how someone uses a product I sell them. It's your business who I'm selling to, though. If you don't like who I do business with, then don't do business with me. People like Hitler have a habit of ending up dead, and if my only customer base is megalomaniacal homicidal dictators, I'll run out of customers pretty fast...
Weapons are just as much (if not more so) about breaking controls and defending freedoms than enforcing them and taking them away.I didn't say "hard", I said "much harder". ;) Yes, of course it's possible to make a broken character. One of my players was playing a minotaur paladin. That was a big mistake...
What I meant was that in third edition at least SOME thought was given to balance and how the power curve works. There's actual math behind the things going on in those (core) books. One of my older players likes to claim that in AD&D 2nd "Balance was a golden crack pipe" or something like that... Second edition characters just seemed to become naturally imbalanced very quickly.
There are, it's called your bank statement.
Granted, I didn't read the whole thing, but from what I did read it says Mulberry A was an American project, which is correct. Mulberry A was the harbor built on Omaha beach for the use of American forces. No, the Americans didn't build the ships that were scuttled or the floating harbor components (hauling those from North America would have been silly, anyway.) but they did build the actual harbor on the beach using the parts provided by the British. So the document isn't claiming something untrue.
And it's not like they should be proud of it since the idiots said "Well this is just a temporary thing anyway." and didn't anchor it so it was destroyed in 1944 by a storm while the British one (Mulberry B) survived the storm just fine.
That's pretty much impossible, seeing as how PCs don't use PowerPC processors...
1) I kinda figured the "anti-social shut-ins" was obvious sarcasm
2) Yes, I realize this. I myself am not currently playing video games as I finish my Master's Thesis. I also rather enjoy getting together with friends for dinner, tabletop gaming/roleplaying, watching TV/movies, cooking, etc. MMOs just happen to be a way we can get together without having to actually GET together, which is convenient w/ our busy schedules (and since some of us are being spread all over the country, currently).
A well designed game doesn't have this problem...
I've never had a character deleted for nonpayment of fees. My WoW account was inactive for a year and everything was there when I got back. A friend of mine reactivated my old EQ account last year and everything was still there (amazingly).
I haven't had the time to play WoW for more than an hour or two a week for the past three weeks as I've been working on my Master's Thesis. When I do get back to the game, my character will not have gotten any less useful. But then again, PvP has always been a great thing for people like me with limited schedules...
You know, I agree the reliability of American cars is lousy (that's why I have a Toyota), but Dodge == Daimler Chrysler, not GM, last I checked...
Yeah because we change TVs in the US like we change clothes, amirite?
Dude, seriously, people hang on to TVs for FIFTEEN YEARS or more. The number one reason to buy a new TV for most people is because the old one burned out, not because you're upgrading. SD televisions still adorn the livingrooms of probably 90% of American households, I'd bet.
Seriously, the existence of the Wii has nothing to do with lousy PS3 sales and EVERYTHING to do with the PS3 being overpriced. We weren't quite willing to submit to disciplined life in Kutaragiland...
Being backwards compatible with "broken" shouldn't be important.
Unleaded gas isn't backwards compatible...
I'm sure they'll offer "conversion" rules, but what I've seen of these new rules they're so unlike everything that's come before in D&D I'm not sure you'll want to bother with them.
Hell, we still play AD&D 2nd from time to time, so don't think that because your books will be out of print they'll suddenly be worthless...