"We can expect the Bureau to be used for more overtly political uses in the future - spying on the not-in-power political parties is no longer prohibited and will, therefore, occur. The NYT has an interesting analysis. Finally, the Washington Post reports that banks will be creating a massive financial database/blacklist of terrorists, wife-beaters, anti-globalization protesters, etc"
Wow. Now there's a balanced view of the matter. People like this should be required to mention they know jack about the subject they're submitting. I know it's envogue to hate the increased powers of governemnt agencies, but really, this is the same kind of dumb-ass who will rant and scream the next time another plane lands in a major city because they took his advice and didn't do anything.
Assuming that the author doesn't like planes falling from the sky, what would he suggest we do about it? "Everybody should have full and complete privacy and I expect the Governement to provide for our domestic defense without violating that privacy!" Let me direct you to the definition of Anarchy: 1 a : absence of government b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government. 2 a : absence or denial of any authority or established order b : absence of order. Go ahead and tell me that's the society you want because it would be darwinistic and you'd likely be dead. The total privacy this person pines for is simply not a reality, or at least not one in which people exist. Obviously he has all the answers. Government is bad. I'd like to see some real suggestions that maintain your saftey against forgien and domestic terrorism while simutaneously safeguarding your privacy, because what we were doing obviously didn't cut it. I want privacy as much as the next guy, but a government without the power to do anything is useless. How am I not surprised it was labelled news when it should have been trolled out of existance?
"I would think that in situations like this, that a tiered pricing approach might be better than applying a flat rate. Think you are going to be a high bandwidth user? Pay a fair price to your upstream. Web and e-mail only? Pay less."
You would think, wouldn't you. The naivety of that statment scares me. Hasn't this person learned anything from the RIAA? Useless patent laws? Business in general!? THEY DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT YOU. YOU ARE CATTLE TO THEM. A SOURCE OF INCOME TO BE MILKED. THEY WILL TREAT YOU LIKE CATTLE UNTIL YOU AND THE HERD BITE THEM HARD ENOUGH TO WHERE THEY HAVE TO CHANGE, and then only enough to just squeak by. It's a rare company who actually treats their customers like they are the reason they're in business.
I know! Instead of using all that money to finance crap like alternate energy and oil reserves, we need to build a orbiting satillite network designed to prevent such a meteor strike! That way we can use all the resources we want and not worry about screwing the next generation! Not only that, but we need to produce more oil consuming vehicals to build up an ozone layer to prevent the next ice age! See? I can bend the "facts" with one brain tied behind my back!
But seriously. I agree with the get off this planet part. Seeing as how we seem to be unwilling to invest in any sort imact event defence, keeping all your eggs in one basket is suicidal. Also, I do believe in alternate eneries, if just to make things nicer to look at (and easier to breath).
I have a tough time agreeing with the first point. Yes, I can see it, and to a certain extent even. If I get lots of use out of a pirated piece of software, then I'm the type who will pay for it (eventially). But just the fact that I'm using it doesn't mean they're losing money. I would have never bought it. They would have never recieved my cash for the product. Ever.
But there are disturbing implications the longer I think about it. Could you use the same argument for a shoplifter? He would have never bought the item, but the fact that he could lift it for free makes it Ok. No, because the store has lost a physical product and cannot sell that stolen item to aybody else. Cash is lost. But software is different. The copy is still sitting on the shelf. It still has a chance to generate revenue whether I'm using it for free or not. I still have to stand by my original assertion: I'm not making them any money, but they aren't loosing any either, regardless of how many times I use it. Now if it becomes an indispensible tool in my daily life or I couldn't live without it, then damn right I should pay up. The company deserves that. I don't know.. Slanted ethics? Oh well.
As to your second point, just because it isn't worth pirating doesn't mean it won't be... I've seen too many crappy titles ripped to puff-up a warez site library.
"...costs billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs every year."
Of course, this assumes that the pirate would have actually shelled out the $600+ to buy Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to begin with. I know I have tons of pirated software that I never would have bought in the first place. It's simply a convenience factor. If I would have never purchased the software, but have it now, it's actually a wash when it comes to profit/loss statements. That's not even factoring how many people buy the software after they find they like it. But, hey, the argument works for MP3's, why not software? No, those jobs disappeared because your product sucks, not because of Piracy. I don't see Adobe folding anytime soon and last I saw, Id was alive and well despite how much Doom, Quake and Wolf were/are pirated. It's that new math, gotta love it.
Mod parent up. Really, because it is a good point. Not only can't most people hear that wonderful increase in quality, but you'll hear the same thing you do now due to the hardware's limitations. Sure, they'll manufacture "ultra-hifi" speakers and headphones for these things, but how much is that going to cost you? Imagined benefits... The RIAA = Consumer kryptonite.
"Of course some researchers estimate that in 30-40 years we won't have much of a choice." Funny, they said the same thing back in the 80s. In fact, we should be living in a Mad Max world by now... Troll me, but it's the truth.
Can we please move away from the fragile 4 1/2 inch media already? And what is the massive amount of space honestly going to gain us? A debatable increase in quality? The majority of people won't notice or care. More space for more songs and extra "media"? Nah. First, you're price per disk will skyrocket and second, I doubt many artists are going to record 30 songs to a disk. Compilations, maybe, but not new stuff. And if they do manage to keep the price the same, why are we paying so much now? There's not much real value for the customer here if you look beyond the hype. Fair and equitable may ass.
Hey, they've finally realized who their core audiance is and have really been capitalizing on it as of late... Trek has always had it's share of bodies, but it seems they've just now realized how far they can push it... I mean, I can't help but to remember the "oil em up" scene in the Enterprise premier... If it were an Anime I'd be screaming "FAN SERVICE!!!!"
Absolutely no way he deserves one of these. You know why? No, not because he starred in TJ Hooker, but for his latest sin-- Iron Chef: USA. It's like watching bad WWF acting mixed with Boxing announcers talking about food. It's so bad... He just can't sink much lower than this... Well, he could do another Trek, movie, but that not withstanding...
Well, at least somebody has a balanced view here. I see too many people here basing their beliefs on either passion or probables which can be twisted to anyones liking. I find it difficult to believe there isn't some life out there, maybe even intelligent, but as to it's density in the universe (and others), don't make your guesses out ot be facts, because that's all they are.
...Because we're just throwing out road maps to Sol in the form of people radioing the stars, hoping for an answer and assuming everybody plays nice.
"Oh, hello there Earthings! We got your message and came as quickly as we could! Oh, no, we didn't have any problems following the directions you gave us... They were every well laid out! Oh, sorry to be such a bother, but we really must exterminate you now!"
And that's why nobody knows what happened to Elvis... Who killed Marylin Monroe or how many Gunmen it took to kill JFK... Damn accidental Carnivore email dumps! We can blame everything on it now!
Oh, come on... It can't be all bad... After all, how many sites have phrases like: "Did I mention HOW MUCH ASS ELO KICKS? Fucking metric tons of it! So big it has to be measured in parsecs!"
After that, it kind of rambles into stupidity, but it was good while it lasted. And the.tar format. Uuuugh... I'm feeling queezy....
Is it possible, just possible, that the people backing Eminem realize the potential of a pre-release MP3 on sales and are using it to their advantage? HA! I almost had myself believing that one... Well, sooner or later somebody is bound to get smart about this sort of thing.
"Mister" as in "retired" you tard. Sorry, but I don't go around calling everybody by their military rank. And I whole-heartedly agree, the man is a pioneer and deserves respect for it. He probably would get a kick out of this project.
He's not going that high. Yeah there's junk, but he's not going high enough. But then, I don't know the altitude all that crap resides. That, and NASA has NORAD to track that crap. Somehow, all I think his budget allows for is a forcast from The Weather Channel.
...So the kid is getting off with just a year in juvie? Here's a slap on the wrist, boy. Do a better job at hiding your tracks next time. Though honestly, what are they going to do with this kid? Military school seems like a good place to start. Send him to one of those civilian boot camps. Who knows... Maybe some good did come out of this... Maybe he got an anal raping while serving time.
1961 -- Current Official Altitude Record Set: Commander Malcolm Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather of the U.S. Navy ascend to 113,739.9 feet (just over 20 miles) in 'Lee Lewis Memorial,' a polyethylene balloon.
1958 -- Project Manhigh, Major Simons takes his balloon to an altitude of 101,516 feet.
I wish this guy good luck. I'll be impressed if he launches, more impressed if he returns in one piece, but let him orbit the Earth a few times before calling him an astronaut. Hmmm... I know Mr. Chuck Yeager wouldn't be too happy with that comment.
Slashdot Mirror
"We can expect the Bureau to be used for more overtly political uses in the future - spying on the not-in-power political parties is no longer prohibited and will, therefore, occur. The NYT has an interesting analysis. Finally, the Washington Post reports that banks will be creating a massive financial database/blacklist of terrorists, wife-beaters, anti-globalization protesters, etc"
Wow. Now there's a balanced view of the matter. People like this should be required to mention they know jack about the subject they're submitting. I know it's envogue to hate the increased powers of governemnt agencies, but really, this is the same kind of dumb-ass who will rant and scream the next time another plane lands in a major city because they took his advice and didn't do anything.
Assuming that the author doesn't like planes falling from the sky, what would he suggest we do about it? "Everybody should have full and complete privacy and I expect the Governement to provide for our domestic defense without violating that privacy!" Let me direct you to the definition of Anarchy: 1 a : absence of government b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government. 2 a : absence or denial of any authority or established order b : absence of order. Go ahead and tell me that's the society you want because it would be darwinistic and you'd likely be dead. The total privacy this person pines for is simply not a reality, or at least not one in which people exist. Obviously he has all the answers. Government is bad. I'd like to see some real suggestions that maintain your saftey against forgien and domestic terrorism while simutaneously safeguarding your privacy, because what we were doing obviously didn't cut it. I want privacy as much as the next guy, but a government without the power to do anything is useless. How am I not surprised it was labelled news when it should have been trolled out of existance?
"I would think that in situations like this, that a tiered pricing approach might be better than applying a flat rate. Think you are going to be a high bandwidth user? Pay a fair price to your upstream. Web and e-mail only? Pay less."
You would think, wouldn't you. The naivety of that statment scares me. Hasn't this person learned anything from the RIAA? Useless patent laws? Business in general!? THEY DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT YOU. YOU ARE CATTLE TO THEM. A SOURCE OF INCOME TO BE MILKED. THEY WILL TREAT YOU LIKE CATTLE UNTIL YOU AND THE HERD BITE THEM HARD ENOUGH TO WHERE THEY HAVE TO CHANGE, and then only enough to just squeak by. It's a rare company who actually treats their customers like they are the reason they're in business.
I know! Instead of using all that money to finance crap like alternate energy and oil reserves, we need to build a orbiting satillite network designed to prevent such a meteor strike! That way we can use all the resources we want and not worry about screwing the next generation! Not only that, but we need to produce more oil consuming vehicals to build up an ozone layer to prevent the next ice age! See? I can bend the "facts" with one brain tied behind my back!
But seriously. I agree with the get off this planet part. Seeing as how we seem to be unwilling to invest in any sort imact event defence, keeping all your eggs in one basket is suicidal. Also, I do believe in alternate eneries, if just to make things nicer to look at (and easier to breath).
I have a tough time agreeing with the first point. Yes, I can see it, and to a certain extent even. If I get lots of use out of a pirated piece of software, then I'm the type who will pay for it (eventially). But just the fact that I'm using it doesn't mean they're losing money. I would have never bought it. They would have never recieved my cash for the product. Ever.
But there are disturbing implications the longer I think about it. Could you use the same argument for a shoplifter? He would have never bought the item, but the fact that he could lift it for free makes it Ok. No, because the store has lost a physical product and cannot sell that stolen item to aybody else. Cash is lost. But software is different. The copy is still sitting on the shelf. It still has a chance to generate revenue whether I'm using it for free or not. I still have to stand by my original assertion: I'm not making them any money, but they aren't loosing any either, regardless of how many times I use it. Now if it becomes an indispensible tool in my daily life or I couldn't live without it, then damn right I should pay up. The company deserves that. I don't know.. Slanted ethics? Oh well.
As to your second point, just because it isn't worth pirating doesn't mean it won't be... I've seen too many crappy titles ripped to puff-up a warez site library.
"...costs billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs every year."
Of course, this assumes that the pirate would have actually shelled out the $600+ to buy Adobe Photoshop 7.0 to begin with. I know I have tons of pirated software that I never would have bought in the first place. It's simply a convenience factor. If I would have never purchased the software, but have it now, it's actually a wash when it comes to profit/loss statements. That's not even factoring how many people buy the software after they find they like it. But, hey, the argument works for MP3's, why not software? No, those jobs disappeared because your product sucks, not because of Piracy. I don't see Adobe folding anytime soon and last I saw, Id was alive and well despite how much Doom, Quake and Wolf were/are pirated. It's that new math, gotta love it.
Mod parent up. Really, because it is a good point. Not only can't most people hear that wonderful increase in quality, but you'll hear the same thing you do now due to the hardware's limitations. Sure, they'll manufacture "ultra-hifi" speakers and headphones for these things, but how much is that going to cost you? Imagined benefits... The RIAA = Consumer kryptonite.
"Of course some researchers estimate that in 30-40 years we won't have much of a choice."
Funny, they said the same thing back in the 80s. In fact, we should be living in a Mad Max world by now... Troll me, but it's the truth.
I just had to say it to beat the fanboys to the punch. I couldn't give a crap about Ogg personnally.
Can we please move away from the fragile 4 1/2 inch media already? And what is the massive amount of space honestly going to gain us? A debatable increase in quality? The majority of people won't notice or care. More space for more songs and extra "media"? Nah. First, you're price per disk will skyrocket and second, I doubt many artists are going to record 30 songs to a disk. Compilations, maybe, but not new stuff. And if they do manage to keep the price the same, why are we paying so much now? There's not much real value for the customer here if you look beyond the hype. Fair and equitable may ass.
Hey, they've finally realized who their core audiance is and have really been capitalizing on it as of late... Trek has always had it's share of bodies, but it seems they've just now realized how far they can push it... I mean, I can't help but to remember the "oil em up" scene in the Enterprise premier... If it were an Anime I'd be screaming "FAN SERVICE!!!!"
Absolutely no way he deserves one of these. You know why? No, not because he starred in TJ Hooker, but for his latest sin-- Iron Chef: USA . It's like watching bad WWF acting mixed with Boxing announcers talking about food. It's so bad... He just can't sink much lower than this... Well, he could do another Trek, movie, but that not withstanding...
Sorry, but I hear the major Credit Card Companies already have the corner on subversive gifts to college students.
Well, at least somebody has a balanced view here. I see too many people here basing their beliefs on either passion or probables which can be twisted to anyones liking. I find it difficult to believe there isn't some life out there, maybe even intelligent, but as to it's density in the universe (and others), don't make your guesses out ot be facts, because that's all they are.
...Because we're just throwing out road maps to Sol in the form of people radioing the stars, hoping for an answer and assuming everybody plays nice.
"Oh, hello there Earthings! We got your message and came as quickly as we could! Oh, no, we didn't have any problems following the directions you gave us... They were every well laid out! Oh, sorry to be such a bother, but we really must exterminate you now!"
And that's why nobody knows what happened to Elvis... Who killed Marylin Monroe or how many Gunmen it took to kill JFK... Damn accidental Carnivore email dumps! We can blame everything on it now!
Oh, come on... It can't be all bad... After all, how many sites have phrases like:
.tar format. Uuuugh... I'm feeling queezy....
"Did I mention HOW MUCH ASS ELO KICKS? Fucking metric tons of it! So big it has to be measured in parsecs!"
After that, it kind of rambles into stupidity, but it was good while it lasted. And the
Everybody wants to be a bad-ass.
Kinda reminds me of Eminem.
Is it possible, just possible, that the people backing Eminem realize the potential of a pre-release MP3 on sales and are using it to their advantage? HA! I almost had myself believing that one... Well, sooner or later somebody is bound to get smart about this sort of thing.
"Mister" as in "retired" you tard. Sorry, but I don't go around calling everybody by their military rank. And I whole-heartedly agree, the man is a pioneer and deserves respect for it. He probably would get a kick out of this project.
He's not going that high. Yeah there's junk, but he's not going high enough. But then, I don't know the altitude all that crap resides. That, and NASA has NORAD to track that crap. Somehow, all I think his budget allows for is a forcast from The Weather Channel.
There's a fair chance HE will be the dead weight.
...So the kid is getting off with just a year in juvie? Here's a slap on the wrist, boy. Do a better job at hiding your tracks next time. Though honestly, what are they going to do with this kid? Military school seems like a good place to start. Send him to one of those civilian boot camps. Who knows... Maybe some good did come out of this... Maybe he got an anal raping while serving time.
The highest balloon flights attempted...
1961 -- Current Official Altitude Record Set: Commander Malcolm Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather of the U.S. Navy ascend to 113,739.9 feet (just over 20 miles) in 'Lee Lewis Memorial,' a polyethylene balloon.
1958 -- Project Manhigh, Major Simons takes his balloon to an altitude of 101,516 feet.
I wish this guy good luck. I'll be impressed if he launches, more impressed if he returns in one piece, but let him orbit the Earth a few times before calling him an astronaut. Hmmm... I know Mr. Chuck Yeager wouldn't be too happy with that comment.
Perhaps, but probably not. (wanders off to correct his sig)