Yes, I think this will be a messy conflict. However, it is something we had to do. Afghanistan has basically told us to go screw ourselves since about the 12 of September. They've tried to dictate terms to the most powerful nation in the world, and we weren't having any of it. What we were asking was real simple...extradition of somebody involved in crimes committed in the US.
Before you as for evidence linking him to the attacks on the 11th of September, that doesn't matter. We don't NEED evidence of that. Bin Laden has already been indicted for previous attacks, and has claimed credit for them. So whether he was responsible for recent attacks or not (which it is fairly reasonable to think he was), he was responsible for previous attacks, and for that alone he should be extradicted.
As a member of the military, I have no problem with what is going on. These guys have spit in our face, then smiled. So now we're going to punch them in their collective mouths. I love this country, and I hate to see it pushed around. I have no problem risking my life to do this.
I suggest everybody do this: tape a video of the World Trade Center falling. Stick it on the shelf. Any time you have second thoughts about our involvement in any of these operations, put it in, watch it, and remember that there are a few thousand Americans dying on your TV screen.
And final note to morons: not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims support terrorists. Muslim Americans, especially, do NOT tend to support terrorists. Just as not all Christians supported Hitler. And no, I am not Muslim.
Try this on for size...I went to a church that met in a high-school auditorium, but that same district would not allow bible-study clubs on school grounds.
The difference? The church had to pay gobs of money to the district.
Let's try to figure out just how much an MP3 is really worth...
The lowest priced new CD I can think of seeing was 7.99 (At the Drive In, from Grand Royal)...so we figure this is probably approaching cost. Realize that cost does not mean the price of a CD, we all know that's cheap...cost meaning CD (with printing)/Case/Liner(with printing)/distribution/etc. In fact, we'll assume this is the cost, and that Grand Royal records and ATDI are making NO money off this CD (which is obviously false).
How many tracks does the average CD have? We'll go with 10, even though I suspect it's closer to 12 or 14. (keep in mind that I'm rounding in favor of the record companies here). This leaves us 79 cents per song. Keep in mind that that is assuming that there is a record company selling a CD at absolutely no profit, and that the record stores are making no profit off it either.
So what is a fair price to pay for mp3's? Of napster, I'd say it needs to be much lower...possibly 25-50 cents...after all, you are providing the bandwidth. If a record company (or other service) provides bandwidth, I'd say 75 cents to a dollar. This, to me, seems fair...it's less than I spend on the average CD.
Oh wait, we almost forgot...what if my HD crashes? Back it up on CD's? nope...CD's get scratched, too. What I am willing to spend is one dollar on a song in a format that I can trade across any platform that I might own, and which I can retrieve again should the unthinkable happen. And if I'm paying anything more than about two dollars for this service monthly, it better have the same selection as the "old" napster. Which it won't, because when you charge even a cent you lost 50% of your users. Oh, and if were paying for downloads, I better not be charged unless the download successful, especially on dial-up.
So, with this reasoning, I'd say that P2P Mp3's are worth about a quarter, and Mp3's off the record companies servers are worth about a dollar.
So what does a.NAP sound like it's worth? I'll go about 3 cents. And I MIGHT pay about a buck a month membership. But probably not.
Call me crazy, but the cable wiring in my house is the CABLE company's problem. In fact, it's my experience that cable companies get "mad" when you mess with their wiring. I think that part of customer service for a cable company is to check little things, you know, like the ACTUAL WIRING THAT THEY ARE PROVIDING SERVICE THROUGH. Granted, they have every right to charge you to replace it (if they so choose), but it falls under their domain.
Granted, this is all just my opinion...I ain't no lawyer (or judge).
This is the same as telephone companies...it simply proves (to any sensible person) how much of a monopoly they possess. What option is there for the average computer user. Do you think my mom can figure out Linux? Nope. So, with a lack of real competetion, even the most hated of monopolies will prosper.
On topic: I've argued with my telephone company about several outages I've had this month...like nearly a week's worth. That's a 25% downtime, DAMMIT! They don't seem to understand the "I'm paying for services I'm not getting" concept. They figure once they hook a line up to the jack, I'm theirs. And, with a lack of competition, they're absolutely right.
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Yes, I think this will be a messy conflict. However, it is something we had to do. Afghanistan has basically told us to go screw ourselves since about the 12 of September. They've tried to dictate terms to the most powerful nation in the world, and we weren't having any of it. What we were asking was real simple...extradition of somebody involved in crimes committed in the US.
Before you as for evidence linking him to the attacks on the 11th of September, that doesn't matter. We don't NEED evidence of that. Bin Laden has already been indicted for previous attacks, and has claimed credit for them. So whether he was responsible for recent attacks or not (which it is fairly reasonable to think he was), he was responsible for previous attacks, and for that alone he should be extradicted.
As a member of the military, I have no problem with what is going on. These guys have spit in our face, then smiled. So now we're going to punch them in their collective mouths. I love this country, and I hate to see it pushed around. I have no problem risking my life to do this.
I suggest everybody do this: tape a video of the World Trade Center falling. Stick it on the shelf. Any time you have second thoughts about our involvement in any of these operations, put it in, watch it, and remember that there are a few thousand Americans dying on your TV screen.
And final note to morons: not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims support terrorists. Muslim Americans, especially, do NOT tend to support terrorists. Just as not all Christians supported Hitler. And no, I am not Muslim.
Try this on for size...I went to a church that met in a high-school auditorium, but that same district would not allow bible-study clubs on school grounds.
The difference? The church had to pay gobs of money to the district.
Let's try to figure out just how much an MP3 is really worth...
The lowest priced new CD I can think of seeing was 7.99 (At the Drive In, from Grand Royal)...so we figure this is probably approaching cost. Realize that cost does not mean the price of a CD, we all know that's cheap...cost meaning CD (with printing)/Case/Liner(with printing)/distribution/etc. In fact, we'll assume this is the cost, and that Grand Royal records and ATDI are making NO money off this CD (which is obviously false).
How many tracks does the average CD have? We'll go with 10, even though I suspect it's closer to 12 or 14. (keep in mind that I'm rounding in favor of the record companies here). This leaves us 79 cents per song. Keep in mind that that is assuming that there is a record company selling a CD at absolutely no profit, and that the record stores are making no profit off it either. So what is a fair price to pay for mp3's? Of napster, I'd say it needs to be much lower...possibly 25-50 cents...after all, you are providing the bandwidth. If a record company (or other service) provides bandwidth, I'd say 75 cents to a dollar. This, to me, seems fair...it's less than I spend on the average CD.
Oh wait, we almost forgot...what if my HD crashes? Back it up on CD's? nope...CD's get scratched, too. What I am willing to spend is one dollar on a song in a format that I can trade across any platform that I might own, and which I can retrieve again should the unthinkable happen. And if I'm paying anything more than about two dollars for this service monthly, it better have the same selection as the "old" napster. Which it won't, because when you charge even a cent you lost 50% of your users. Oh, and if were paying for downloads, I better not be charged unless the download successful, especially on dial-up.
So, with this reasoning, I'd say that P2P Mp3's are worth about a quarter, and Mp3's off the record companies servers are worth about a dollar.
So what does a .NAP sound like it's worth? I'll go about 3 cents. And I MIGHT pay about a buck a month membership. But probably not.
Um...yeah, it is.
Call me crazy, but the cable wiring in my house is the CABLE company's problem. In fact, it's my experience that cable companies get "mad" when you mess with their wiring. I think that part of customer service for a cable company is to check little things, you know, like the ACTUAL WIRING THAT THEY ARE PROVIDING SERVICE THROUGH. Granted, they have every right to charge you to replace it (if they so choose), but it falls under their domain.
Granted, this is all just my opinion...I ain't no lawyer (or judge).
This is the same as telephone companies...it simply proves (to any sensible person) how much of a monopoly they possess. What option is there for the average computer user. Do you think my mom can figure out Linux? Nope. So, with a lack of real competetion, even the most hated of monopolies will prosper. On topic: I've argued with my telephone company about several outages I've had this month...like nearly a week's worth. That's a 25% downtime, DAMMIT! They don't seem to understand the "I'm paying for services I'm not getting" concept. They figure once they hook a line up to the jack, I'm theirs. And, with a lack of competition, they're absolutely right.