Communism and Capitalism both have some things in common. Not only do they both begin with the letter C, but they are both "great ideas" and neither ever actually happen.
Every time I see a story about a municipality taking their lack of development and progress into their own hands, some previously uninterested party steps in and says, "This is my territory and you can't build where we don't want to build." On its face it's ridiculous. They want to cherry pick -- to invest in the markets which offer the best returns. We all get that. But to deny anyone else the opportunity to operate in less favored zones is 100% anti-competitive and 100% anti-capitalist. Trying to keep other parties from participating in the marketplace takes the free out of free markets.
I think it's about time there were some public hearings on the situation so that we can get them to say things they don't mean and can later be held to account on.
I'm not presuming anything. When Microsoft is required to make their ODF support compatible, they will.
Things are chaning. Technologies from US companies are under scrutiny and are less trusted. The economy is causing everyone from individuals to business to government to rethink their spending priorities.
The notion of Microsoft lock-in isn't quite as compelling under these circumstances. Cisco's feeling it. Microsoft is feeling it too.
Actually, a government can standardize on an ISO format like ODF. That will cause a ripple effect which will result in lots of people exchanging documents in that format instead of MS Office formats.
Microsoft will not take this lightly, of course. They will have to give it away for free pr less to prevent the ripple effect.
But the UK's intent behind this may not be entirely based on cost -- there's that NSA partnership that might be of concern to many.
Cisco is a company with its own interests at heart. In fact, the executive leadership's interests at heart. They want more and more money but they have to convince you there is something inadequate about what you are using now in order to sell it to you.
Back in the earlier dot-com bubble days, no convincing was needed. Money-spending-executives (much like gadget buying housewives) bought into the notion that buying new tech will somehow translate into more money in their pockets.
Right about now, tech has lost its magic in that arena. People dislike upgrades. They are expensive and do not promise much of value because now people increasingly understand what they are buying where before they didn't.
Cisco says "you need faster networks!!!" Businesses are asking "oh really?" Sorry Cisco, but your glory days are soon to be behind you. More importantly, we're about to see a kind of technology revolution where experience is more important than certifications. Certifications are little more than brand endorsements these days anyway and HR departments everywhere are wising up to that fact as well.
Cisco, you need a new game. I doubt you will come up with any. Your products demand standards compliance which means just about anyone will be able to replace you. Well, that is unless you can convince people to buy your expensive patented technology right? I guess your best bet is to get new standards adopted using your expensive patents. Otherwise you will have to compete with other beige-box sellers out there.
What certainly happened is money went to EVE Online pockets. The wealth? Well, let's just say those microtransactions could have stayed where they were a bit longer. People are trading money for recreation. It begs the question, for me, as to how good or bad this actually is. I want to say it's bad, but I don't actually know how much time and other resources were wasted in any of this. There are all sorts of costs here for the users. It's not just their money. It's their time and their mental energies of focus, concentration, planning and all that. Much of this is to the exclusion of other things they could be doing with their time and, indeed, their lives....says the man who spends X moments of his life commenting on slashdot.
This softball approach to politics is annoying especially when the Obama regime plays anything but hard ball. He is currently using his office to go after critics and opponents at a rate and in ways unheard of before. It's almost as if he's working against a clock. I fear for what's next.
Additional customer lock-in. Personally, I would like to see a service which (may already exist, please tell me if it does) where I can host my own data at home and then have various forms of access to it from my phone or laptop or tablet or whatever. It should not require a static or known/named dynamic IP address. I like the idea of a relay server out there on the internet which enables the two peers to connect whether behind a firewall or not. VPN linking to my home network would be a nice addition maybe.
Impulse control specifically addresses a problem where a person seems incapable of limiting his own bad [social] behavior. Working too much? That's a specific type of bad behavior and not one which negatively impacts society.
It's a competing currency. The marketplace says "we have no faith in your dollars." Government says "so?" The marketplace says "we will replace the dollar." Government says "no."
That does not surprise me in the least. One of the biggest reasons I am unable to identify with so many of my fellow humans is that I cannot begin to understand how people can do these things:
* without understanding what they are doing or why * destroy or throw or break things when angry * harm other people and think it's funny * get tattoos or body modifications
All of these things display a lack of consideration at one level or another. Have I ever done things which I cannot comprehend myself? Actually, yes. A couple of times. They were extreme moments of difficulty in life. It takes a great deal to push me that far I have to say. A great deal.
But this morning I had this weird thought. This Snowden thing. Makes me wonder if it was designed to bring things to a head much more quickly than it would have otherwise. It seems to me various parties and interests out there seem to have a much larger goal in mind than keeping things as they are. Everything the US is involved in seems to be destabilizing. Pointing out exactly what the US has been up to has added to the destabilization of the civilian population. (The world's top leaders all knew about this and even used the data themselves.)
It just makes me wonder if the Snowden thing is just another way of adding straws to the situation getting us closer to the tipping point where the parties who have been preparing for this for decades step in like heros and tame the world of civil unrest.
I love that they made impulse control one of the three important characteristics. I think it's an important factor to be sure and one that really sets different people apart from each other.
Teenagers are famous for their lack of impulse control. Either it is my age showing or there really does seem to be an decrease of impulse control among American teens. It might be convenient to blame race for some of this... no, it really is easy when you look at the whole world instead of just what goes on in the U.S. But we're all human and we have a component of what we learn and are taught. Impulse control is 'behavior' and it comes largely from parenting.
The article highlights asian success who are also pretty famous for their parenting. Most people in the US find the style a bit restrictive to say the least and even distasteful. But the result speak for themselves do they not? And over the last few decades or more, there has been a constant stream of complaints by older people who keep talking about kids today and "family values" and parenting and all that. Mostly, this all falls on deaf ears of people who think they know better or that the old ways are no longer valid in "today's world."
And when you look at trending among different ethnicities in the US, where you see an increase in fatherless families or otherwise single parents you see more and more of these problems we call "impulse control" issues. (Back in the day, we said "criminal tendencies") But it's a bit sad and also gratifying that this story is not about what makes the white man in America successful. After all, the white man in America is the target of blame for other ethnicities' shortcomings. But I am glad this study points out that other non-white people can do better than white people and white people don't seem to be resentful or trying to take them down, let alone "keeping them down." (In fact, I would go so far as to say the white man is generally in awe of and are looking up to the successful asians.) So isn't it about time we stop listening to the complaints which even today continue to sound about the white man in America?
At he end of the day, each of us only have ourselves to blame for what we can and cannot do. (Within some reason of course.) But impulse control is huge. It's what affects the decisions and courses we take in life. I once or twice explained to my sons that life is a series of forks and paths. Some are mutually exclusive. When you make one choice, many other choices disappear. For example, getting a facial tattoo would close a LOT of doors in a person's future. (And those damned gauged earrings? Who, outside of a cannibalistic clan, would think that is acceptable in society?)
I have a sense of responsibility. I have this dark inner feeling that the things my family and especially my children do are a reflection on me. So I do what I can to ensure they reflect as well as possible. I hope my sons feel the same way as they go through life. It's a driving factor in family values. We need a lot more of this. No more single parents. No more running away from responsibility. Life isn't about whether or not you're happy any more. That's on you, but it's not on you to make another person's life worse because you're unhappy. That's a violation.
Did anyone have any doubt that Microsoft willingly cooperates with the NSA and all other 3-letter-agencies? It would be more shocking to find out they haven't been helping. And didn't we see some Snowden or other information released some time ago showing the reason some Microsoft bugs were not patched quickly was because the NSA wasn't done exploiting them yet?
The only thing confusing about this to me is that I was under the impression that pretty much all law enforcement [shared] data was going through a DHS clearing house now. If anyone recalls the story about the Florida CCW guy who left his gun at home and was harassed by Maryland cops, the cop was able to collect ALL of that data before he even pulled the guy over. (Yeah, I know the story says he didn't mention it until after the License and Registration bit, but other information suggests it was the fact that he had the CCW was the impetus for pulling the man over in the first place.) But more than that, there have been Snowden or other releases which show that DHS and other 3LAs have been supplying local police with data and then instructed to obfuscate and lie about how they came by their evidence. So to have LEO requests coming straight to Microsoft would suggest other things.
Take it from me. I... not sure it's quite safe to say so precisely just now, but let's just say I know some things as of the end of last year, I worked for a company closely related to TEPCO. But there is information on the internet now which can be searched with shows many things I am not allowed to say factually such as in the construction there was a natural seawall at the site which was high enough to protect the plant from that and larger tsunamis. (It was the reason that site was selected if I recall correctly) but it was taken down to enable easier construction and then rebuilt afterward but not as high. (Would have been too expensive you know) So to save money, they removed safety and when adding it back, they didn't quite do it well enough. Also, it might interest you to know another nuclear site was hit by the same tsunami. THAT site had a seawall of adequate size -- larger than the one at the Fukushima site. Funny how one site elected to protect it adequatetely while another didn't. Different decision makers I suppose. But you don't hear about that surviving site very often in the news... it's not quite news and it clearly illustrates where the blame lies.
People want to believe that no one could have predicted the unprecedented tsunami. And yet there is evidence that someone DID predict it and took measures to secure against it. Just not there. With public information alone there is sufficient evidence to put to rest any notion that the problem was unforseeable. It wasn't. Someone else did and was able to act on it.
If people are interested to know more, ask me again after April of this year.
I have no idea. I do know that when I google her name, I pull up court records in Reno, NV and in Napa, CA for charges both civil and criminal. IRS charges would be federal so I don't know. Once again, I haven't heard from or seen her since we parted so long ago. And it's probably a good thing (for me) that I haven't. I might be in jail for either true or false reasons. (She had a propensity to lie to police against me, but looking back on everything I stupidly put up with and forgave her for? Well, let's just say I have withdrawn my forgiveness and would likely react badly if she ever appeared in my life again. My sons certainly share my sentiment.) I can only dream she went to federal prison. I also dream she hooked up with the wrong guy and she's no longer among the living. Unfortunately, I still get the occasional call from someone 'official' looking for her which suggest she's still out there screwing up other people's lives.
Some states are weirder than that. Ever heard the term "palimony"? But yes, I have seen cases where a man and a woman co-habitated for I forget how long (measured in 2 or more years I'm pretty sure) and he decided it was time to go for whatever reason and she sued him for child support and won on the basis that he was the only male role model (father figure) the child had ever known. And that was that. Money in the [her] bank for the next however many years until 18.
Another case which was much less extreme where a couple was married, the wife cheated and got pregnant, the man divorced on the grounds that the child was not his and she admitted it to him and to the court. The ruling was against the husband on the basis that they were married when she got pregnant and therefore the child was his responsibility. That was in Pennsylvania I believe.
The things that go on out there are simply incredible.
Every year was a race for who filed first. Or perhaps every year each filed at the same time. I am unsure of what happened on her side. I only know about what happened on my side. And each year I was required to go through the indignity of proving I had my sons with me 100% of the time. On her end? I doubt the IRS had an easy time of it. She could not and probably still cannot maintain a residence for more than a few months.
No, I was asking her, the representative of a state agency, to contact another representative of a state agency to exchange information. I didn't expect her to simply take my word for it. I expected her to take the state's own information as fact.
Regulation to some degree is required. There is no end to the ways business interests will seek to harm competition, consumers/customers and the environment. It is a human nature problem not one of the free market. If given their way, anyone would be able to enter the nuclear power industry and nuke the planet. We see what coal companies do when they cut back on safety costs. We see what happened when BP did it. We see what happened when TEPCO did it. Industries trusted to regulate themselves too often do harmful things. You just can't trust them to do the right thing unless someone is looking.
Some say rules are meant to be broken. That's bad enough. (Challenged, yes, but broken?) But current morality in business (if there is such a thing) says if there's no rule, there's nothing to break. And when the banking industry got the rules changed so they could make more profits and then crashed the financial system, I think it's pretty easy to illustrate exactly what the purpose of regulation and oversight are. We're dealing in large scale and global industries. What a few jackasses do can affect the world now. "Too big to fail" just means things have gone too far and haven't been regulated enough because when they screw up, the whole world suffers. Nothing like that should be allowed to happen. Free markets don't account for that.
Then you don''t understand the courts systems. Very often settlement agreements come with NDA/Gag orders. This keeps everyone else from knowing how a problem was resolved so they can also seek remedies. This practice very much protects the big guys from all of the many little guys with complaints and problems. Secrecy isn't there to protect trade secrets. It's there to keep access to the legal system expensive and prohibitive.
One of my problems with Samsung phones is the software on them. I like them otherwise. I like them with custom firmware better. The manufacturer and carrier bloatware soaks performance and resources which could be used by the user. But I suspect it will only apply to S.Korean phones and not those sold through carriers in the US.
Men are more manly. (And over-simplified answer eh?) We don't ask for help. We don't ask for directions, we don't say we don't understand, we don't say we don't know. We are strong and independent. We stand on our own as much as possible. (Well, that's true of non-gang-members anyway) So when we go to court or anything of the sort, we believe our righteousness will factor into the judgement. But that's not how it works.
It's politics. Judges want to be impartial. But when group-X gets involved, they will spin it as if they are anti-X. There are people that say the justice system is biased against black people. I can't say whether that is true or not, but statistics at all levels from preschool, through high school and on into the criminal justice system all seem to agree on certain behavioral trends. Correlation and causation you know? But in the case of men's rights versus women's rights? Well, that's a very different story. But I can say that as often as we have explored the gaps between men and women for income and other inequality, it is all basically a myth when it comes to correcting for certain mitigating factors. Yet the myths live on and manage to manifest themselves in the forms of unwritten practices and policies.
Slashdot Mirror
Communism and Capitalism both have some things in common. Not only do they both begin with the letter C, but they are both "great ideas" and neither ever actually happen.
Every time I see a story about a municipality taking their lack of development and progress into their own hands, some previously uninterested party steps in and says, "This is my territory and you can't build where we don't want to build." On its face it's ridiculous. They want to cherry pick -- to invest in the markets which offer the best returns. We all get that. But to deny anyone else the opportunity to operate in less favored zones is 100% anti-competitive and 100% anti-capitalist. Trying to keep other parties from participating in the marketplace takes the free out of free markets.
I think it's about time there were some public hearings on the situation so that we can get them to say things they don't mean and can later be held to account on.
I'm not presuming anything. When Microsoft is required to make their ODF support compatible, they will.
Things are chaning. Technologies from US companies are under scrutiny and are less trusted. The economy is causing everyone from individuals to business to government to rethink their spending priorities.
The notion of Microsoft lock-in isn't quite as compelling under these circumstances. Cisco's feeling it. Microsoft is feeling it too.
Actually, a government can standardize on an ISO format like ODF. That will cause a ripple effect which will result in lots of people exchanging documents in that format instead of MS Office formats.
Microsoft will not take this lightly, of course. They will have to give it away for free pr less to prevent the ripple effect.
But the UK's intent behind this may not be entirely based on cost -- there's that NSA partnership that might be of concern to many.
Note to self: New business model
1. Create safety reporting scheme followed closely by
2. Astroturfing parental concern over wifi brain tumors.
3. ???
4. Profit!!
Cisco is a company with its own interests at heart. In fact, the executive leadership's interests at heart. They want more and more money but they have to convince you there is something inadequate about what you are using now in order to sell it to you.
Back in the earlier dot-com bubble days, no convincing was needed. Money-spending-executives (much like gadget buying housewives) bought into the notion that buying new tech will somehow translate into more money in their pockets.
Right about now, tech has lost its magic in that arena. People dislike upgrades. They are expensive and do not promise much of value because now people increasingly understand what they are buying where before they didn't.
Cisco says "you need faster networks!!!" Businesses are asking "oh really?" Sorry Cisco, but your glory days are soon to be behind you. More importantly, we're about to see a kind of technology revolution where experience is more important than certifications. Certifications are little more than brand endorsements these days anyway and HR departments everywhere are wising up to that fact as well.
Cisco, you need a new game. I doubt you will come up with any. Your products demand standards compliance which means just about anyone will be able to replace you. Well, that is unless you can convince people to buy your expensive patented technology right? I guess your best bet is to get new standards adopted using your expensive patents. Otherwise you will have to compete with other beige-box sellers out there.
What certainly happened is money went to EVE Online pockets. The wealth? Well, let's just say those microtransactions could have stayed where they were a bit longer. People are trading money for recreation. It begs the question, for me, as to how good or bad this actually is. I want to say it's bad, but I don't actually know how much time and other resources were wasted in any of this. There are all sorts of costs here for the users. It's not just their money. It's their time and their mental energies of focus, concentration, planning and all that. Much of this is to the exclusion of other things they could be doing with their time and, indeed, their lives. ...says the man who spends X moments of his life commenting on slashdot.
This softball approach to politics is annoying especially when the Obama regime plays anything but hard ball. He is currently using his office to go after critics and opponents at a rate and in ways unheard of before. It's almost as if he's working against a clock. I fear for what's next.
Additional customer lock-in. Personally, I would like to see a service which (may already exist, please tell me if it does) where I can host my own data at home and then have various forms of access to it from my phone or laptop or tablet or whatever. It should not require a static or known/named dynamic IP address. I like the idea of a relay server out there on the internet which enables the two peers to connect whether behind a firewall or not. VPN linking to my home network would be a nice addition maybe.
So who's got something like this for free?
Impulse control specifically addresses a problem where a person seems incapable of limiting his own bad [social] behavior. Working too much? That's a specific type of bad behavior and not one which negatively impacts society.
Just wondering. I need a work space to do one of those "80 percent lower" kits.
It's a competing currency. The marketplace says "we have no faith in your dollars." Government says "so?" The marketplace says "we will replace the dollar." Government says "no."
I just wonder how it took so long.
That does not surprise me in the least. One of the biggest reasons I am unable to identify with so many of my fellow humans is that I cannot begin to understand how people can do these things:
* without understanding what they are doing or why
* destroy or throw or break things when angry
* harm other people and think it's funny
* get tattoos or body modifications
All of these things display a lack of consideration at one level or another. Have I ever done things which I cannot comprehend myself? Actually, yes. A couple of times. They were extreme moments of difficulty in life. It takes a great deal to push me that far I have to say. A great deal.
US dollars?
Awards, kudos and all that.
But this morning I had this weird thought. This Snowden thing. Makes me wonder if it was designed to bring things to a head much more quickly than it would have otherwise. It seems to me various parties and interests out there seem to have a much larger goal in mind than keeping things as they are. Everything the US is involved in seems to be destabilizing. Pointing out exactly what the US has been up to has added to the destabilization of the civilian population. (The world's top leaders all knew about this and even used the data themselves.)
It just makes me wonder if the Snowden thing is just another way of adding straws to the situation getting us closer to the tipping point where the parties who have been preparing for this for decades step in like heros and tame the world of civil unrest.
Just a thought...
I love that they made impulse control one of the three important characteristics. I think it's an important factor to be sure and one that really sets different people apart from each other.
Teenagers are famous for their lack of impulse control. Either it is my age showing or there really does seem to be an decrease of impulse control among American teens. It might be convenient to blame race for some of this... no, it really is easy when you look at the whole world instead of just what goes on in the U.S. But we're all human and we have a component of what we learn and are taught. Impulse control is 'behavior' and it comes largely from parenting.
The article highlights asian success who are also pretty famous for their parenting. Most people in the US find the style a bit restrictive to say the least and even distasteful. But the result speak for themselves do they not? And over the last few decades or more, there has been a constant stream of complaints by older people who keep talking about kids today and "family values" and parenting and all that. Mostly, this all falls on deaf ears of people who think they know better or that the old ways are no longer valid in "today's world."
And when you look at trending among different ethnicities in the US, where you see an increase in fatherless families or otherwise single parents you see more and more of these problems we call "impulse control" issues. (Back in the day, we said "criminal tendencies") But it's a bit sad and also gratifying that this story is not about what makes the white man in America successful. After all, the white man in America is the target of blame for other ethnicities' shortcomings. But I am glad this study points out that other non-white people can do better than white people and white people don't seem to be resentful or trying to take them down, let alone "keeping them down." (In fact, I would go so far as to say the white man is generally in awe of and are looking up to the successful asians.) So isn't it about time we stop listening to the complaints which even today continue to sound about the white man in America?
At he end of the day, each of us only have ourselves to blame for what we can and cannot do. (Within some reason of course.) But impulse control is huge. It's what affects the decisions and courses we take in life. I once or twice explained to my sons that life is a series of forks and paths. Some are mutually exclusive. When you make one choice, many other choices disappear. For example, getting a facial tattoo would close a LOT of doors in a person's future. (And those damned gauged earrings? Who, outside of a cannibalistic clan, would think that is acceptable in society?)
I have a sense of responsibility. I have this dark inner feeling that the things my family and especially my children do are a reflection on me. So I do what I can to ensure they reflect as well as possible. I hope my sons feel the same way as they go through life. It's a driving factor in family values. We need a lot more of this. No more single parents. No more running away from responsibility. Life isn't about whether or not you're happy any more. That's on you, but it's not on you to make another person's life worse because you're unhappy. That's a violation.
Did anyone have any doubt that Microsoft willingly cooperates with the NSA and all other 3-letter-agencies? It would be more shocking to find out they haven't been helping. And didn't we see some Snowden or other information released some time ago showing the reason some Microsoft bugs were not patched quickly was because the NSA wasn't done exploiting them yet?
The only thing confusing about this to me is that I was under the impression that pretty much all law enforcement [shared] data was going through a DHS clearing house now. If anyone recalls the story about the Florida CCW guy who left his gun at home and was harassed by Maryland cops, the cop was able to collect ALL of that data before he even pulled the guy over. (Yeah, I know the story says he didn't mention it until after the License and Registration bit, but other information suggests it was the fact that he had the CCW was the impetus for pulling the man over in the first place.) But more than that, there have been Snowden or other releases which show that DHS and other 3LAs have been supplying local police with data and then instructed to obfuscate and lie about how they came by their evidence. So to have LEO requests coming straight to Microsoft would suggest other things.
I hope these stolen document surface soon.
Take it from me. I ... not sure it's quite safe to say so precisely just now, but let's just say I know some things as of the end of last year, I worked for a company closely related to TEPCO. But there is information on the internet now which can be searched with shows many things I am not allowed to say factually such as in the construction there was a natural seawall at the site which was high enough to protect the plant from that and larger tsunamis. (It was the reason that site was selected if I recall correctly) but it was taken down to enable easier construction and then rebuilt afterward but not as high. (Would have been too expensive you know) So to save money, they removed safety and when adding it back, they didn't quite do it well enough. Also, it might interest you to know another nuclear site was hit by the same tsunami. THAT site had a seawall of adequate size -- larger than the one at the Fukushima site. Funny how one site elected to protect it adequatetely while another didn't. Different decision makers I suppose. But you don't hear about that surviving site very often in the news... it's not quite news and it clearly illustrates where the blame lies.
People want to believe that no one could have predicted the unprecedented tsunami. And yet there is evidence that someone DID predict it and took measures to secure against it. Just not there. With public information alone there is sufficient evidence to put to rest any notion that the problem was unforseeable. It wasn't. Someone else did and was able to act on it.
If people are interested to know more, ask me again after April of this year.
I have no idea. I do know that when I google her name, I pull up court records in Reno, NV and in Napa, CA for charges both civil and criminal. IRS charges would be federal so I don't know. Once again, I haven't heard from or seen her since we parted so long ago. And it's probably a good thing (for me) that I haven't. I might be in jail for either true or false reasons. (She had a propensity to lie to police against me, but looking back on everything I stupidly put up with and forgave her for? Well, let's just say I have withdrawn my forgiveness and would likely react badly if she ever appeared in my life again. My sons certainly share my sentiment.) I can only dream she went to federal prison. I also dream she hooked up with the wrong guy and she's no longer among the living. Unfortunately, I still get the occasional call from someone 'official' looking for her which suggest she's still out there screwing up other people's lives.
Some states are weirder than that. Ever heard the term "palimony"? But yes, I have seen cases where a man and a woman co-habitated for I forget how long (measured in 2 or more years I'm pretty sure) and he decided it was time to go for whatever reason and she sued him for child support and won on the basis that he was the only male role model (father figure) the child had ever known. And that was that. Money in the [her] bank for the next however many years until 18.
Another case which was much less extreme where a couple was married, the wife cheated and got pregnant, the man divorced on the grounds that the child was not his and she admitted it to him and to the court. The ruling was against the husband on the basis that they were married when she got pregnant and therefore the child was his responsibility. That was in Pennsylvania I believe.
The things that go on out there are simply incredible.
Every year was a race for who filed first. Or perhaps every year each filed at the same time. I am unsure of what happened on her side. I only know about what happened on my side. And each year I was required to go through the indignity of proving I had my sons with me 100% of the time. On her end? I doubt the IRS had an easy time of it. She could not and probably still cannot maintain a residence for more than a few months.
No, I was asking her, the representative of a state agency, to contact another representative of a state agency to exchange information. I didn't expect her to simply take my word for it. I expected her to take the state's own information as fact.
Regulation to some degree is required. There is no end to the ways business interests will seek to harm competition, consumers/customers and the environment. It is a human nature problem not one of the free market. If given their way, anyone would be able to enter the nuclear power industry and nuke the planet. We see what coal companies do when they cut back on safety costs. We see what happened when BP did it. We see what happened when TEPCO did it. Industries trusted to regulate themselves too often do harmful things. You just can't trust them to do the right thing unless someone is looking.
Some say rules are meant to be broken. That's bad enough. (Challenged, yes, but broken?) But current morality in business (if there is such a thing) says if there's no rule, there's nothing to break. And when the banking industry got the rules changed so they could make more profits and then crashed the financial system, I think it's pretty easy to illustrate exactly what the purpose of regulation and oversight are. We're dealing in large scale and global industries. What a few jackasses do can affect the world now. "Too big to fail" just means things have gone too far and haven't been regulated enough because when they screw up, the whole world suffers. Nothing like that should be allowed to happen. Free markets don't account for that.
Then you don''t understand the courts systems. Very often settlement agreements come with NDA/Gag orders. This keeps everyone else from knowing how a problem was resolved so they can also seek remedies. This practice very much protects the big guys from all of the many little guys with complaints and problems. Secrecy isn't there to protect trade secrets. It's there to keep access to the legal system expensive and prohibitive.
One of my problems with Samsung phones is the software on them. I like them otherwise. I like them with custom firmware better. The manufacturer and carrier bloatware soaks performance and resources which could be used by the user. But I suspect it will only apply to S.Korean phones and not those sold through carriers in the US.
Men are more manly. (And over-simplified answer eh?) We don't ask for help. We don't ask for directions, we don't say we don't understand, we don't say we don't know. We are strong and independent. We stand on our own as much as possible. (Well, that's true of non-gang-members anyway) So when we go to court or anything of the sort, we believe our righteousness will factor into the judgement. But that's not how it works.
It's politics. Judges want to be impartial. But when group-X gets involved, they will spin it as if they are anti-X. There are people that say the justice system is biased against black people. I can't say whether that is true or not, but statistics at all levels from preschool, through high school and on into the criminal justice system all seem to agree on certain behavioral trends. Correlation and causation you know? But in the case of men's rights versus women's rights? Well, that's a very different story. But I can say that as often as we have explored the gaps between men and women for income and other inequality, it is all basically a myth when it comes to correcting for certain mitigating factors. Yet the myths live on and manage to manifest themselves in the forms of unwritten practices and policies.