The time spent by those thousands of people in playing a game could have been better spent
FUCK YOU. How dare you presume to have the right to decide what is "better" for other people to do with their time? Doing nothing at all has real value to any economy - it's called rest. Entertainment which you see as a total unproductive waste of time has real value to any economy - the entertained emerge as more satisfied individuals, better willing and able to cope with other tasks. Life is about balance, not production. And you sir are way, way out of balance.
Foreign languages teach mental dexterity in the verbal domain and allow people to experiences worldviews other than their own.
No I'm pretty sure that "foreign" languages exist so that people in "foreign parts" can communicate with each other, not simply to entertain and culturally enrich Americans. Besides you cannot learn "culture" through language. You have to actually er, live the culture. I don't base this on "stuff I saw on a travel documentary", I've actually lived all my life in several foreign countries and I am fluent in 4 languages. The "cultural enrichment" aspect of learning/speaking a foreign language is good only for the PTA meeting.
Yeah those poor banks, only earning an up to 3% "cut" of every single transaction, billing most of their customers for regular "transaction" fees, hardly paying out interest at all to savers, getting money for free from the government (because you know, they're too big to fail) and charging their debtors usurious interest. Poor, poor banks. Changing the terminals is so EXPENSIVE.
Seriously, they pass a regulation saying all terminals must be changed by x date and surprise, you the merchant are going to have to pay for it - didn't you read your contract? But it's ok we'll deduct the cost of the new equipment and installation directly from your account so you don't have to worry... This is how the real world works. Me big bank. You small business. Me screw you.
You are trying to secure something that is inherently insecure. Currency is not art. It is DESIGNED to be given to someone else. That's its function. Be it a coin or a cheque or a magnetic strip or a bunch of TCP/IP packets, there will always be a way to hijack currency simply because currency has to move from person A to person B. All you need to do is figure out how to stand between them. Theft is the ultimate "man in the middle".
Cost of breaches? My dear sir, haven't you noticed that banks are now too big to fail? There is no cost to anything for a bank. If there is a cash flow problem simply go talk to uncle Ben and he'll hand you another few interest free billions - much easier than actually having to work (gasp) for your money. Consequences are for the little guy. When he gets in trouble we buy him up cheap. But seriously do you know how HARD it would be to actually secure the network? It's not like the card holder is responsible anyway - at least not directly. We'll just destroy the value of his currency and the solvency of his government and pretend to fix the problems while doing nothing at all. It's better for everyone trust me.
You're in the right direction but not thinking radically enough. The US will want all financial transaction data everywhere. Cos, you know, "terrorists". Go on, let Uncle Sam into your wallet. Surely you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide, citizen. Oh by the way we've noticed you have too much money, more than your "fair share". Somewhere buried in the 13,000 odd pages of US tax code there's something you or your accountant missed, your money is ours now. Hand it over quietly and maybe we don't throw you in jail.
To be honest, if anything physicists might have been inventing phenomena, dimensions and particles a little to zealously to explain the math. Scaling it back a little bit is not the same as denying the existence of things that are easily detectable and testable, like cancer, world hunger, pollution, etc. There's nothing wrong with a little mythology - it's normal when you're on the edge of the map pushing back the "Here Be Dragons!" fog. But although some explanations and hypotheses could be dead on, it's unlikely that they all are.
A machine operating at the rate of one variation per micro-second would require over 1090 years to calculate the first move
I'm guessing that we have gotten a little faster since then with our current peta and soon to be exascale machines... micro-second? An eternity. Recalculate that spreadsheet, professor.
No, the crime is copyright infringement. THAT is what infringement is, not someone downloading an episode of Downton Abbey because they missed it the other day.
The people who lose out are the indy artists who aren't signed up to get a cut of the tariff
At last count, all of the artists. I mean, they can sign up. They just have to go down to the basement in one of the store-rooms in the back of a locked filing cabinet in a locked lavatory with the "Beware of the Leopard" sign... and fill out the appropriate form (Sorry Douglas...)
IANAL. Sticking your gun in someone's face is probably illegal wherever there are laws. The actual words may vary. I may have meant brandishing, I don't know, and honestly the point is academic.
No if you point your gun at people they don't have probable cause for anything, the crime has already been committed. You can bring a video camera into the movies all you want. You can even point it at the screen all you want. No crime. In civilized countries, you can even record it. They can only accuse you of a crime when you start distributing (and some even more sensible places say charging people money to see) the protected work. But America is obsessed with all this "pre-crime" nonsense. You've taken a civil transgression and turned it into a crime. OK. So now it's not the actual selling the work that's the crime, it's making the copy. OK. But now you Americans want to say that people with equipment CAPABLE OF RECORDING - are, you know, guilty of the same "crime" too?
Like the saying "tarred with the same brush". Might sound real good, but it makes for real shitty law. Or great law if you're a lawyer I guess. Police have absolutely no right to "prevent" crime. That's the job of parents, teachers, churches, philosophers, and other humans who try to impart some sort of civilized morality on their charges. The job of police is to investigate crime AFTER the fact.
Slashdot Mirror
The time spent by those thousands of people in playing a game could have been better spent
FUCK YOU. How dare you presume to have the right to decide what is "better" for other people to do with their time? Doing nothing at all has real value to any economy - it's called rest. Entertainment which you see as a total unproductive waste of time has real value to any economy - the entertained emerge as more satisfied individuals, better willing and able to cope with other tasks. Life is about balance, not production. And you sir are way, way out of balance.
Memorizing a thousand poems will not make your mind sharper
No, but actually reading them might.
Foreign languages teach mental dexterity in the verbal domain and allow people to experiences worldviews other than their own.
No I'm pretty sure that "foreign" languages exist so that people in "foreign parts" can communicate with each other, not simply to entertain and culturally enrich Americans. Besides you cannot learn "culture" through language. You have to actually er, live the culture. I don't base this on "stuff I saw on a travel documentary", I've actually lived all my life in several foreign countries and I am fluent in 4 languages. The "cultural enrichment" aspect of learning/speaking a foreign language is good only for the PTA meeting.
Yeah those poor banks, only earning an up to 3% "cut" of every single transaction, billing most of their customers for regular "transaction" fees, hardly paying out interest at all to savers, getting money for free from the government (because you know, they're too big to fail) and charging their debtors usurious interest. Poor, poor banks. Changing the terminals is so EXPENSIVE.
Seriously, they pass a regulation saying all terminals must be changed by x date and surprise, you the merchant are going to have to pay for it - didn't you read your contract? But it's ok we'll deduct the cost of the new equipment and installation directly from your account so you don't have to worry... This is how the real world works. Me big bank. You small business. Me screw you.
You are trying to secure something that is inherently insecure. Currency is not art. It is DESIGNED to be given to someone else. That's its function. Be it a coin or a cheque or a magnetic strip or a bunch of TCP/IP packets, there will always be a way to hijack currency simply because currency has to move from person A to person B. All you need to do is figure out how to stand between them. Theft is the ultimate "man in the middle".
Cost of breaches? My dear sir, haven't you noticed that banks are now too big to fail? There is no cost to anything for a bank. If there is a cash flow problem simply go talk to uncle Ben and he'll hand you another few interest free billions - much easier than actually having to work (gasp) for your money. Consequences are for the little guy. When he gets in trouble we buy him up cheap. But seriously do you know how HARD it would be to actually secure the network? It's not like the card holder is responsible anyway - at least not directly. We'll just destroy the value of his currency and the solvency of his government and pretend to fix the problems while doing nothing at all. It's better for everyone trust me.
You're in the right direction but not thinking radically enough. The US will want all financial transaction data everywhere. Cos, you know, "terrorists". Go on, let Uncle Sam into your wallet. Surely you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide, citizen. Oh by the way we've noticed you have too much money, more than your "fair share". Somewhere buried in the 13,000 odd pages of US tax code there's something you or your accountant missed, your money is ours now. Hand it over quietly and maybe we don't throw you in jail.
There's nothing wrong with gluten, unless you happen to be allergic to it. Then your life becomes hell. But the gluten itself is not "evil".
The sun as an energy source. Who would have believed such bunk! Yep, snake oil indeed!
This is normal when the machine is smarter than the staff.
Once I logged into CompuServe at 9600 baud when everyone was using 300 baud.
To be honest, if anything physicists might have been inventing phenomena, dimensions and particles a little to zealously to explain the math. Scaling it back a little bit is not the same as denying the existence of things that are easily detectable and testable, like cancer, world hunger, pollution, etc. There's nothing wrong with a little mythology - it's normal when you're on the edge of the map pushing back the "Here Be Dragons!" fog. But although some explanations and hypotheses could be dead on, it's unlikely that they all are.
Or at least some sort of mathematical proof :)
No, we simply need to strap Bieber to the next mars rover. This would solve 2 problems.
On the contrary, that is what has gotten us where we are today. We would be so much further ahead if it wasn't for the lint pickers...
No the computer would probably still be working its way through the possible outcomes. We'd be safe for another 100 years or so...
He always resigns on the first move, so I doubt it.
It's only fun for the good players :)
A machine operating at the rate of one variation per micro-second would require over 1090 years to calculate the first move
I'm guessing that we have gotten a little faster since then with our current peta and soon to be exascale machines... micro-second? An eternity. Recalculate that spreadsheet, professor.
No, the crime is copyright infringement. THAT is what infringement is, not someone downloading an episode of Downton Abbey because they missed it the other day.
The people who lose out are the indy artists who aren't signed up to get a cut of the tariff
At last count, all of the artists. I mean, they can sign up. They just have to go down to the basement in one of the store-rooms in the back of a locked filing cabinet in a locked lavatory with the "Beware of the Leopard" sign... and fill out the appropriate form (Sorry Douglas...)
No one is buying blank cassette tapes or CD-ROM/DVD's anymore. Waaaaa we need more money!
IANAL. Sticking your gun in someone's face is probably illegal wherever there are laws. The actual words may vary. I may have meant brandishing, I don't know, and honestly the point is academic.
No if you point your gun at people they don't have probable cause for anything, the crime has already been committed. You can bring a video camera into the movies all you want. You can even point it at the screen all you want. No crime. In civilized countries, you can even record it. They can only accuse you of a crime when you start distributing (and some even more sensible places say charging people money to see) the protected work. But America is obsessed with all this "pre-crime" nonsense. You've taken a civil transgression and turned it into a crime. OK. So now it's not the actual selling the work that's the crime, it's making the copy. OK. But now you Americans want to say that people with equipment CAPABLE OF RECORDING - are, you know, guilty of the same "crime" too?
Like the saying "tarred with the same brush". Might sound real good, but it makes for real shitty law. Or great law if you're a lawyer I guess. Police have absolutely no right to "prevent" crime. That's the job of parents, teachers, churches, philosophers, and other humans who try to impart some sort of civilized morality on their charges. The job of police is to investigate crime AFTER the fact.
Displaying a firearm in public is an established crime. Owning a video camera and bringing it into a theatre is not. NEXT.