That's because improved convenience and ease of use weren't goals. The primary goal was improved resistance to forgery of the sort that's actually useful to criminals. Such forgery requires replacement of the photo and perhaps other data, so that the forged passport appears to belong to the holder. The chip carries exactly the same data as the information printed on the page with one important addition -- all of the data on the chip is digitally signed. Without access to a valid signing key (or the ability to break RSA), the forger can only duplicate, not alter the data on a valid passport, and can't make an invalid passport appear authentic.
Please explain to me why this could not have been implemented through a smart chip or a mag-stripe, both of which allow the use of AES, signed keys, etc. but they don't have the security risk of the data being wirelessly sniffed. Both technologies are also significantly cheaper. RFID passports are a very bad idea. The European experience shows that the data can be EASILY sniffed and until that data is contradicted in the field, we must assume that American passports using a similar system will also be sniffed. And even if it's NOT, there is no LEGITIMATE reason whatsoever RFID should be used rather than mag-stripes or smart chips, or similar technologies. The ONLY quasi-legitimate reason to use RFID in identification is for allow officials to COVERTLY identify people. For example, you walk through a concealed archway in an airport or arena and individuals are silently identified and possibly intercepted. If you don't believe this line of thinking is draconian, there is something wrong with you.
You're also incredibly naive in assuming that this system will be bulletproof against cryptographic attack, which would be unprecedented in world history. Systems should be deployed with the assumption that they will be broken with an eye towards limiting the damage whn that happens. That's why things like currency and passports have multiple security features. The "all eggs in one basket" approach of the RFID chip makes it EASIER to dupe passports since (in practice) if you get the data off the chip all you will need is a passport cover to make a fake passport.
Though I don't necessarily attribute mailce to the implementation of RFID in passports, the real reason is pure greed. Most of this "homeland security" nonsense is a joke, a big collection of useless and expensive pork-barrel technologies that don't do a damn thing to intercept and protect against foreign terrorists. They're only useful for busting petty criminals.
"In class action suits of this size, 25% is the typical cut. I'd hardly call that "SMALL". The class members will get a coupon for a new controller plus a game maybe. Once you divide out billable hours, the lawyers often end up with thousands of dollars per hour."
In many class-action suits the percentage is a lot closer to 60% (or even 100% effectively) because of weaseling with fees and bribes. Even worse, lately the class-action lawyers cut deals to completely screw their clients. What consumers will get out of this lawsuit is likely a cupon for a DISCOUNT on more Nintento products. Effectively, the class-action lawyers will settle for what amounts to a ADVERTISEMENT for the people they're suing. How is this serving the client? It's not. But these same settlements also pay much or all of the lawyer's fat legal fees. This is the "bribe" I'm talking about. If all the MONEY goes to the legal fees for the lawyers and the rest of the settlement is ADVERTISING for Nintendo, how are the lawyers not getting 100% of the REAL settlement?
"I'm gonna put a low average of 5 minutes here. as in everything with some people it takes more time and with some it takes less."
All Wii owers are ASSUMED to be part of lawsuit. The lawyer obtains a registration list from Nintendo and then mails out form letters to all the registered users. He will NEVER talk to a single client. In fact, people don't even have to respond to the form letters. If you read these letters you'll notice that you have to reply (in writing) to OPT OUT. So in practice, all the lawyer has to do is send out the form letters and then remove those who reply from the suit. Again, he'll never talk to a SINGLE client.
"then start adding all the court audition you gotta go to, keep track of, listen to other attorneys, do more research as they will try to break your claim. and god knows in big trials like this it takes time."
What trial? The goal isn't to get this to trial, it's to get a "settlement" that gives the lawyers a bunch of legal fees. The'll on'y go to trial if they lawyers think it will get them more money.
"what you dont seem to realize is that the lawyer takes all the risk here. BECAUSE he is on percentage, if he doesn't win, he gets nada, sometimes he gets a base fee but that's rarely the case because usually people agree on percentage fees because they can't afford lawyer fees to begin with."
Whine, whine. Bitch, moan. If he didn't think the case was likely (as in 100% likely) to succeed, he wouldn't pursue it. I hear this all the time from liability lawyers. And whose fault is it that the general public can't afford legal fees? The lawyers.
Lawyers make a decent living but not because they charge excruciating fees but rather because they are fairly few of them but a big demand. why are there so few lawyers ? because its hard and nerve racking.
So let me get this straight: Lawyers create a byzantine legal system (most politicians are lawyers) which is highly stressful, expensive, and generates mountains of paperworks and then BITCH about it? Boo fucking hoo. Maybe lawyers should make some tiny efforts towards simplifying the system before they bitch. But they never will because the system as-is makes them shitloads of money. There are not a "few" lawyers in the USA. Per capita were have WAY more than any other Western nation. It's just that our byzantine legal systems REQUIRES a lawyer for anything remotely related to the legal system. Nobody has an hope of navigating the system without extensive training. Whose fault is that?
The three most hated professions in the united states are pretty constant (they are usually in the top 3)
* Lawyers
* Insurance Agents
* Car Salesmen
This is because these professions have a LONG history of dishonesty. Life insurance is the biggest scam going. During actual disasters insurance companies often try to weasel out of paying (look
Yes she suffered extremely severe injuries because of a lack of reaction, but at the temperature the coffee was served it would have caused third degree burns in five seconds. Can you strip off your pants in five seconds from a seated position in a car? Maybe. Care to find out? I doubt it.
I take it you've never had sex in a car?:-)
But to be more serious: Yes, you can easily strip off a pair of SWEAT PANTS (which is what she was wearing) pretty quickly. The temperature of the hot coffee, plus the absorbency of he pants (she wouldn't have been burned as bad if she'd been wearing jeans), plus her slow reactions caused the incident. The McDonald's Corporation are evil fucks, but they're clearly in the right here. And under no stretch of the imagination did she deserve millions in compensation.
And I'm speaking from experience here. Almost EXACTLY the same thing happed to me as happened to this woman (I was in the passenger seat too) and I did get slightly burned, but it was clearly MY fault (more my mother's fault, it was her coffee) as I took the lid off while the car was in motion and it sloshed coffee all over me.
Someone else mentioned those "hot plates" you sometimes get it resturants, like the skittles you get in Mexican resqurants with hot fajitas or whatever. Should the resturants stop doing this because some idiot might try to handle the hit plate or skillet?
Call me crazy, but isn't Famitsu just Cosmopolitian magazine (or any of those other women's magazines that are 90% advertising)? Most of the "content" of the magazine is ads, and the "articles" and "reviews" are thinly-disguised ads. Famitsu is so popular in Japan in part because of the general Japanes fetish for magazines, and partly because the are MUCH bigger whores than then Western gaming press. It's a lot cheaper to put together a magazine if all of your content is submitted by advertisers. The comparison to GameSpot or EDGE isn't correct, Famitsu is more like "Official Playstation Magazine" or Nintendo Power.
Now maybe you WANT 250 pages of ads, but I doubt it.
And a lot of these people build custom rigs...
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HP Acquires VoodooPC
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Not off-the-shelf PCs. They might want some strange piece of hardware that VoodooPC or another outfit won't provide, or they bight want "better quality" components, a lot of fancy case designs come to mind. In fact, I would argue that gamers probably make up the majority of the DIY and hobbyist markets. However, the high price of the PS3 coupled with the requisite HD display means that PC gaming might seem more attractive than it has in the past, especially with the allure of online games like World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2142. So this niche might be bigger than you think. Oe it might simply be a case of "Dell did it, so we'll do it too.". I expect a buyout of Falcon Northwest anytime now.
Ironically enough, I use VideoRedo to edit downloaded ReplayTV shows since it does a MUCH better job that any other app (TMpegEnc, VirtualDub, etc.) I've used for this purpose. YMMV.
What I do care about is the fact that most of them are here illegally.
But I notice you're not complaining about all the illegal Russian or Chinese immigrants, are you? Because they are not changing the demographic mix. You're the same sort of asshole that turned away Haitian refugees because they were black (and they spoke French!) and were, more importantly, poor. If you want, you COULD say you just hate poor immigrants (like all the Europeans that came here earlier, I guess they don't count), but it amounts to the same thing.
And there are certainly different classes of crimes. Do you think illegal parking is the same as mass murder? Overstaying a visa/undocumented work is a minor procedural crime, like a traffic ticket. The kind YOU commit every single day. Are you a moral reprobate for not disposing of your batteries properly? Have the jack-booted thugs kicked down your door yet? Should they? Saying "it's illegal" isn't a moral argument for anything.
And as for your Canadian friend (probably white), the fact that it takes her 12 months to get a visa says there is something screwed up with the SYSTEM, not with your friends. Shockingly, the US immigration system is far from a model of efficiency. This is deliberate. Want to make life easier for your friend? Get the white power anti-immigration types in Congress (mostly Republicans) to reform the immigration service to make the process both more open and easier. Have them impose real enforcement and penalties (very large fines) on the large corporations that employ illegal immigrants. How about fines against Home Depot for running an illegal employment service? They're a lot easier to track down that 12,000,000 illegal immigrants.
But I'm not holding my breath since the white power-types don't actually want to STOP illegal immigation, they just want to pander to racism.
Oil Companies (your favorite target) paid 41% income tax in 2005!
No they didn't. Exxon Mobil theoretically might have paid 41% gross on one quarter's earnings. Neither you, nor I, knows wheter they actually paid these taxes, got rid of them through subsidies or deductions, or deffered them somehow. There are ways to make deferred taxes disappear too.
Many corporations (like Microsoft) pay absolutely nothing (or a pittance) in income taxes because of shady "profit sharing" deals, like stock options.
This is beyond the fact that almost all corporations engage in outright tax fraud. Since there are no penalties (look into fraud enforcement on business for a minute), why should they pay taxes? It's not like they'll be audited. And even if they are, they can probably soak up the cost of the audit and any fines (which are incredibly unlikey).
Lots of taxes are treated by Accounting rule as an expense which affects profit, and not on the line that says Income Tax Paid.
This is part of that "tax fraud" I'm talking about. This happens when they don't report the income. The fines they get from doing this is part of those "expenses".
In addition when the corporation distributes dividends to investors that money is taxed at the individual level so it's DOUBLE taxation.
Like the sales tax you pay on most of the items you buy. Isn't that "double taxation"? On some products (like cigarettes) you have multiple taxes, is that "quadruple taxation"?
Our military is hardly bloated, if it was bloated why would they still be recruiting and not letting people retire or calling back those they formerly let out?
It is not bloated in terms of staff, but in terms of expenses. The US military spends more money than the entire rest of the world's militaries combined. And most of that money is very badly spent. Remember that $600 toilet seat? It's now a $5000 toilet seat. The military has simply gotten much better at hiding the waste from Congress and the American people by hiding under the "classified" banner. Virtually all procurment in the military is now classified, especially anything particularly expensive. Don't get me started on the money pit that is Joint Strike.
Funny how when Americans say that about Hispanic immigrants we are called racists and bigots.
This is because the situation is different. Most hispanic immigrants *DO* make serious efforts to blend into society. The white power crowd simply doesn't like the fact that latinos are rapidly pushing out whites as the majority population in the USA. These people are idiots and will never accomplish anything. Personally, I think we should deport THOSE people, preferably into the sea.
Everyone would have to buy new equipment - this would far more expensive than the wasteful bureaucracy of the FCC.
Equipment changes over time, it gets upgraded, replaced, etc. That's why I used the word "transition". And a government mandate could certainly speed things along. Sure it will take time, but that's not a reason not to do it. It's like saying that dictators should stay in power because the transition to democracy takes too much time and effort.
MGS is not an exclusive francise to Sony, neither is GTA as you can find them on XBox and PC (like you said). You can also find FF games on the PC as well as other 'old' consoles before Sony.
I'm not sure I understand this logic. It does not matter that that MGS and FF appeared on "old" consoles. You can also get the only Zelda games on Windows. These games are popular NOW (FF has been popular for a long time) and they are Sony exclusives NOW. We're talking about the latest generation consoles, right?
Of course, this will have an effect on the competely online services this generation as the wii will (in theory anyway) be able to offer the entire Nintendo lineup in their download service. But I think we have yet to see wheter on not Nintendo will pull that off.
Exactly, when you want to talk 'exclusive', you cannot get very far without talking about franchise names. Afterall, what does Sony have?
Who modded this up?
Ever heard of Final Fantasy? Or Metal Gear Solid? Or Grand Theft Auto? And yeah, even though MGS2 was ported to the XBOX, as were the GTA games, they had long periods of exclusivity on the PS2. And that helped the PS2 a lot. The PS2 beat the XBOX mainly because it had a LOT more games, just like the PS1 vs. N64. With such a huge library the PS2 offered "something for everyone", look at the success of the relatively bizarre Katamari Damacy and Guitar Hero.
If we had to start all over again, I agree that the FCC would not be the way to go. However, there were no powerful international radio standards bodies when the FCC was created. Transitioning at this point would be expensive and unnecessary, and in any event there are no international standards that are universally adopted. The radio spectrum isn't as standardized as the metric system.
Why would it be more expensive than the FCC? Seems like it would be a LOT less expensive because then duplication of effort could be avoided. And isn't the whole POINT that there are no international standards? Why SHOULDN'T bandwith allocation be as standardized as metric? It would be the job of of theoretical body to set those standards (possibly choosing existing standards used in some of the member nations!). For example, GSM. Most of the world uses it, why not just transition the USA, Japan, and a few others as part of "5G" or whatever? Seems pretty doable to me and it would probably help EVERYONE (except a few whingy tech companies in the USA and Japan). Why not have a universal HDTV standard, universal standards for sattelite broadcast, etc.?
It just seems like mindless territorialism to me. Like the Air Force refusing to give up control of space to an international or civilian body.
And therein lies the problem. A lot of these guys are in the USA. Many operate out of China and Russia. China is basically a mess with rampant corruption, internet botnets/spammmers/etc. are the least of it. Ditto for Russia. They can't be counted on to enforce dick. But if you really want to do something in this realm, your very first step should be general government reform in China and Russia. Good luck with that.
As far as I can tell, the only option is to blacklist entire nations. I know that many corporate admins are doing exactly that in regards to email from China, Russia, and South Korea (another source of this crap), assuming they don't do business with those nations. But that won't help botnets (or spam very much), because they'll just seize hosts in the USA and bounce off them. What then?
Lobby Congress to make the painful choice to do this at the national level. That's right, I'm talking about severing ALL INTERNET COMMUNICATION with China, Russia, and South Korea. Think that's going to happen? If not, the legislative approach is a fool's errand.
I disagree. You probably accept that the airwaves "belong to the public", and you probably accept that we need to regulate them technically to keep them usable. So regulation in some form is okay, right?... In my mind, banning nudity during daytime TV is no better or worse than banning nudity in a public park.
I agree that some sort of regulation is necessary for BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION and similar issues in order (for example) for radio to function. But it's quite clear that content regulation (banning nudity) is clearly NOT necessary, it is merely a function of asthetics. I do not understand why it is necessary to enforce asthetics at the barrel of a gun.
BTW, I don't believe the FCC should exist. This kind of technical regulation is one of the things international organizations (UN/ISO/IEEE/etc.) are actually pretty good at.
How is Vista (or XP for that matter) "crippled" to accomodate 3rd party media vendors? Is it because XP doesn't include MP3 or DVD ripping by default in WMP9? (fixed in WMP10) Is it because it INCLUDES the DRM formats WMA and Apple's AAC? How does including these formats break everything else? My.OGG and.FLAC files play just fine on Windows, in WMP no less! Is it because you have to install third-party software to get some formats to work? I mean, you NEVER have to do anything like that in Linux right?
Computer manfuacturers are bent over a barrel to include an OEM Windows install on every machine they sell. The only realistic way for a user to get a computer without Windows is to build one themself.
Last I checked, Dell, HP, Gateway, and Micron (that's the lion's share of PC sales right there) all offer "bare" systems and/or Linux. Most of the major electronics retailers around here: Fry's Electronics, Micro-Center, and even Wal-Mart offer "bare" and or Linux systems. I'll admit that Best Buy and Circuit City don't seem to, but those are generally terrible comupter retailers. That's not including any of the mom n' pops, who ALL offer "bare" systems around here. And of course, most of these retailers prominently feature Apple Macs. Though they don't compare well against PCs in such and environment due to sticker shock.
Certainly in the past Microsoft tried to force OEMs to bundle and threatened them against including Windows, but that has changed. However, OEM's are still reluctant to bundle Linux with desktop computers because of higher support costs.
And finally, there are a VAST number of online retailers that offer pre-installed Linux. Pre-installed BSD is still a rarity, but it's out there.
It's not well known, but the Navstar (GPS) satellites include nuclear detonation detectors (replacing the older Vela system). It is unclear wheter or not these detectors work on underground detonations, but the DPRK is definitely within the detection range of the Navstar satellites.
WorldNetDaily, a far-right conservative web site, is basically complaing that a bunch of "liberal" users flagged this video inappropriate so the "18 and over" interstital was added, requiring users to sign in to see the video. It was NEVER removed from the YouTube. Eventually, after A DAY OR TWO the video was reviewed by someone on the tiny YouTube staff and the "18 and over" interstital was removed.
The context here is that WorldNetDaily, and other conservative blogs and sites, have been complaining for months that while anti-Muslim/white power propoganda ("death to ragheads", "Islam = Satanism", etc.) has consistently been taken down for being offensive, jihadi propoganda has often remained on the site. They don't claim that the jihadis are responsible, but "liberals" in the United States and Europe are somehow "supporting the terrorists".
More sane people realize that calling people "devils" and "ragheads" is inappropriate and offensive. Jihadi propoganda is often newsworthy, showing attacks on Western forces for example, and because it isn't often see in the USA it has legitimate news value. To see anti-Islam propoganda you onloy have to turn on Fox News.
Personally, I don't think that the anti-Muslim/white power propoganda should be censored. It only makes it's creators look bad, much like Holocaust denial.
EULAs have no real legal weight, especially EULAs with completely incomprehensible terms such as this one. The EULA, at least in this case, is only there to give MS an argument for when they sue large corporations (and universities and government, bigger targtes because they occassionally follow the law) for using licenses "inappropriately". MS believes (rightly or wrongly) that they are gettting a raw deal on Volume licensing. Basically the point of Volume licensing (from MS's perspective) is NOT to save the Volume buyer one red cent, but to make it easier to use and manage Windows in a large environment. It's a "value added" feature. Businesses see it differently, believing that by purchasing in volume they should get a discount (imagine that!). MS is going to try to force volume buyers to use "phone home" licenscing servers, but I know that breaks pre-existing agreements and won't fly (at least with some volume buyers).
So this new EULA is really only a legal hammer to use against institutions to make them fork over more money to MS when MS does one of their audits. The audits cost money for MS, so they would much rather rely on intimidation than actual work. Corporations will continue not to care, universities and governments will continue to angst.
This will have no effect on individual users. MS isn't going to file 500 million lawsuits.
As pointed out by many other posters, anyone who wants to do testing can get an MSDN subscription, which gives you perpetual licences to virtually all MS software for testing purposes. If you're too cheap to fork over the $300 or so, you're too small a player for MS to worry about.
Since you can stick a user profile anywhere, all you have to do is change your profile directory to the thumb drive. Wah. You can do this with the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, User State Migration tool, a bunch of admin tools, or by manually hacking the registry.
What you CAN'T do is plug in a thumb drive and have Windows automatically detect the user information and add the user information to the OS. You have to use the Wizard, etc. Though you could probably hack this somehow with autorun.inf files. Seems like a feature that would be trivially easy to add.
I am talking about a right wing nutcase church/cult who took over an entire state's government
Why aren't you naming them? It this the Mormon church? The only well-publicized poisoning incident I'm aware of involved Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a Hindu guru.
Your life is pretty much over when you have to be laying down for at least 20 hours out of the day.
Tell it to my father dying of prostate cancer. He still manages to enjoy puttering around, using the internet, and spending time with his family, especially playing with his grandchildren. I can't speak for him, but I doubt he's be willing to give up one minute of it, despite the pain I know he's going through.
So how many people should this paragon of virtue be allowed to murder before we lock them up for life? And are you saying you're willing to allow your hypothetical murderer get off with a slap on the wrist, as long as he or she is really this great guy?
Absolutely. And FYI, this is EXACTLY how it works in the USA today. You better believe that if you are an "upstanding" citizen that will factor into your sentencing. As well it should.
Let's use the example of the emergency room doctor that murders his wife because she is sleeping with another man. And let's say that he's an exceptionally good doctor who as saved thousands of lives. Now is it REALLY better for society to have this guy locked up in prison getting ass raped rather than restricting his behavior with a combination of electronic monitoring and restitution (doctors make a lot of money)?
And I'd go farther. Most doctors are basically saints, working extremely long hours under difficult conditions, doing insanely taxing work. It's also emotionally taxing in a way most people find difficult to imagine. So yeah, *I* would be inclined to give the doctor above a pass on that murder.
And I don't think that ANYONE should get a "life" sentence. Should we have geriatric wards in the prisons filled with drooling vegetables (like we do now)? I'm sorry, but a dottering old man simply isn't much of a threat. I think everyone should get automatic parole at 65. If they somehow manage to keep commiting crimes/parole violations then we can stick them back into jail.
Slashdot Mirror
I can confirm this, though I think it's hourly.
That's because improved convenience and ease of use weren't goals. The primary goal was improved resistance to forgery of the sort that's actually useful to criminals. Such forgery requires replacement of the photo and perhaps other data, so that the forged passport appears to belong to the holder. The chip carries exactly the same data as the information printed on the page with one important addition -- all of the data on the chip is digitally signed. Without access to a valid signing key (or the ability to break RSA), the forger can only duplicate, not alter the data on a valid passport, and can't make an invalid passport appear authentic.
Please explain to me why this could not have been implemented through a smart chip or a mag-stripe, both of which allow the use of AES, signed keys, etc. but they don't have the security risk of the data being wirelessly sniffed. Both technologies are also significantly cheaper. RFID passports are a very bad idea. The European experience shows that the data can be EASILY sniffed and until that data is contradicted in the field, we must assume that American passports using a similar system will also be sniffed. And even if it's NOT, there is no LEGITIMATE reason whatsoever RFID should be used rather than mag-stripes or smart chips, or similar technologies. The ONLY quasi-legitimate reason to use RFID in identification is for allow officials to COVERTLY identify people. For example, you walk through a concealed archway in an airport or arena and individuals are silently identified and possibly intercepted. If you don't believe this line of thinking is draconian, there is something wrong with you.
You're also incredibly naive in assuming that this system will be bulletproof against cryptographic attack, which would be unprecedented in world history. Systems should be deployed with the assumption that they will be broken with an eye towards limiting the damage whn that happens. That's why things like currency and passports have multiple security features. The "all eggs in one basket" approach of the RFID chip makes it EASIER to dupe passports since (in practice) if you get the data off the chip all you will need is a passport cover to make a fake passport.
Though I don't necessarily attribute mailce to the implementation of RFID in passports, the real reason is pure greed. Most of this "homeland security" nonsense is a joke, a big collection of useless and expensive pork-barrel technologies that don't do a damn thing to intercept and protect against foreign terrorists. They're only useful for busting petty criminals.
"In class action suits of this size, 25% is the typical cut. I'd hardly call that "SMALL". The class members will get a coupon for a new controller plus a game maybe. Once you divide out billable hours, the lawyers often end up with thousands of dollars per hour."
In many class-action suits the percentage is a lot closer to 60% (or even 100% effectively) because of weaseling with fees and bribes. Even worse, lately the class-action lawyers cut deals to completely screw their clients. What consumers will get out of this lawsuit is likely a cupon for a DISCOUNT on more Nintento products. Effectively, the class-action lawyers will settle for what amounts to a ADVERTISEMENT for the people they're suing. How is this serving the client? It's not. But these same settlements also pay much or all of the lawyer's fat legal fees. This is the "bribe" I'm talking about. If all the MONEY goes to the legal fees for the lawyers and the rest of the settlement is ADVERTISING for Nintendo, how are the lawyers not getting 100% of the REAL settlement?
"I'm gonna put a low average of 5 minutes here. as in everything with some people it takes more time and with some it takes less."
All Wii owers are ASSUMED to be part of lawsuit. The lawyer obtains a registration list from Nintendo and then mails out form letters to all the registered users. He will NEVER talk to a single client. In fact, people don't even have to respond to the form letters. If you read these letters you'll notice that you have to reply (in writing) to OPT OUT. So in practice, all the lawyer has to do is send out the form letters and then remove those who reply from the suit. Again, he'll never talk to a SINGLE client.
"then start adding all the court audition you gotta go to, keep track of, listen to other attorneys, do more research as they will try to break your claim. and god knows in big trials like this it takes time."
What trial? The goal isn't to get this to trial, it's to get a "settlement" that gives the lawyers a bunch of legal fees. The'll on'y go to trial if they lawyers think it will get them more money.
"what you dont seem to realize is that the lawyer takes all the risk here. BECAUSE he is on percentage, if he doesn't win, he gets nada, sometimes he gets a base fee but that's rarely the case because usually people agree on percentage fees because they can't afford lawyer fees to begin with."
Whine, whine. Bitch, moan. If he didn't think the case was likely (as in 100% likely) to succeed, he wouldn't pursue it. I hear this all the time from liability lawyers. And whose fault is it that the general public can't afford legal fees? The lawyers.
Lawyers make a decent living but not because they charge excruciating fees but rather because they are fairly few of them but a big demand. why are there so few lawyers ? because its hard and nerve racking.
So let me get this straight: Lawyers create a byzantine legal system (most politicians are lawyers) which is highly stressful, expensive, and generates mountains of paperworks and then BITCH about it? Boo fucking hoo. Maybe lawyers should make some tiny efforts towards simplifying the system before they bitch. But they never will because the system as-is makes them shitloads of money. There are not a "few" lawyers in the USA. Per capita were have WAY more than any other Western nation. It's just that our byzantine legal systems REQUIRES a lawyer for anything remotely related to the legal system. Nobody has an hope of navigating the system without extensive training. Whose fault is that?
The three most hated professions in the united states are pretty constant (they are usually in the top 3)
* Lawyers
* Insurance Agents
* Car Salesmen
This is because these professions have a LONG history of dishonesty. Life insurance is the biggest scam going. During actual disasters insurance companies often try to weasel out of paying (look
Yes she suffered extremely severe injuries because of a lack of reaction, but at the temperature the coffee was served it would have caused third degree burns in five seconds. Can you strip off your pants in five seconds from a seated position in a car? Maybe. Care to find out? I doubt it.
:-)
I take it you've never had sex in a car?
But to be more serious: Yes, you can easily strip off a pair of SWEAT PANTS (which is what she was wearing) pretty quickly. The temperature of the hot coffee, plus the absorbency of he pants (she wouldn't have been burned as bad if she'd been wearing jeans), plus her slow reactions caused the incident. The McDonald's Corporation are evil fucks, but they're clearly in the right here. And under no stretch of the imagination did she deserve millions in compensation.
And I'm speaking from experience here. Almost EXACTLY the same thing happed to me as happened to this woman (I was in the passenger seat too) and I did get slightly burned, but it was clearly MY fault (more my mother's fault, it was her coffee) as I took the lid off while the car was in motion and it sloshed coffee all over me.
Someone else mentioned those "hot plates" you sometimes get it resturants, like the skittles you get in Mexican resqurants with hot fajitas or whatever. Should the resturants stop doing this because some idiot might try to handle the hit plate or skillet?
Call me crazy, but isn't Famitsu just Cosmopolitian magazine (or any of those other women's magazines that are 90% advertising)? Most of the "content" of the magazine is ads, and the "articles" and "reviews" are thinly-disguised ads. Famitsu is so popular in Japan in part because of the general Japanes fetish for magazines, and partly because the are MUCH bigger whores than then Western gaming press. It's a lot cheaper to put together a magazine if all of your content is submitted by advertisers. The comparison to GameSpot or EDGE isn't correct, Famitsu is more like "Official Playstation Magazine" or Nintendo Power.
Now maybe you WANT 250 pages of ads, but I doubt it.
Not off-the-shelf PCs. They might want some strange piece of hardware that VoodooPC or another outfit won't provide, or they bight want "better quality" components, a lot of fancy case designs come to mind. In fact, I would argue that gamers probably make up the majority of the DIY and hobbyist markets. However, the high price of the PS3 coupled with the requisite HD display means that PC gaming might seem more attractive than it has in the past, especially with the allure of online games like World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2142. So this niche might be bigger than you think. Oe it might simply be a case of "Dell did it, so we'll do it too.". I expect a buyout of Falcon Northwest anytime now.
Ironically enough, I use VideoRedo to edit downloaded ReplayTV shows since it does a MUCH better job that any other app (TMpegEnc, VirtualDub, etc.) I've used for this purpose. YMMV.
What I do care about is the fact that most of them are here illegally.
But I notice you're not complaining about all the illegal Russian or Chinese immigrants, are you? Because they are not changing the demographic mix. You're the same sort of asshole that turned away Haitian refugees because they were black (and they spoke French!) and were, more importantly, poor. If you want, you COULD say you just hate poor immigrants (like all the Europeans that came here earlier, I guess they don't count), but it amounts to the same thing.
And there are certainly different classes of crimes. Do you think illegal parking is the same as mass murder? Overstaying a visa/undocumented work is a minor procedural crime, like a traffic ticket. The kind YOU commit every single day. Are you a moral reprobate for not disposing of your batteries properly? Have the jack-booted thugs kicked down your door yet? Should they? Saying "it's illegal" isn't a moral argument for anything.
And as for your Canadian friend (probably white), the fact that it takes her 12 months to get a visa says there is something screwed up with the SYSTEM, not with your friends. Shockingly, the US immigration system is far from a model of efficiency. This is deliberate. Want to make life easier for your friend? Get the white power anti-immigration types in Congress (mostly Republicans) to reform the immigration service to make the process both more open and easier. Have them impose real enforcement and penalties (very large fines) on the large corporations that employ illegal immigrants. How about fines against Home Depot for running an illegal employment service? They're a lot easier to track down that 12,000,000 illegal immigrants.
But I'm not holding my breath since the white power-types don't actually want to STOP illegal immigation, they just want to pander to racism.
Oil Companies (your favorite target) paid 41% income tax in 2005!
No they didn't. Exxon Mobil theoretically might have paid 41% gross on one quarter's earnings. Neither you, nor I, knows wheter they actually paid these taxes, got rid of them through subsidies or deductions, or deffered them somehow. There are ways to make deferred taxes disappear too.
Many corporations (like Microsoft) pay absolutely nothing (or a pittance) in income taxes because of shady "profit sharing" deals, like stock options.
This is beyond the fact that almost all corporations engage in outright tax fraud. Since there are no penalties (look into fraud enforcement on business for a minute), why should they pay taxes? It's not like they'll be audited. And even if they are, they can probably soak up the cost of the audit and any fines (which are incredibly unlikey).
Lots of taxes are treated by Accounting rule as an expense which affects profit, and not on the line that says Income Tax Paid.
This is part of that "tax fraud" I'm talking about. This happens when they don't report the income. The fines they get from doing this is part of those "expenses".
In addition when the corporation distributes dividends to investors that money is taxed at the individual level so it's DOUBLE taxation.
Like the sales tax you pay on most of the items you buy. Isn't that "double taxation"? On some products (like cigarettes) you have multiple taxes, is that "quadruple taxation"?
Our military is hardly bloated, if it was bloated why would they still be recruiting and not letting people retire or calling back those they formerly let out?
It is not bloated in terms of staff, but in terms of expenses. The US military spends more money than the entire rest of the world's militaries combined. And most of that money is very badly spent. Remember that $600 toilet seat? It's now a $5000 toilet seat. The military has simply gotten much better at hiding the waste from Congress and the American people by hiding under the "classified" banner. Virtually all procurment in the military is now classified, especially anything particularly expensive. Don't get me started on the money pit that is Joint Strike.
Funny how when Americans say that about Hispanic immigrants we are called racists and bigots.
This is because the situation is different. Most hispanic immigrants *DO* make serious efforts to blend into society. The white power crowd simply doesn't like the fact that latinos are rapidly pushing out whites as the majority population in the USA. These people are idiots and will never accomplish anything. Personally, I think we should deport THOSE people, preferably into the sea.
Everyone would have to buy new equipment - this would far more expensive than the wasteful bureaucracy of the FCC.
Equipment changes over time, it gets upgraded, replaced, etc. That's why I used the word "transition". And a government mandate could certainly speed things along. Sure it will take time, but that's not a reason not to do it. It's like saying that dictators should stay in power because the transition to democracy takes too much time and effort.
MGS is not an exclusive francise to Sony, neither is GTA as you can find them on XBox and PC (like you said). You can also find FF games on the PC as well as other 'old' consoles before Sony.
I'm not sure I understand this logic. It does not matter that that MGS and FF appeared on "old" consoles. You can also get the only Zelda games on Windows. These games are popular NOW (FF has been popular for a long time) and they are Sony exclusives NOW. We're talking about the latest generation consoles, right?
Of course, this will have an effect on the competely online services this generation as the wii will (in theory anyway) be able to offer the entire Nintendo lineup in their download service. But I think we have yet to see wheter on not Nintendo will pull that off.
Exactly, when you want to talk 'exclusive', you cannot get very far without talking about franchise names. Afterall, what does Sony have?
Who modded this up?
Ever heard of Final Fantasy? Or Metal Gear Solid? Or Grand Theft Auto? And yeah, even though MGS2 was ported to the XBOX, as were the GTA games, they had long periods of exclusivity on the PS2. And that helped the PS2 a lot. The PS2 beat the XBOX mainly because it had a LOT more games, just like the PS1 vs. N64. With such a huge library the PS2 offered "something for everyone", look at the success of the relatively bizarre Katamari Damacy and Guitar Hero.
If we had to start all over again, I agree that the FCC would not be the way to go. However, there were no powerful international radio standards bodies when the FCC was created. Transitioning at this point would be expensive and unnecessary, and in any event there are no international standards that are universally adopted. The radio spectrum isn't as standardized as the metric system.
Why would it be more expensive than the FCC? Seems like it would be a LOT less expensive because then duplication of effort could be avoided. And isn't the whole POINT that there are no international standards? Why SHOULDN'T bandwith allocation be as standardized as metric? It would be the job of of theoretical body to set those standards (possibly choosing existing standards used in some of the member nations!). For example, GSM. Most of the world uses it, why not just transition the USA, Japan, and a few others as part of "5G" or whatever? Seems pretty doable to me and it would probably help EVERYONE (except a few whingy tech companies in the USA and Japan). Why not have a universal HDTV standard, universal standards for sattelite broadcast, etc.?
It just seems like mindless territorialism to me. Like the Air Force refusing to give up control of space to an international or civilian body.
(esp. jurisdiction)
And therein lies the problem. A lot of these guys are in the USA. Many operate out of China and Russia. China is basically a mess with rampant corruption, internet botnets/spammmers/etc. are the least of it. Ditto for Russia. They can't be counted on to enforce dick. But if you really want to do something in this realm, your very first step should be general government reform in China and Russia. Good luck with that.
As far as I can tell, the only option is to blacklist entire nations. I know that many corporate admins are doing exactly that in regards to email from China, Russia, and South Korea (another source of this crap), assuming they don't do business with those nations. But that won't help botnets (or spam very much), because they'll just seize hosts in the USA and bounce off them. What then?
Lobby Congress to make the painful choice to do this at the national level. That's right, I'm talking about severing ALL INTERNET COMMUNICATION with China, Russia, and South Korea. Think that's going to happen? If not, the legislative approach is a fool's errand.
I disagree. You probably accept that the airwaves "belong to the public", and you probably accept that we need to regulate them technically to keep them usable. So regulation in some form is okay, right? ... In my mind, banning nudity during daytime TV is no better or worse than banning nudity in a public park.
I agree that some sort of regulation is necessary for BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION and similar issues in order (for example) for radio to function. But it's quite clear that content regulation (banning nudity) is clearly NOT necessary, it is merely a function of asthetics. I do not understand why it is necessary to enforce asthetics at the barrel of a gun.
BTW, I don't believe the FCC should exist. This kind of technical regulation is one of the things international organizations (UN/ISO/IEEE/etc.) are actually pretty good at.
How is Vista (or XP for that matter) "crippled" to accomodate 3rd party media vendors? Is it because XP doesn't include MP3 or DVD ripping by default in WMP9? (fixed in WMP10) Is it because it INCLUDES the DRM formats WMA and Apple's AAC? How does including these formats break everything else? My .OGG and .FLAC files play just fine on Windows, in WMP no less! Is it because you have to install third-party software to get some formats to work? I mean, you NEVER have to do anything like that in Linux right?
Computer manfuacturers are bent over a barrel to include an OEM Windows install on every machine they sell. The only realistic way for a user to get a computer without Windows is to build one themself.
Last I checked, Dell, HP, Gateway, and Micron (that's the lion's share of PC sales right there) all offer "bare" systems and/or Linux. Most of the major electronics retailers around here: Fry's Electronics, Micro-Center, and even Wal-Mart offer "bare" and or Linux systems. I'll admit that Best Buy and Circuit City don't seem to, but those are generally terrible comupter retailers. That's not including any of the mom n' pops, who ALL offer "bare" systems around here. And of course, most of these retailers prominently feature Apple Macs. Though they don't compare well against PCs in such and environment due to sticker shock.
Certainly in the past Microsoft tried to force OEMs to bundle and threatened them against including Windows, but that has changed. However, OEM's are still reluctant to bundle Linux with desktop computers because of higher support costs.
And finally, there are a VAST number of online retailers that offer pre-installed Linux. Pre-installed BSD is still a rarity, but it's out there.
It's not well known, but the Navstar (GPS) satellites include nuclear detonation detectors (replacing the older Vela system). It is unclear wheter or not these detectors work on underground detonations, but the DPRK is definitely within the detection range of the Navstar satellites.
WorldNetDaily, a far-right conservative web site, is basically complaing that a bunch of "liberal" users flagged this video inappropriate so the "18 and over" interstital was added, requiring users to sign in to see the video. It was NEVER removed from the YouTube. Eventually, after A DAY OR TWO the video was reviewed by someone on the tiny YouTube staff and the "18 and over" interstital was removed.
The context here is that WorldNetDaily, and other conservative blogs and sites, have been complaining for months that while anti-Muslim/white power propoganda ("death to ragheads", "Islam = Satanism", etc.) has consistently been taken down for being offensive, jihadi propoganda has often remained on the site. They don't claim that the jihadis are responsible, but "liberals" in the United States and Europe are somehow "supporting the terrorists".
More sane people realize that calling people "devils" and "ragheads" is inappropriate and offensive. Jihadi propoganda is often newsworthy, showing attacks on Western forces for example, and because it isn't often see in the USA it has legitimate news value. To see anti-Islam propoganda you onloy have to turn on Fox News.
Personally, I don't think that the anti-Muslim/white power propoganda should be censored. It only makes it's creators look bad, much like Holocaust denial.
EULAs have no real legal weight, especially EULAs with completely incomprehensible terms such as this one. The EULA, at least in this case, is only there to give MS an argument for when they sue large corporations (and universities and government, bigger targtes because they occassionally follow the law) for using licenses "inappropriately". MS believes (rightly or wrongly) that they are gettting a raw deal on Volume licensing. Basically the point of Volume licensing (from MS's perspective) is NOT to save the Volume buyer one red cent, but to make it easier to use and manage Windows in a large environment. It's a "value added" feature. Businesses see it differently, believing that by purchasing in volume they should get a discount (imagine that!). MS is going to try to force volume buyers to use "phone home" licenscing servers, but I know that breaks pre-existing agreements and won't fly (at least with some volume buyers).
So this new EULA is really only a legal hammer to use against institutions to make them fork over more money to MS when MS does one of their audits. The audits cost money for MS, so they would much rather rely on intimidation than actual work. Corporations will continue not to care, universities and governments will continue to angst.
This will have no effect on individual users. MS isn't going to file 500 million lawsuits.
As pointed out by many other posters, anyone who wants to do testing can get an MSDN subscription, which gives you perpetual licences to virtually all MS software for testing purposes. If you're too cheap to fork over the $300 or so, you're too small a player for MS to worry about.
Since you can stick a user profile anywhere, all you have to do is change your profile directory to the thumb drive. Wah. You can do this with the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, User State Migration tool, a bunch of admin tools, or by manually hacking the registry.
What you CAN'T do is plug in a thumb drive and have Windows automatically detect the user information and add the user information to the OS. You have to use the Wizard, etc. Though you could probably hack this somehow with autorun.inf files. Seems like a feature that would be trivially easy to add.
I am talking about a right wing nutcase church/cult who took over an entire state's government
Why aren't you naming them? It this the Mormon church? The only well-publicized poisoning incident I'm aware of involved Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a Hindu guru.
Your life is pretty much over when you have to be laying down for at least 20 hours out of the day.
Tell it to my father dying of prostate cancer. He still manages to enjoy puttering around, using the internet, and spending time with his family, especially playing with his grandchildren. I can't speak for him, but I doubt he's be willing to give up one minute of it, despite the pain I know he's going through.
So how many people should this paragon of virtue be allowed to murder before we lock them up for life? And are you saying you're willing to allow your hypothetical murderer get off with a slap on the wrist, as long as he or she is really this great guy?
Absolutely. And FYI, this is EXACTLY how it works in the USA today. You better believe that if you are an "upstanding" citizen that will factor into your sentencing. As well it should.
Let's use the example of the emergency room doctor that murders his wife because she is sleeping with another man. And let's say that he's an exceptionally good doctor who as saved thousands of lives. Now is it REALLY better for society to have this guy locked up in prison getting ass raped rather than restricting his behavior with a combination of electronic monitoring and restitution (doctors make a lot of money)?
And I'd go farther. Most doctors are basically saints, working extremely long hours under difficult conditions, doing insanely taxing work. It's also emotionally taxing in a way most people find difficult to imagine. So yeah, *I* would be inclined to give the doctor above a pass on that murder.
And I don't think that ANYONE should get a "life" sentence. Should we have geriatric wards in the prisons filled with drooling vegetables (like we do now)? I'm sorry, but a dottering old man simply isn't much of a threat. I think everyone should get automatic parole at 65. If they somehow manage to keep commiting crimes/parole violations then we can stick them back into jail.
Frankly it's the decapitation and removal of all limbs that tells me he was a step beyond his peers, not murdering a pregnant woman.
This may or may not have happened. It's more likely that the damage to the corpse was due to predation (fish, etc. eating it).