Uh, if they put a 25% tax on porn, won't the porn vendors just move to countries where they don't tax you? There are other countries than the US.
Look at gambling. The biggest centres are offshore in countries with loose (or non-existent) tax and gambling laws. The same thing will happen with porn. The people who run these operations are not stupid guys with their dicks flapping in the wind. They're smart, they're business savvy,and they probably make more than the senator in question. (Funnily enough, for the same job - sticking your dick in places it may or may not belong.)
Those can't ship with bugs. Try applying a patch to several hundred 512 byte micros that are controlling the charging systems on the shock paddles in hospitals.
Go watch the first three seconds of the first trailer.
Did you hear that?
They put engine noises in space.
The series was very careful to NEVER put ANY noises in space. That's one of the reasons the show was awesome - they didn't feed us fake physics. Hell, they killed a guy by making him lose his grip on the ship!
So what? There's going to be some lame-ass scifi movie that dumbs down everything we know. Oh yeah, I'll line up for that.
It doesn't matter if the US Space Command wants to wrest control of these points. They have to get there before they can exert control.
China is the only country with a forward-thinking Space Program. In 1000 years, we'll all be Chinese simply because nobody else went into space and made colonies. It's evolution - didn't you take Science?
Sure, if they'll also impose a death penalty for white-collar crime. It's not like any script kiddie has done more damage than the folks at Enron.
Alternatively, we could just give the kiddies a tiny fine (say, 1% of the value in loss they caused, similar to embezzlement) then 2 years in minimum security at Club Fed, then probation.
After all, if it's not a crime to cook the books, it can't be a crime to make it harder to read the books.
Boss: "Hey, did you get the gore level turned up like I asked?"
Developer: "No, I've been working on this bonus level."
Game: *squeak squeak squeak*
Boss: "Take that the fuck out. This is going to ship to the US, and those wankers can't stand sex."
Developer: "Comment out this line, and this line, and this value can never be true, so it's out. Perfect."
Or maybe - just maybe - the fact that it's a black pixel fucking a white pixel from behind is what's really giving the Puritans a wedgie. As someone else said, in America it's only married couples of the same race but different sexes that have sex, missionary only, and only to conceive.
Of course, if you think that sex is only useful for conception, there have been serious omissions in your education.
I agree. They don't allow penises to be on screen, and it's a disappointment. As a married straight man, I'm appalled by the lack of good, solid male nudity. I liked Oz. I liked Oz a lot.
If you had a wife, you'd know why.
I think you're right. There are a few insecure guys in the ratings office who can't stand the thought of hot buttered buns for breakfast.
You spaced the lines by 10 in case you had to add more lines of code without rewriting everything that you'd already written after that point.
For example, if you'd written:
1. Purchase $500 laptop 2. Purchase $100 security 3. Purchase $100 spyware remover 4. Wait 60 days 5. Profit $300 for 60 days work 6. GOTO 1
You'd have to add line 4, the "lose" laptop option. Then you'd have to rewrite lines 5 and 6 then add line 7.
On the other hand, if you'd written: 10. Purchase $500 laptop 20. Purchase $100 security 30. Purchase $100 spyware remover 40. Wait 60 days 50. Profit $300 for 60 days work 60. GOTO 10
You could just enter: 35. "lose" laptop. Less muss, less fuss.
They clearly didn't read the series before writing their own book, or if they did, they didn't read carefully enough or all the way through all of the books...
If you really, really, really want to read Butlerian Jihad, then get it from a library or a garage sale or a second-hand book store. Don't give them any real money. It'll only encourage them. Do you want to see prequels to I, Robot?
By the way, the ellipsis marks that I've put in here are to remind you that the freaking book had them all over the place...
Uh, the current movies out are Bewitched, Longest Yard, Batman, and Herbie.
The songs are just made on computer based on what they think will sell. The market is artifically created by propaganda and the manipulation of teenage angst. Further, anything more than a few weeks old is sent to the dustbin to be replaced by a newer song.
Of course, the fact that they release horrible crap with no shelf life has NOTHING to do with any perceived loss in profit.
If your economy is so hot, then why the fuck is your debt so high?
The savings that you talk about are not seen by consumers. They're seen by the folks who run the compaines. Otherwise I'd be able to buy shirts for $1. There are no savings. It's bullshit.
The barrier to re-entry is incompetence. We're helping them learn how to make our crap. Once they prefect their art on our dime and we stop learning how to do things, they will not return the favour. Competitors in their own countries don't matter in Communist places like China. It all goes into the same pot.
You don't see things long-term enough to be able to see what they're doing to you.
What's going on is systematic disabling of the north american ability to manufacture and support goods and services. These guys think real long term.
Look at what's going on - things are so much cheaper overseas that it makes economic sense to make and support everything over there. One of our products would be $6 cheaper to make made than our cost on parts alone. In a sense, they would pay us $6 for each board they made. You can't beat that.
As more manufacturing / tech jobs leave the country, the number of laid off employees mean that nobody else is going to take up those trades. "It's impossible to get a job making products or working as a tech, so why would I take the training?" As workers retire / die / commit suicide, the number of people capable of doing any real work dwindle. Soon, we won't understand our own technology since nobody here l earned about it.
Eventually, nobody will be available to make the goods or support them, except those who undercut the prices so severely in the first place. They are then free to set the prices at whatever levels they want, since they have exclusive ability. At that point, there is no national security since we don't have a choice but to do exactly what they want. If they want more money, we have to give it to them or we stop getting stoves, microwaves, cars, etc. If we don't ignore the seizure of Kasmir by force, then the Interac network goes down.
As for backdoors, there's no cause for alarm. The products received will be so bad and bug-filled that there's no need for them.
I'm not saying that all Chinese made goods are crap; I'm saying that all the Chinese-made goods that I've seen are crap. I'm not saying that all Indians give lousy support; I'm saying that all the support I've had from India has been lousy.
You use fake ID and wear a disguise. Wear coloured contacts and a wig and you're good to go. Dress differently. Never visit the same place twice and change your disguise often.
I don't do this, but it's obvious to me so I thought I'd share.
There are exploits in every piece of software and firmware that can be taken advantage of. It's just easier to exploit the MS software because it's been done before and there's a bigger payload.
It's not a testament to crappy design. What viruses show is this: No matter what you come up with, someone else who is more clever than you will find a way to mess with your design.
Look at Firefox as an example: A wonderful secure browser that lets web pages create and run arbitrary code on your local machine.
The thing is, you can't file for the court costs ahead of time since you can't know what they are. The damages would be for "$10 plus costs", so it would be small-claims court.
As long as you're not a dick in front of the judge, he or she will probably dismiss the case. No responsible judge will let thousands of dollars in legal fees get added onto a trivial amount of money. They would likely fine the other guys for wasting the court's time.
In Canada, it is "loser pays". Our justice system is quite different from the US. Note that I got a 'C' in my one and only Law course.
First, the judge who is going to hear the case will try to arbtirate it. This also gives him or her the benefit of finding out who is being a dick.
The three things you can sue for are: 1. Actual Costs. i.e. I broke your new TV. The receipt was for $450. Includes legal fees.
2. Projected Lost Money. i.e. If I get debilatated, I'd sue for my pay with raises x the number of years until retirement.
3. Emotional Suffering.
If the recording industry sues an individual, all they'd be able to file for is the $15 a CD costs or the $60USD that Yahoo! charges. That's because a corporation cannot suffer from emaotional distress. No judge would hear the case.
Once a bill is introduced, the following must happen. You should know this if you're a Canadian.
1. It is read for the first time in the House of Commons (which has apparently been done.)
2. The bill goes to the Senate, which will set up a committee to go over the bill and modify / approve it.
3. The modified bill will go to the HoC again for a second reading. If passed again, it returns to the Senate for further editing.
4. After the Senate looks over it again, it goes back to the HoC for a third reading and announcement. Once the law has been announced, then it goes into the Copyright Act.
Note that many laws have been passed but never announced, making them unenforceable.
To prevent this bill from being passed, do this:
1. Call and write and email your MP. It's free to do so in Canada. Go to their office and tell them that you want to talk about the bill. (Know the number before you go down.) Don't expect to meet with them. You just want the staff to know that someone was there about Bill C-X and who doesn't support it. Remember that they have their faxes full with US fundie groups complaining about gay marriage.
2. Tell them that you vote and your friends vote. This shouldn't be a lie. (I think that if someone says they don't vote, it's okay to hit them since it's self-defence.)
3. Tell them that if this passes, it's enough to get you to vote for a party that doesn't support it.
4. Remind them that free distribution of Canadian content keeps Canadian culture alive. (Hint: Tragically Hip >> Nickelback.)
5. Talk about the levy placed on blank media that compensates the recording industry.
Two other things of vital note:
1. In Canada, the loser pays the court costs. It's not like in the US where you can bankrupt someone by suing them. If you get in trouble, lawyer up. If your ISP calls, get them to forward all communication to your lawyer.
2. The ISP can charge for providing the information to the industry. I use Shaw, and I can't possibly see them passing up free money. I mean, come on, it's Shaw.
3. Set up a neighbourhood network. Get a good router and let your neighbours in on it. Keep the network open. Keep no records of who has what IP address. Then they have no idea who's doing the infriging since you don't know either!
Slashdot Mirror
It's going to cost $300 for the console, $60 for the games, and at least $10 / month for the Live360! access fee.
You'll be lucky if that's not $10 per month per game.
Uh, if they put a 25% tax on porn, won't the porn vendors just move to countries where they don't tax you? There are other countries than the US.
Look at gambling. The biggest centres are offshore in countries with loose (or non-existent) tax and gambling laws. The same thing will happen with porn. The people who run these operations are not stupid guys with their dicks flapping in the wind. They're smart, they're business savvy,and they probably make more than the senator in question. (Funnily enough, for the same job - sticking your dick in places it may or may not belong.)
I guess you've never heard of an embedded system.
Those can't ship with bugs. Try applying a patch to several hundred 512 byte micros that are controlling the charging systems on the shock paddles in hospitals.
Go watch the first three seconds of the first trailer.
Did you hear that?
They put engine noises in space.
The series was very careful to NEVER put ANY noises in space. That's one of the reasons the show was awesome - they didn't feed us fake physics. Hell, they killed a guy by making him lose his grip on the ship!
So what? There's going to be some lame-ass scifi movie that dumbs down everything we know. Oh yeah, I'll line up for that.
I've already drawn the schematic.
I guess the ads were right after all - Windows does make you more productive.
It doesn't matter if the US Space Command wants to wrest control of these points. They have to get there before they can exert control.
China is the only country with a forward-thinking Space Program. In 1000 years, we'll all be Chinese simply because nobody else went into space and made colonies. It's evolution - didn't you take Science?
Sure, if they'll also impose a death penalty for white-collar crime. It's not like any script kiddie has done more damage than the folks at Enron.
Alternatively, we could just give the kiddies a tiny fine (say, 1% of the value in loss they caused, similar to embezzlement) then 2 years in minimum security at Club Fed, then probation.
After all, if it's not a crime to cook the books, it can't be a crime to make it harder to read the books.
My wife and I both game.
I guess your life sucks compared to mine.
Oh well, sucks to be you.
I think it was more like this:
Boss: "Hey, did you get the gore level turned up like I asked?"
Developer: "No, I've been working on this bonus level."
Game: *squeak squeak squeak*
Boss: "Take that the fuck out. This is going to ship to the US, and those wankers can't stand sex."
Developer: "Comment out this line, and this line, and this value can never be true, so it's out. Perfect."
Or maybe - just maybe - the fact that it's a black pixel fucking a white pixel from behind is what's really giving the Puritans a wedgie. As someone else said, in America it's only married couples of the same race but different sexes that have sex, missionary only, and only to conceive.
Of course, if you think that sex is only useful for conception, there have been serious omissions in your education.
I agree. They don't allow penises to be on screen, and it's a disappointment. As a married straight man, I'm appalled by the lack of good, solid male nudity. I liked Oz. I liked Oz a lot.
If you had a wife, you'd know why.
I think you're right. There are a few insecure guys in the ratings office who can't stand the thought of hot buttered buns for breakfast.
I think "deworsification" is supposed to be like "diversification" but pointless. e.g. if your local doughnut shop started carrying roofing tiles.
You spaced the lines by 10 in case you had to add more lines of code without rewriting everything that you'd already written after that point.
For example, if you'd written:
1. Purchase $500 laptop
2. Purchase $100 security
3. Purchase $100 spyware remover
4. Wait 60 days
5. Profit $300 for 60 days work
6. GOTO 1
You'd have to add line 4, the "lose" laptop option. Then you'd have to rewrite lines 5 and 6 then add line 7.
On the other hand, if you'd written:
10. Purchase $500 laptop
20. Purchase $100 security
30. Purchase $100 spyware remover
40. Wait 60 days
50. Profit $300 for 60 days work
60. GOTO 10
You could just enter: 35. "lose" laptop. Less muss, less fuss.
It was horrible...
They clearly didn't read the series before writing their own book, or if they did, they didn't read carefully enough or all the way through all of the books...
Penny Arcade nailed the review.
If you really, really, really want to read Butlerian Jihad, then get it from a library or a garage sale or a second-hand book store. Don't give them any real money. It'll only encourage them. Do you want to see prequels to I, Robot?
By the way, the ellipsis marks that I've put in here are to remind you that the freaking book had them all over the place...
In Canada, they get put into jail when they come back. A guy just got 10 years for hiring a few girls to "service" him.
Uh, the current movies out are Bewitched, Longest Yard, Batman, and Herbie.
The songs are just made on computer based on what they think will sell. The market is artifically created by propaganda and the manipulation of teenage angst. Further, anything more than a few weeks old is sent to the dustbin to be replaced by a newer song.
Of course, the fact that they release horrible crap with no shelf life has NOTHING to do with any perceived loss in profit.
That's pretty weak too.
How about:
"Maybe that enourmous dark crater is where all the fucking documentation in the [something] distro went!"
or:
"Looks like all the Linux geeks ejaculated in the same spot as part of a big circle-jerk of penguin love."
Sprinkle with random links to wherever you want.
If your economy is so hot, then why the fuck is your debt so high?
The savings that you talk about are not seen by consumers. They're seen by the folks who run the compaines. Otherwise I'd be able to buy shirts for $1. There are no savings. It's bullshit.
The barrier to re-entry is incompetence. We're helping them learn how to make our crap. Once they prefect their art on our dime and we stop learning how to do things, they will not return the favour. Competitors in their own countries don't matter in Communist places like China. It all goes into the same pot.
You don't see things long-term enough to be able to see what they're doing to you.
What's going on is systematic disabling of the north american ability to manufacture and support goods and services. These guys think real long term.
Look at what's going on - things are so much cheaper overseas that it makes economic sense to make and support everything over there. One of our products would be $6 cheaper to make made than our cost on parts alone. In a sense, they would pay us $6 for each board they made. You can't beat that.
As more manufacturing / tech jobs leave the country, the number of laid off employees mean that nobody else is going to take up those trades. "It's impossible to get a job making products or working as a tech, so why would I take the training?" As workers retire / die / commit suicide, the number of people capable of doing any real work dwindle. Soon, we won't understand our own technology since nobody here l earned about it.
Eventually, nobody will be available to make the goods or support them, except those who undercut the prices so severely in the first place. They are then free to set the prices at whatever levels they want, since they have exclusive ability. At that point, there is no national security since we don't have a choice but to do exactly what they want. If they want more money, we have to give it to them or we stop getting stoves, microwaves, cars, etc. If we don't ignore the seizure of Kasmir by force, then the Interac network goes down.
As for backdoors, there's no cause for alarm. The products received will be so bad and bug-filled that there's no need for them.
I'm not saying that all Chinese made goods are crap; I'm saying that all the Chinese-made goods that I've seen are crap. I'm not saying that all Indians give lousy support; I'm saying that all the support I've had from India has been lousy.
You use fake ID and wear a disguise. Wear coloured contacts and a wig and you're good to go. Dress differently. Never visit the same place twice and change your disguise often.
I don't do this, but it's obvious to me so I thought I'd share.
There are exploits in every piece of software and firmware that can be taken advantage of. It's just easier to exploit the MS software because it's been done before and there's a bigger payload.
It's not a testament to crappy design. What viruses show is this: No matter what you come up with, someone else who is more clever than you will find a way to mess with your design.
Look at Firefox as an example: A wonderful secure browser that lets web pages create and run arbitrary code on your local machine.
That's right, I meant assented, not announced. It's been 12 years since Social Studies 11. ;)
So all we have to do is send Adrianne an iPod. That's a plan that can't fail.
The thing is, you can't file for the court costs ahead of time since you can't know what they are. The damages would be for "$10 plus costs", so it would be small-claims court.
As long as you're not a dick in front of the judge, he or she will probably dismiss the case. No responsible judge will let thousands of dollars in legal fees get added onto a trivial amount of money. They would likely fine the other guys for wasting the court's time.
Hey, awesome: my first MOD PARENT UP!
Thank you, and don't forget to actually do the things I've told you to do!
In Canada, it is "loser pays". Our justice system is quite different from the US. Note that I got a 'C' in my one and only Law course.
First, the judge who is going to hear the case will try to arbtirate it. This also gives him or her the benefit of finding out who is being a dick.
The three things you can sue for are:
1. Actual Costs. i.e. I broke your new TV. The receipt was for $450. Includes legal fees.
2. Projected Lost Money. i.e. If I get debilatated, I'd sue for my pay with raises x the number of years until retirement.
3. Emotional Suffering.
If the recording industry sues an individual, all they'd be able to file for is the $15 a CD costs or the $60USD that Yahoo! charges. That's because a corporation cannot suffer from emaotional distress. No judge would hear the case.
Here's what we do:
First, don't panic.
Once a bill is introduced, the following must happen. You should know this if you're a Canadian.
1. It is read for the first time in the House of Commons (which has apparently been done.)
2. The bill goes to the Senate, which will set up a committee to go over the bill and modify / approve it.
3. The modified bill will go to the HoC again for a second reading. If passed again, it returns to the Senate for further editing.
4. After the Senate looks over it again, it goes back to the HoC for a third reading and announcement. Once the law has been announced, then it goes into the Copyright Act.
Note that many laws have been passed but never announced, making them unenforceable.
To prevent this bill from being passed, do this:
1. Call and write and email your MP. It's free to do so in Canada. Go to their office and tell them that you want to talk about the bill. (Know the number before you go down.) Don't expect to meet with them. You just want the staff to know that someone was there about Bill C-X and who doesn't support it. Remember that they have their faxes full with US fundie groups complaining about gay marriage.
2. Tell them that you vote and your friends vote. This shouldn't be a lie. (I think that if someone says they don't vote, it's okay to hit them since it's self-defence.)
3. Tell them that if this passes, it's enough to get you to vote for a party that doesn't support it.
4. Remind them that free distribution of Canadian content keeps Canadian culture alive. (Hint: Tragically Hip >> Nickelback.)
5. Talk about the levy placed on blank media that compensates the recording industry.
Two other things of vital note:
1. In Canada, the loser pays the court costs. It's not like in the US where you can bankrupt someone by suing them. If you get in trouble, lawyer up. If your ISP calls, get them to forward all communication to your lawyer.
2. The ISP can charge for providing the information to the industry. I use Shaw, and I can't possibly see them passing up free money. I mean, come on, it's Shaw.
3. Set up a neighbourhood network. Get a good router and let your neighbours in on it. Keep the network open. Keep no records of who has what IP address. Then they have no idea who's doing the infriging since you don't know either!