"Don't you worry, never fear, robin hood will soon be here!" "Well, where is he?"
Every damn week, there's another article here on Slashdot about some revolutionary energy tech, and every week it gets forgotten about, and in the meantime we can't even get our country to agree to build a pebble bed reactor to make electricity from all the nuclear waste we're currently throwing into the ocean.
I'll believe this advancement (like the super efficient or the super cheap solar cells), when it's available to the consumer. Because if it's that revolutionary, someone will want to get rich off it. But right now, I still can't afford to cover my roof with solar cells.
So... Steve Forbes doesn't believe in the stock market either? I mean, you can't make money that way, it's too volatile! When it crashes, it takes trillions in wealth and just EVAPORATES!!!
OMG. Forbes might actually have to work for a living!!! Seriously, has this guy ever even wiped his own mouth with a napkin or does he always pay someone else to do it?
Therefore, Gold is too volatile to be money... Sorry all those gold speculators. (and for those of you who do want to get technical, Gold is a commodity, not money, but in almost every corner of the globe gold can be used to buy stuff, so therefore it can be used as money, although again, technically, that's barter.)
I mean yes, if you want to get very technical, "money" is a bartering system put in place by a government, who guarantees that these debt slips can be traded for goods and services. And since bitcoin isn't backed by a government, then yes, it's not money.
It sounds to me like you have poor information regarding what took place before the 2008 crash. Banks were taking the bad mortgages, packaging them into complex financial instruments that were impossible to understand, and then selling them to their clients as AAA+ rated securities (paying off Morningstar to even rate them as such), and then privately betting against these securities because they knew they were junk. What part of FRAUD do you not understand. They did break the law. To the tune of thousands of billions, and they all got away with it. Many in fact, got huge bonuses for fraud.
The CEO of HSBC did not lose his job or go to jail for laundering Hundreds of Billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and even helping to flow money to Iran for their nuclear program. The Bank was fined $1.6 Billion, but that's it, nobody went to jail. My guess is that the fine didn't even impact their bottom line in the slightest, and even if it did, they'll lay off 100 people who had nothing to do with it, and raise fees on their customers to make up for the impact (if any). No top dog's bonus will be affected.
If the IRS can read email without a warrant, then it should be EASY to convict nearly every overpaid CEO in the USA who hides their money via creative accounting and tax dodges. Why have there been no convictions then for the 2008 Economic Crash where the fatcat bankers stole trillions and then got free billions to cover their losses? Surely that money can be traced and found and certain wall street types convicted if the IRS is reading *their* emails.
Oh, but they aren't -- because those people own the government. Because those people are "too big to fail". Because those people have friends in high places and lots of lawyers to defend them. They aren't easy targets, even though they are big targets.
No no, prosecutors want easy convictions from people with no means to defend themselves, using the same tactics as high school bullies -- pick on the weak.
The IRS reading your mail? Pfft. It's to keep the proles in line. The elite have their own laws and their own justice that flows from power. The rest of us just try to survive under the heel of their boot.
If the primary purpose of your "device" is NOT to make phone calls, then... it's something else. It's a handheld digital multipurpose device with cellular capability.
Full Throttle had the greatest opening to a Videogame I have ever seen. I would point to the screen even years later to show people, "There! This is how you do it!" *Movies* didn't get me that juiced.
And while the gameplay itself was reminscent of "Sam and Max hit the Road" (since I believe it used the same SCUMM engine); it was still mighty entertaining. Considering that most CD-ROM based games at that time were terrible "click and wiggle" titles; the stuff that came out of LucasArts during that period was well thought out, richly designed, spectacularly written, and incredibly above-average. It was an exciting time.
Is that if Google was *able* to buy all these companies (and they can't, they don't have that kind of money, whatever you may think), then they WOULD NOT have to comply with "the law", because they would then own "the law" and could change the laws to whatever benefits them.
You've forgotten that the "laws" in this great nation are written by lobbyists, who work for the 1%. And if Google owns all those firms, they are the biggest 1%'er there is, alpha-dog, owner of all legislation. The government might as well close up shop, if it wasn't for that fact that they need to tax the rest of the 99% into complacency. But that money would still flow to Google then, because they'd change the laws to give themselves massive subsidies.
And he knowing laundered hundreds of billions of dollars in drug money, terrorist financing, and even money helping Iran's nuclear program. Yet, the CEO of HSBC isn't doing any time, so your argument falls apart.
Frankly, this boils down to "prosecute little guys who can't defend themselves". The prosecutor in Kansas thought he could look tough on crime, so he went after the people who he felt he could nail with little effort.
Meantime, the real criminals get away with it because they are too big to prosecute,
If you live in the USA, the award goes to the guy who got to the patent office first, not the first guy who invented it. Sorry dude, look for the lawsuit in your mailbox soon. The way the laws are written now, if you're rich enough, you can patent the wheel.
Journalism died at least 5 years before the Iraq war. "News" media outlets are corporate/political megaphones, they are NOT the "4th estate" that keeps the checks and balances we hoped.
Look how the media was duped to demonize the United Nations during the entire Bush Presidency, even before the Iraq war. Long before we went to war, the UN's policies and internal politics were marginalized and they were made to look like a bunch of bumbling fools so when the Bush Admin got around to saying that Hans Blix didn't know what he was talking about, we idiotically believed it.
And "news" has gotten worse as time goes on. If you watch *any* of the corporate run media outlets, you're horribly mis-informed. Twitter isn't going to change that.
They would only be fined 1 days worth of profits... Corporations are people too? Bullshit. Corporations are treated better than people, under the law. I seriously suggest that every individual incorporate themselves and, when accused of any wrongdoing, claim it was via the corporation, and suggest that the law take it up with the board of directors.
I'd love to see more of Daphne in that see-through dress swinging her sword to save Dirk.... Of course, that's a bit more involved since it was all hand-drawn animation.
Seriously. The things I did as a kid would now be labeled terrorism today. I used to live right near Kennedy Airport, in Rosedale Queens. I remember 747's and Concordes so low you could almost touch them.
Don't you think we shot off Estes model rockets? Don't you think we flew kites, *trying* to get them sucked into engines? And don't even get me started on the things done during July 4th -- all I'm going to say is "hydrogen filled balloons". You figure out the rest.
My point is: The crap I did as as kid, that went largely ignored by the authorities, would now make national news, and I'd be hauled off to jail practically every weekend. Some kids were simply using a radio controlled flying toy, and it wandered into the approach path. Big freaking deal.
I think the time I used a Sandhawk model rocket (D engine), glued the nosecone in place and filled it with tin-foil strips was far worse than what these kids did.
For ruling against them!!! Technically, there's no end to this is your lawyers are slimey enough. Technically it may even be possible to sue the members of SCOTUS...
Unfortunately, "Common Sense" is in short supply. It's actually the rarest element of all, and very likely, this gentleman succeeds where others fail because he applies common sense.
There are a lot of very smart, clever people out there, but not that many smart, clever people with common sense. Trust me on this.
It's welfare for the wealthy. It's yet another overblown, overbudget money pit to keep the Military Industrial Complex employed and well-funded, while Congress tries to cut every social program, including the FDA, because the country is broke.
Can someone explain to me why we have 50 million hungry in America, including 17 million children, while we lavish billions that will stretch into the trillions, for a fighter plane we don't need.
If the name of the country I was describing was "Sudan" or "Chad", where they buy weapons while the people starve, there would be outrage, concerts to raise awareness and funds for food, the UN would be making disparaging statements about the banana republic and its dictator, etc.
But because the name of the country is the USA, it's "Business as Usual". No corruption here, just because the engine for this PoS is built in Ohio, the state of the Speaker of the House (note you'll never hear that mentioned when he talks about wasteful spending).
We've got plenty of money to make war, and not a cent for caring for the citizens of this nation, nor our own infrastructure.
Yeah, you know... Jesus carried his own cross to his crucifixion, so you can't blame his death entirely on the Romans. He was mostly to blame for his own death. If he had just shut up when he was told to, he could have lived a long and happy life.
I mean seriously, these guys are getting away with what has now literally (and I'm using the term accurately) been defined as MURDER.
Remember that case where another "private citizen" bullied some young girl over the internet, that young girl committed suicide, and then the bully was put on trial for her murder?
So why is the prosecutor, who performed EXACTLY the same act, still walking free, and is probably still bullying others into killing themselves?
Verizon offers a sweet deal for FIOS if you're a new customer, so you sign up for the Triple Play, pay $80 per month, and then cancel, because you've used up your six strikes...
Then sign up for Comcast, get a sweet deal because you're a new customer, pay $50 per month, and then cancel because you've used up your six strikes...
I too, know people who died on 9/11. I also live in NYC. However, I do not share your opinion that we have to give up essential liberties as the price for 'safety'.
As you say, there are other options, you wanna be safe all the time, don't leave your house. You're more likely to die on the road getting to the airport than you are once you are on the plane.
A hijacking at this point is a near impossibility because the passengers will get out of their seats and beat the shit out of anyone trying to mess with the plane. The cockpit door is locked and armored. Done. We don't need the line for the grope-o-scan. We can go back to what we had previously, before 9/11 -- x-ray carry-on and metal detectors. That's fine.
Security is now so bothersome that the long line to go through security is now the appropriate attack vector of a terrorist/wacko. Just as people run into a shopping mall and start spraying gun fire, sooner or later the long line at security will be the target of a gunman.
So, don't go around thinking you're safer for being stripped of your rights, because you're NOT. As I said, you want to feel safe, don't leave home, stay in bed, don't go out into the world because the world is a dangerous place.
Who should be holding the keys to their computer -- the user of the computer of course! But Microsoft doesn't think that way, they think that they should "own" the PC, and the user just uses it. Might as well be a corporate mainframe with millions of dumb terminals in that case, and that's what we are moving towards.
Look at the XBOX -- the new one -- It will have to be connected all the time to the internet, to "verify" every game you try to play. So, how long until your PC has to be connected to internet to "verify" your BIOS before it will even boot into an OS?
And Microsoft holding the keys? What happens if, 6 weeks after we've had this forced on us, MS goes out of business? Or is "bought" in some hostile takeover and then the one server verifying all those keys is removed from service (anyone remember MLB or Danger/Sidekick?)
We will all have to throw away our machines. And we can't even back them up to recover the data (forget about moving the HD to a new machine with no key'ed BIOS, MS has already seen to that with new DRMs in Win8).
If we hand MS the keys, MS could destroy the entire PC industry with one mistake. Which would destroy the economy. All those machines all over the world that hold so much data that runs our planet, pfft. And those servers won't be running Linux after all, because MS prevented that from loading years before this tragedy took place.
And the mistake wouldn't even have to be MS's fault. I mean, how hard would it be for the Chinese to hack their way into the keys and disable the whole thing?
Slashdot Mirror
"Don't you worry, never fear, robin hood will soon be here!"
"Well, where is he?"
Every damn week, there's another article here on Slashdot about some revolutionary energy tech, and every week it gets forgotten about, and in the meantime we can't even get our country to agree to build a pebble bed reactor to make electricity from all the nuclear waste we're currently throwing into the ocean.
I'll believe this advancement (like the super efficient or the super cheap solar cells), when it's available to the consumer. Because if it's that revolutionary, someone will want to get rich off it. But right now, I still can't afford to cover my roof with solar cells.
So... Steve Forbes doesn't believe in the stock market either? I mean, you can't make money that way, it's too volatile! When it crashes, it takes trillions in wealth and just EVAPORATES!!!
OMG. Forbes might actually have to work for a living!!! Seriously, has this guy ever even wiped his own mouth with a napkin or does he always pay someone else to do it?
Therefore, Gold is too volatile to be money... Sorry all those gold speculators. (and for those of you who do want to get technical, Gold is a commodity, not money, but in almost every corner of the globe gold can be used to buy stuff, so therefore it can be used as money, although again, technically, that's barter.)
I mean yes, if you want to get very technical, "money" is a bartering system put in place by a government, who guarantees that these debt slips can be traded for goods and services. And since bitcoin isn't backed by a government, then yes, it's not money.
It sounds to me like you have poor information regarding what took place before the 2008 crash. Banks were taking the bad mortgages, packaging them into complex financial instruments that were impossible to understand, and then selling them to their clients as AAA+ rated securities (paying off Morningstar to even rate them as such), and then privately betting against these securities because they knew they were junk. What part of FRAUD do you not understand. They did break the law. To the tune of thousands of billions, and they all got away with it. Many in fact, got huge bonuses for fraud.
The CEO of HSBC did not lose his job or go to jail for laundering Hundreds of Billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and even helping to flow money to Iran for their nuclear program. The Bank was fined $1.6 Billion, but that's it, nobody went to jail. My guess is that the fine didn't even impact their bottom line in the slightest, and even if it did, they'll lay off 100 people who had nothing to do with it, and raise fees on their customers to make up for the impact (if any). No top dog's bonus will be affected.
If the IRS can read email without a warrant, then it should be EASY to convict nearly every overpaid CEO in the USA who hides their money via creative accounting and tax dodges. Why have there been no convictions then for the 2008 Economic Crash where the fatcat bankers stole trillions and then got free billions to cover their losses? Surely that money can be traced and found and certain wall street types convicted if the IRS is reading *their* emails.
Oh, but they aren't -- because those people own the government. Because those people are "too big to fail". Because those people have friends in high places and lots of lawyers to defend them. They aren't easy targets, even though they are big targets.
No no, prosecutors want easy convictions from people with no means to defend themselves, using the same tactics as high school bullies -- pick on the weak.
The IRS reading your mail? Pfft. It's to keep the proles in line. The elite have their own laws and their own justice that flows from power. The rest of us just try to survive under the heel of their boot.
If the primary purpose of your "device" is NOT to make phone calls, then... it's something else. It's a handheld digital multipurpose device with cellular capability.
Full Throttle had the greatest opening to a Videogame I have ever seen. I would point to the screen even years later to show people, "There! This is how you do it!" *Movies* didn't get me that juiced.
And while the gameplay itself was reminscent of "Sam and Max hit the Road" (since I believe it used the same SCUMM engine); it was still mighty entertaining. Considering that most CD-ROM based games at that time were terrible "click and wiggle" titles; the stuff that came out of LucasArts during that period was well thought out, richly designed, spectacularly written, and incredibly above-average. It was an exciting time.
Is that if Google was *able* to buy all these companies (and they can't, they don't have that kind of money, whatever you may think), then they WOULD NOT have to comply with "the law", because they would then own "the law" and could change the laws to whatever benefits them.
You've forgotten that the "laws" in this great nation are written by lobbyists, who work for the 1%. And if Google owns all those firms, they are the biggest 1%'er there is, alpha-dog, owner of all legislation. The government might as well close up shop, if it wasn't for that fact that they need to tax the rest of the 99% into complacency. But that money would still flow to Google then, because they'd change the laws to give themselves massive subsidies.
And he knowing laundered hundreds of billions of dollars in drug money, terrorist financing, and even money helping Iran's nuclear program. Yet, the CEO of HSBC isn't doing any time, so your argument falls apart.
Frankly, this boils down to "prosecute little guys who can't defend themselves". The prosecutor in Kansas thought he could look tough on crime, so he went after the people who he felt he could nail with little effort.
Meantime, the real criminals get away with it because they are too big to prosecute,
The bottom of every airliner is luggage, mail, and fuel tanks. So what are you looking down onto?
If you live in the USA, the award goes to the guy who got to the patent office first, not the first guy who invented it. Sorry dude, look for the lawsuit in your mailbox soon. The way the laws are written now, if you're rich enough, you can patent the wheel.
Journalism died at least 5 years before the Iraq war. "News" media outlets are corporate/political megaphones, they are NOT the "4th estate" that keeps the checks and balances we hoped.
Look how the media was duped to demonize the United Nations during the entire Bush Presidency, even before the Iraq war. Long before we went to war, the UN's policies and internal politics were marginalized and they were made to look like a bunch of bumbling fools so when the Bush Admin got around to saying that Hans Blix didn't know what he was talking about, we idiotically believed it.
And "news" has gotten worse as time goes on. If you watch *any* of the corporate run media outlets, you're horribly mis-informed. Twitter isn't going to change that.
My area was hit by Hurricane Sandy in November and my electricity was out for a week! I think I've given my hour for quite a few years!
They would only be fined 1 days worth of profits...
Corporations are people too? Bullshit. Corporations are treated better than people, under the law. I seriously suggest that every individual incorporate themselves and, when accused of any wrongdoing, claim it was via the corporation, and suggest that the law take it up with the board of directors.
I'd love to see more of Daphne in that see-through dress swinging her sword to save Dirk.... Of course, that's a bit more involved since it was all hand-drawn animation.
Seriously.
The things I did as a kid would now be labeled terrorism today. I used to live right near Kennedy Airport, in Rosedale Queens. I remember 747's and Concordes so low you could almost touch them.
Don't you think we shot off Estes model rockets? Don't you think we flew kites, *trying* to get them sucked into engines? And don't even get me started on the things done during July 4th -- all I'm going to say is "hydrogen filled balloons". You figure out the rest.
My point is: The crap I did as as kid, that went largely ignored by the authorities, would now make national news, and I'd be hauled off to jail practically every weekend. Some kids were simply using a radio controlled flying toy, and it wandered into the approach path. Big freaking deal.
I think the time I used a Sandhawk model rocket (D engine), glued the nosecone in place and filled it with tin-foil strips was far worse than what these kids did.
But you know, 1977 isn't 2012.
For ruling against them!!! Technically, there's no end to this is your lawyers are slimey enough. Technically it may even be possible to sue the members of SCOTUS...
Unfortunately, "Common Sense" is in short supply. It's actually the rarest element of all, and very likely, this gentleman succeeds where others fail because he applies common sense.
There are a lot of very smart, clever people out there, but not that many smart, clever people with common sense. Trust me on this.
It's welfare for the wealthy. It's yet another overblown, overbudget money pit to keep the Military Industrial Complex employed and well-funded, while Congress tries to cut every social program, including the FDA, because the country is broke.
Can someone explain to me why we have 50 million hungry in America, including 17 million children, while we lavish billions that will stretch into the trillions, for a fighter plane we don't need.
If the name of the country I was describing was "Sudan" or "Chad", where they buy weapons while the people starve, there would be outrage, concerts to raise awareness and funds for food, the UN would be making disparaging statements about the banana republic and its dictator, etc.
But because the name of the country is the USA, it's "Business as Usual". No corruption here, just because the engine for this PoS is built in Ohio, the state of the Speaker of the House (note you'll never hear that mentioned when he talks about wasteful spending).
We've got plenty of money to make war, and not a cent for caring for the citizens of this nation, nor our own infrastructure.
Yeah, you know... Jesus carried his own cross to his crucifixion, so you can't blame his death entirely on the Romans. He was mostly to blame for his own death. If he had just shut up when he was told to, he could have lived a long and happy life.
And don't we have anti-bullying laws now?
I mean seriously, these guys are getting away with what has now literally (and I'm using the term accurately) been defined as MURDER.
Remember that case where another "private citizen" bullied some young girl over the internet, that young girl committed suicide, and then the bully was put on trial for her murder?
So why is the prosecutor, who performed EXACTLY the same act, still walking free, and is probably still bullying others into killing themselves?
Nice dual-justice system there, America.
Verizon offers a sweet deal for FIOS if you're a new customer, so you sign up for the Triple Play, pay $80 per month, and then cancel, because you've used up your six strikes...
Then sign up for Comcast, get a sweet deal because you're a new customer, pay $50 per month, and then cancel because you've used up your six strikes...
Wash rinse repeat....
I know your password then! I mean after all, I've memorized that xkcd comic for at least a year...
I too, know people who died on 9/11. I also live in NYC. However, I do not share your opinion that we have to give up essential liberties as the price for 'safety'.
As you say, there are other options, you wanna be safe all the time, don't leave your house. You're more likely to die on the road getting to the airport than you are once you are on the plane.
A hijacking at this point is a near impossibility because the passengers will get out of their seats and beat the shit out of anyone trying to mess with the plane. The cockpit door is locked and armored. Done. We don't need the line for the grope-o-scan. We can go back to what we had previously, before 9/11 -- x-ray carry-on and metal detectors. That's fine.
Security is now so bothersome that the long line to go through security is now the appropriate attack vector of a terrorist/wacko. Just as people run into a shopping mall and start spraying gun fire, sooner or later the long line at security will be the target of a gunman.
So, don't go around thinking you're safer for being stripped of your rights, because you're NOT. As I said, you want to feel safe, don't leave home, stay in bed, don't go out into the world because the world is a dangerous place.
Who should be holding the keys to their computer -- the user of the computer of course! But Microsoft doesn't think that way, they think that they should "own" the PC, and the user just uses it. Might as well be a corporate mainframe with millions of dumb terminals in that case, and that's what we are moving towards.
Look at the XBOX -- the new one -- It will have to be connected all the time to the internet, to "verify" every game you try to play. So, how long until your PC has to be connected to internet to "verify" your BIOS before it will even boot into an OS?
And Microsoft holding the keys? What happens if, 6 weeks after we've had this forced on us, MS goes out of business? Or is "bought" in some hostile takeover and then the one server verifying all those keys is removed from service (anyone remember MLB or Danger/Sidekick?)
We will all have to throw away our machines. And we can't even back them up to recover the data (forget about moving the HD to a new machine with no key'ed BIOS, MS has already seen to that with new DRMs in Win8).
If we hand MS the keys, MS could destroy the entire PC industry with one mistake. Which would destroy the economy. All those machines all over the world that hold so much data that runs our planet, pfft. And those servers won't be running Linux after all, because MS prevented that from loading years before this tragedy took place.
And the mistake wouldn't even have to be MS's fault. I mean, how hard would it be for the Chinese to hack their way into the keys and disable the whole thing?