What I would do is to go to the heads of the various industries pushing for new anti-piracy laws (so talk to the movie studios, to the record companies, talk to the gaming companies, talk to the software houses etc etc) and ask them a simple question: What forms of piracy do you wish to target that can't be effectively targeted using current legislation.
That is, I would find out what they wish to be able to do in attacking online piracy but that they cant do under current law.
Ok, so pay a little extra and buy 2 external USB hard disks instead of just the one and every few days/every week you rotate the disk through an offsite location the feds wont know about or find.
If Germany hates censorship so much, why do they continue to maintain the infamous "Index" and why do they continue to restrict, ban or require changes to games as diverse as "Command & Conquer 3" and "Doom 2"?
Yes I know about the bans in Germany of things that relate to Nazis and/or to killing of Germans but regardless of the reasons, its still Censorship.
No, what this shows is that SOPA/PIPA is necessary so that the government (and big media companies) can take sites down without any of that pesky "due process" and "evidence gathering"
It doesn't matter what SOPA is intended for, its about what big corporations, law enforcement and vested interests will be able to use it for. They will use it for anything they dont like and short of a Supreme Court challenge on first amendment grounds, you will have no recourse to fight.
The problem is that PIPA and SOPA have far too many negative side effects. Neither bill will actually do all that much to stop online piracy but if passed the resulting law will be used by the government, law enforcement, big corporations and vested interests to get sites shut down because they dont like what the sites have to say.
I will NEVER support ANY bill that makes ANY web site (including sites like Rapidshare or YouTube) liable for the actions of their users in regards to content uploaded to the site but for which the site has not received any kind of take-down notice.
We need to go the other way and pass legislation GUARANTEEING freedom on the internet and BANNING ISPs from carrying out deep packet inspection on their customers or implementing DNS re-directions and blocks or denying customers the abillity to use the software and network protocols of their choice.
UltraHLE simulated the N64 hardware by looking for specific known functions for graphics rendering and stuff and patching them to call directly to vaguely compatible x86 versions of those functions.
If Google and Facebook and others write the text on their blackout pages properly and make it clear that the future of the free web is at stake (which it is, at least if you are in the USA) in a way that normal users can understand, people will sit up and take notice.
Especially if the front page says "if these bills pass, blackout pages like this could become permanent".
I am not sure how true it is but I have seen a suggestion that for any field anywhere in the world currently being used to grow corn for Ethanol, you could grow something else (exactly what depends on where the cornfield is) on that same field and it would cost less to produce and produce more ethanol for the same amount of space.
I will also not use Java for any project where I have the choice to do so and will continue to boycott Java as long as Oracle continues with its lawsuits against Android and Google.
Under SOPA, downloading a film from the internet could result in MORE jail time than if you walked into a store and stole the DVD at gunpoint.
If the fact that downloading a file from the internet is considered a more serious crime than stealing things at gunpoint doesn't show that the USA is totally screwed up, I dont know what does.
The bill still allows ISPs, web hosts, social networks, search engines and content providers to be forced to take content down even when the one issuing the take down notice has no ownership or connection to the content. And it still provides no option to challenge the take down.
Web sites have been talking about blacking out their front pages for 24 hours to get the point across. The time for talk is passed. With votes on SOPA due soon, now is the time for these sites to act.
Take Facebook for example. They have millions of users in the US (I cant find an exact figure). If Facebook replaced their front page (including the front page as seen through the various mobile devices and apps) so that it basically said "The US government is currently debating a new law that will force web sites like Facebook to shut down. Please write your congressmen and senators and tell them to vote NO on SOPA" and said it in a way that even normal people can understand (and included a link to a site to make it simple to find out how to contact their representatives), it might actually get enough of the population to sit up and take notice. An awful lot of people are going to care if they cant update their Facebook status anymore and cant send tweets and cant watch funny videos on YouTube.
I saw figures somewhere showing that the Ford F-Series, Dodge Ram and the Chevy/GMC full size trucks were the most profitable vehicles. No way the big 3 are going to hurt those profit margins by making a compact pickup.
They need to close the loopholes in CAFE that allow vehicles to be counted as "trucks" even though they clearly are NOT. And the loopholes that allow these trucks to get away with near zero CAFE because they happen to be able to take Ethanol as a fuel (even though they quite likely will never see any Ethanol in their tank)
Close those loopholes and the automakers wont be able to keep making all those SUVs and crossovers and minivans whilst meeting their CAFE numbers.
The money to fund this access would come from the Federal Election Commission who would give every candidate a fixed amount of cash to buy whatever media options they think will get them elected (newspaper ads, radio ads, letterbox drops, TV ads, billboards, whatever)
As someone who was in one of the first year groups to use graphics calculators in high school maths classes, what should be done is that they should be allowed to use the calculators but the tests and exams should be written such that they need to learn and understand how to do the things and cant just answer the question by pressing some buttons on the calculator.
Here is what I would do to make feedback on eBay better for everyone involved: 1.Both sellers and buyers get to leave any kind of feedback they like (negative or positive or neutral) 2.At some point after the auction, a timer is started to allow the leaving of feedback for a limited time. When the timer runs out, neither party can leave feedback anymore. 3.Feedback left by one party remains hidden until either both parties have left feedback or the limited time has expired. (the timer exists simply to stop one party from leaving no feedback in order to prevent their own feedback (left by the other party) from becoming public/visible.
The purpose of this idea is to ensure that neither party has to worry about the repercussions (including retaliatory negative feedback) of leaving negative feedback for the other party.
Given the number of people who say/think "I would go to the movies more often if it was cheaper" (myself included), wouldn't it benefit the studios to change the way the theaters are allowed to charge for tickets and lower the prices (especially at the times of the day or week when business is usually quiet) which would result in more bums on seats and more profit for the studios (especially considering the large % of ticket revenue that goes to studios)
I bet a lot more people would go to the movies at $10 than would go at $20.
Here in Australia, cheap Android phones are pushing into the space (and price point) that would have previously have been occupied by featurephones.
I suspect featurephones are more popular in the US where even the cheapest Android handset generally requires an expensive data plan but a featurephone generally does not.
As an Aussie, I am of the belief that being involved in the F-35 program was a mistake. We should have bought existing aircraft instead and I think we should have considered all the available options (both in terms of the F-35 and the decision to retire the F-111 Aardvark and buy the F/A-18F Super Hornet) instead of just buying the Super Hornet and Lightning just because best mates Howard and Bush thought it was a good thing to do.
I go to a lot of movies here in Australia and I have never once had problems with cellphones or other distractions. All of the theaters I have been to have a notice as part of the pre-show ads that says "please switch your cellphone to silent or turn it off" and everyone seems to comply and switch it off. The only problem I have is the price which is why I go when its cheap (some theaters around here have cheap tickets on certain days of the week or before 5pm or whatever)
To all those people who hate going to the theaters because of cellphone distractions and other crap, complain. If enough people complain to AMC, Regal and the other chains about the cellphone noise, rubbish/cleanliness and other issues and if those people include in their complaints how they would go to the movies more often if it wasnt for these problems, the theater chains might sit up and take notice. After all, their goal is to get bums in seats and if making their theaters a better place to go gets more bums in seats, that's more money for them (especially if fixing the problems can be done without huge expense to the theater chains)
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What I would do is to go to the heads of the various industries pushing for new anti-piracy laws (so talk to the movie studios, to the record companies, talk to the gaming companies, talk to the software houses etc etc) and ask them a simple question:
What forms of piracy do you wish to target that can't be effectively targeted using current legislation.
That is, I would find out what they wish to be able to do in attacking online piracy but that they cant do under current law.
Ok, so pay a little extra and buy 2 external USB hard disks instead of just the one and every few days/every week you rotate the disk through an offsite location the feds wont know about or find.
If Germany hates censorship so much, why do they continue to maintain the infamous "Index" and why do they continue to restrict, ban or require changes to games as diverse as "Command & Conquer 3" and "Doom 2"?
Yes I know about the bans in Germany of things that relate to Nazis and/or to killing of Germans but regardless of the reasons, its still Censorship.
No, what this shows is that SOPA/PIPA is necessary so that the government (and big media companies) can take sites down without any of that pesky "due process" and "evidence gathering"
What did MegaUpload do (or not do) that Rapidshare and all the other similar hosting sites didn't do (or did do)?
Or are RapidShare and other similar sites next on the hit list?
It doesn't matter what SOPA is intended for, its about what big corporations, law enforcement and vested interests will be able to use it for. They will use it for anything they dont like and short of a Supreme Court challenge on first amendment grounds, you will have no recourse to fight.
The problem is that PIPA and SOPA have far too many negative side effects.
Neither bill will actually do all that much to stop online piracy but if passed the resulting law will be used by the government, law enforcement, big corporations and vested interests to get sites shut down because they dont like what the sites have to say.
I will NEVER support ANY bill that makes ANY web site (including sites like Rapidshare or YouTube) liable for the actions of their users in regards to content uploaded to the site but for which the site has not received any kind of take-down notice.
We need to go the other way and pass legislation GUARANTEEING freedom on the internet and BANNING ISPs from carrying out deep packet inspection on their customers or implementing DNS re-directions and blocks or denying customers the abillity to use the software and network protocols of their choice.
UltraHLE simulated the N64 hardware by looking for specific known functions for graphics rendering and stuff and patching them to call directly to vaguely compatible x86 versions of those functions.
Yet another argument in favor of boycotting ALL Symantec/Norton products in favor of any of any of the good quality free-as-in-no-cost alternatives.
If Google and Facebook and others write the text on their blackout pages properly and make it clear that the future of the free web is at stake (which it is, at least if you are in the USA) in a way that normal users can understand, people will sit up and take notice.
Especially if the front page says "if these bills pass, blackout pages like this could become permanent".
I am not sure how true it is but I have seen a suggestion that for any field anywhere in the world currently being used to grow corn for Ethanol, you could grow something else (exactly what depends on where the cornfield is) on that same field and it would cost less to produce and produce more ethanol for the same amount of space.
I will also not use Java for any project where I have the choice to do so and will continue to boycott Java as long as Oracle continues with its lawsuits against Android and Google.
Internode here in Australia offers IPv6 as an option (and its real IPv6 where the whole ISP network is IPv6)
Under SOPA, downloading a film from the internet could result in MORE jail time than if you walked into a store and stole the DVD at gunpoint.
If the fact that downloading a file from the internet is considered a more serious crime than stealing things at gunpoint doesn't show that the USA is totally screwed up, I dont know what does.
The bill still allows ISPs, web hosts, social networks, search engines and content providers to be forced to take content down even when the one issuing the take down notice has no ownership or connection to the content. And it still provides no option to challenge the take down.
Web sites have been talking about blacking out their front pages for 24 hours to get the point across. The time for talk is passed. With votes on SOPA due soon, now is the time for these sites to act.
Take Facebook for example. They have millions of users in the US (I cant find an exact figure). If Facebook replaced their front page (including the front page as seen through the various mobile devices and apps) so that it basically said "The US government is currently debating a new law that will force web sites like Facebook to shut down. Please write your congressmen and senators and tell them to vote NO on SOPA" and said it in a way that even normal people can understand (and included a link to a site to make it simple to find out how to contact their representatives), it might actually get enough of the population to sit up and take notice. An awful lot of people are going to care if they cant update their Facebook status anymore and cant send tweets and cant watch funny videos on YouTube.
I saw figures somewhere showing that the Ford F-Series, Dodge Ram and the Chevy/GMC full size trucks were the most profitable vehicles. No way the big 3 are going to hurt those profit margins by making a compact pickup.
They need to close the loopholes in CAFE that allow vehicles to be counted as "trucks" even though they clearly are NOT.
And the loopholes that allow these trucks to get away with near zero CAFE because they happen to be able to take Ethanol as a fuel (even though they quite likely will never see any Ethanol in their tank)
Close those loopholes and the automakers wont be able to keep making all those SUVs and crossovers and minivans whilst meeting their CAFE numbers.
The money to fund this access would come from the Federal Election Commission who would give every candidate a fixed amount of cash to buy whatever media options they think will get them elected (newspaper ads, radio ads, letterbox drops, TV ads, billboards, whatever)
As someone who was in one of the first year groups to use graphics calculators in high school maths classes, what should be done is that they should be allowed to use the calculators but the tests and exams should be written such that they need to learn and understand how to do the things and cant just answer the question by pressing some buttons on the calculator.
Here is what I would do to make feedback on eBay better for everyone involved:
1.Both sellers and buyers get to leave any kind of feedback they like (negative or positive or neutral)
2.At some point after the auction, a timer is started to allow the leaving of feedback for a limited time. When the timer runs out, neither party can leave feedback anymore.
3.Feedback left by one party remains hidden until either both parties have left feedback or the limited time has expired. (the timer exists simply to stop one party from leaving no feedback in order to prevent their own feedback (left by the other party) from becoming public/visible.
The purpose of this idea is to ensure that neither party has to worry about the repercussions (including retaliatory negative feedback) of leaving negative feedback for the other party.
Given the number of people who say/think "I would go to the movies more often if it was cheaper" (myself included), wouldn't it benefit the studios to change the way the theaters are allowed to charge for tickets and lower the prices (especially at the times of the day or week when business is usually quiet) which would result in more bums on seats and more profit for the studios (especially considering the large % of ticket revenue that goes to studios)
I bet a lot more people would go to the movies at $10 than would go at $20.
Here in Australia, cheap Android phones are pushing into the space (and price point) that would have previously have been occupied by featurephones.
I suspect featurephones are more popular in the US where even the cheapest Android handset generally requires an expensive data plan but a featurephone generally does not.
As an Aussie, I am of the belief that being involved in the F-35 program was a mistake. We should have bought existing aircraft instead and I think we should have considered all the available options (both in terms of the F-35 and the decision to retire the F-111 Aardvark and buy the F/A-18F Super Hornet) instead of just buying the Super Hornet and Lightning just because best mates Howard and Bush thought it was a good thing to do.
I go to a lot of movies here in Australia and I have never once had problems with cellphones or other distractions. All of the theaters I have been to have a notice as part of the pre-show ads that says "please switch your cellphone to silent or turn it off" and everyone seems to comply and switch it off.
The only problem I have is the price which is why I go when its cheap (some theaters around here have cheap tickets on certain days of the week or before 5pm or whatever)
To all those people who hate going to the theaters because of cellphone distractions and other crap, complain. If enough people complain to AMC, Regal and the other chains about the cellphone noise, rubbish/cleanliness and other issues and if those people include in their complaints how they would go to the movies more often if it wasnt for these problems, the theater chains might sit up and take notice. After all, their goal is to get bums in seats and if making their theaters a better place to go gets more bums in seats, that's more money for them (especially if fixing the problems can be done without huge expense to the theater chains)