Well, if you don't like it, you're free to move to a different country. Some of those US companies that are moving to Mexico are starting to realize that it's a common thing for a group of thieves to steal several cars a day right out of a well-lit and highly visible parking lot, while the police tell them, "Yep, that's life. Get used to it."
Exactly as should happen here in America. If I recall there was a cell phone company that pushed a firmware update to a line of phones that removed its Bluetooth data capability and GPS functionality. Well, not really removed, locked is more like it. Locked until you decided to pay a few dollars a month to unlock them..they got taken to court but nothing ever came of it because it was said that a judgment favoring the plaintiff would remove incentive for companies to keep their products up to date technologically. Huh?
"This eradicates the germs, they aren't being poisoned or having their chemical processes blocked (which is what most antibiotics do), it's ripping the germs apart at the atomic level. You don't develop a resistance to that."
Actually, resistance was already developed from it. You know, life on Earth isn't mostly carbon based out of chance. Carbon forms bonds that are easy to work with, but aren't susceptible to being torn apart easily. It can form up to four bonds, including double or triple bonds, and good luck trying to break a triple bond without a few kJ of energy in the right spot.
"High barriers to entry, low margins and high investments doesn't sound like a good market to be in."
Low margins on the cell phone network? Are you crazy? They buy phones that cost them $100 and turn around and sell them for $500. On top of that, they massively oversell the network resources they have available. On top of that, many operate at reduced tax rates for various technology/communications grants. On top of that, most of their employees in the sales sector make minimum wage plus commission. On top of that they sell $5 cords for $50.
High barriers to entry, check, but to say that the cell phone industry has low margins is like saying funeral homes operate on low margins.
Don't you worry your precious little head, the RIAA/MPAA has you taken care of. If they had their way, there'd be no way to use the first sale doctrine on movies or music. Instead, music and movies would require a key to be read by a device, and the entirety of that work, from then on, could only be played on that device, evermore. All consumer electronics capable of having inputs or removable media would have to 'phone home' when it receives a key, to see if it's already in use.
Oh, yeah, they wouldn't want to PAY for the authentication infrastructure and servers and bandwidth, so they'd jack prices up 2x and then change systems every few years, forcing you to buy the CD again under a new key scheme to be able to listen to it.
And yes, loaning movies to a friend is 'public viewing' since its being viewed by third parties, though I don't think it's been prosecuted unless it's viewed by your 200 friends in the town square.
You know, I'd say it's unethical to disclose private and legal information. I'd say it's ethical to disclose private and illegal information. It's also ethical to disclose immoral information along the lines of, "We're either going to have to take a 1% pay cut, or lay off 20 people." Perhaps if people start doing this, then we'll see the true face of companies.
The article has nothing to do with loyalty. If my company wants to lay me off, they're welcome to do so, but I'm still expected to remain within the bounds of the law. I might think poorly of them or get skittish the next time a lay-off spree happens in some future company, but I certainly wouldn't turn molehills into mountains by risking jail time.
The problem with all of your theories is that they don't take into account collusion. Do you think Sprint really charges $500 for a smart phone because they marked it up a little bit? Hell no. Sprint charges $500 for a smart phone because everyone else does, and we don't have any other options. Sprint locks down their phones just like AT&T locks down theirs and Verizon locks down theirs. Basically, we've got a trapped market.
Broadband is very similar. Very few options mean that there's no way in hell we'll ever get decent prices and decent service. There are many many many cases where a provider has been bought out or gone out of business only to have the sole remaining company double or triple their rates to 'provide better service for you, our beloved customers.' How they continue to get away with this is beyond me.
All in all, it'll be the same way when and if wireless technology can provide comparable speeds. The cell companies will likely keep their rates the same as the broadband providers, simply because they can. They might allow their rates to dip below it, but only with 10 year contract and $7,000 broadband card.
tl;dr: I'd be absolutely shocked if rates were even cut in half, much less down to what other countries get broadband for.
Hamburgers are much different. With hamburgers, it's much cheaper for them to provide what they advertise as to what they don't. Like McDonalds wouldn't profit off of using dog or rat over beef cattle in their hamburgers, assuming of course that their hamburgers are actually advertised as being beef. A lot of people can tell if the taste of a hamburger is off, since beef has a distinct flavor. Most of all, I can't think of any beef cattle in the world that have a natural toxin or are typically unfavorably digested.
Sushi is different. A lot of fish have very similar flavors, and look similar as well. Even a sushi chef if they aren't a veteran might have trouble telling true tuna from fake tuna. Personally, as long as they aren't using endangered or toxic fish, I'm fine with them offering tuna-like fish, as long as they don't offer it for tuna-specific prices.
They suck up a company and intellectual property, they cut the budgets, take over management of the game, and demand a copy be on the shelves six months from three months ago, whether it's ready to go or not. They'll release an alpha build if that's what it takes, then they'll take it out of the ass of the company they bought when the game fails. They never take responsibility for their actions.
I pray EA never comes out with a Wing Commander game. The Command and Conquer days have long since been over, the dream has been killed off. I don't want that to happen to Wing Commander. From my experiences with the SNES Wing Commanders and the Privateer games, I hold those sacred in my heart. EA doesn't need to fuck those up, either, but neither will they sell the IP in fears that it might conflict with Madden games.
Your home being covered in 5ft of snow with the power out and not enough supplies to last a week could easily be fatal to people who aren't prepared. What if you're old and physically can't get out of your door, or your oxygen machine only has a day or two of battery power? Hopefully people have the common sense to keep a look out for the weather, though, because playing in a spring thunderstorm can just as surely be fatal as being snowed in and not being found for a month.
I've known many great people who have gotten fucked by 'the system' once they complete their degrees and get a job in education. They can barely afford to survive and pay off their loans, and God forbid they need good insurance or wreck their car and don't have full coverage.
We need for the educators to be paid better, or at least, fairly. Perhaps they can have support staff to grade the papers, perhaps they can be paid fair overtime if the support staff fail them. Taxes would have to be raised, yes, but I'm tired of seeing the best teachers living in a tiny four room house with a '96 Mazda with an oil leak because they'll never be able to afford anything more since 80% of their free time goes to school.
Well, we're gearing up for 'nationalized' healthcare, so in order for everyone to afford it, the floodgates are open to ban what is deemed 'unhealthy.' I agree that mixing large amounts of caffeine and alcohol is inherently unhealthy, it's not something that can't be recovered from with a multivitamin, a lot of water, and a good meal. If you were drinking a few Sparks' a day, though, you'd die by 40 of hypertension.
In the end, the consumers will not get all of their money back, even if the company is sued into oblivion. What will happen is lawyers will get the largest share, with a small sum going back to the actual consumers.
Why bother running a successful business with a plan when you can run a fake business and get the hell out of Dodge when it starts coming down around you? The customers, of course, will want their money back, but will probably get a 15% off your next purchase coupon, good until yesterday, while the lawyers will get a few million to settle.
The lawsuit will end up failing because they don't have set terms as to what the termination fee is to pay for. We all know that it's to 'pay for the phone' that they subsidized, but also remember that they get the phones for VERY cheap. We're talking $50 for a low end flip phone with a camera on it, and then they tell us that they actually cost them $250. Smart phones are a little different, and the market is opening up, slowly but surely. Still, I know my two year old Treo 755p doesn't cost as much as a decent laptop to produce. It's more like $100. Still, though, the cell companies will tell you that they paid $500+ for it, and will expect you to pay that much.
Anyway.
AT&T has a lot of experience with contract tomfoolery. They'll turn around and say that the early termination fee is to cover many things. The subsidizing of the phone, the 'resources' on the network that you were projected to use but aren't going to be using any more, the administration of your account, the process of disconnecting and freeing up your phone number, etc. Each one of these things SHOULD already be covered in your cell phone bill, but cell phone companies like to think that their monthly fees should be 100% profit, with their operating costs tacked on to each account, to make more money. Kind of like kids that think if they go out and waste their money on an expensive meal, that they're entitled to more allowance money, because of 'expenses'
A kid with a length of chain and a potato gun could also take out some significant infrastructure in the power industry. Physical security is important as well.
Most systems here in the US are only secure because they're obscure. Someone who has worked in the industry for more than about a year has enough knowledge to cause some widespread destruction. Up until recently, the emergency broadcast service was only a phone number and modem, with no authentication!
In other news, Greedo McGreedly Insurance Company denies to pay for woman's life saving appendectomy, claiming that having an appendix is a 'prior condition' and paying for its removal shouldn't fall on their shoulders.
The woman said that she had paid her dues for 20 years, only going to the doctor once or twice for unrelated causes.
A friend of mine is obsessed with all things Japanese. I'm interested in the language myself, so I used the Rosetta stone software. I was impressed with what I was able to learn. Fast forward two years.
He knows way more Japanese than I do. I can barely remember the katakana/hirogana. He has a real actual USE for it, and uses it daily. I don't use it much at all. When I do, I have to look everything up.
I suspect if I had gotten some manga (in Japanese) or read a lot of Japanese websites, I'd be much better at it today.
The government, when it conducts things like this, is divided from the people. Sometimes this is necessary to protect the country, especially in matters relating to war.
This is not war. The government has no 'good' reason to make this treaty secret. Many inquiring minds want to know what's going on, so we know what to say to our senators, to approve or disapprove, to agree or disagree. That leaves us with only one option, which is malice. This is being done with malice. A lot of money is changing hands, a lot of hands are being shaken, and thus a new era is launched, the government and the corporations.
The corporations are the new citizens. The old citizens will merely be discounted in all but the most obvious of democratic process. Hired thugs will kick in doors to seize 'counterfeit' music and 'counterfeiting' (aka devices or computers used in counterfeiting' machines.
So, this could be the straw that broke the camel's back. We've known that the government has been in various pockets over the years, but now this? What can anyone do once the controllers of resources and energy are set against them?
You can think of a swarm of smaller drones as just that, a swarm. Each element can behave independently or can work together with other elements, possibly more efficiently than before. As an example, you could have a few elements with sensing and targeting gear, and a few elements carrying small guided munitions (think hand grenade or smaller size). Rather than having to pilot the payload-carriers up to the target, you could use the sensor elements to relay targeting information to home base, and relay a firing solution back to the payload-carriers.
The payload carriers can then program their munitions and send them on their way.
Or, the controller of these elements can use the sensor elements to get a better angle of attack, say, by moving around behind the bunker or higher in the air, before sending down the munitions.
Right now, a drone is just that, a drone. It's a sensor package, a weapon carrier, and a communication platform, all with a big power system and avionics package.
Imagine a swarm of 20 toy helicopters carrying various packages of sensors and hand grenades. Lose one, image another one to replace it and get it ready for the next mission.
The book part is obvious, but then, so are wheels on cars.
The unique and unpredictable part is the design. The Kindle is a single screen PDA type system, and Spring's design is a two screen system. Consumers will choose whichever one they like the best, and the patent is to prevent the Kindle 2 from copying Spring's design when Spring wins the competition.
There are many things besides pedal position that can potentially affect the throttle. Possibly something that is linked to failure of the brakes. However, in either circumstance, the car can be stopped by putting it in neutral to retain power steering and braking, or by turning off the ignition. Absolute worst case scenario is to look for whatever is going to do the least damage to stop you. Guard rail, runaway barriers, curbs, etc.
Most people don't make it to step 2, however, and will hold the brakes to the floor (be it brakes or 'brakes' aka gas pedal) until someone dies for it. Imagine if they were on a cell phone at the time..the startle reaction probably wouldn't happen until they've hit something.
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Every investor that invests in this stock market should be arrested for piracy by proxy.
Well, if you don't like it, you're free to move to a different country. Some of those US companies that are moving to Mexico are starting to realize that it's a common thing for a group of thieves to steal several cars a day right out of a well-lit and highly visible parking lot, while the police tell them, "Yep, that's life. Get used to it."
Exactly as should happen here in America. If I recall there was a cell phone company that pushed a firmware update to a line of phones that removed its Bluetooth data capability and GPS functionality. Well, not really removed, locked is more like it. Locked until you decided to pay a few dollars a month to unlock them..they got taken to court but nothing ever came of it because it was said that a judgment favoring the plaintiff would remove incentive for companies to keep their products up to date technologically. Huh?
"This eradicates the germs, they aren't being poisoned or having their chemical processes blocked (which is what most antibiotics do), it's ripping the germs apart at the atomic level. You don't develop a resistance to that."
Actually, resistance was already developed from it. You know, life on Earth isn't mostly carbon based out of chance. Carbon forms bonds that are easy to work with, but aren't susceptible to being torn apart easily. It can form up to four bonds, including double or triple bonds, and good luck trying to break a triple bond without a few kJ of energy in the right spot.
"High barriers to entry, low margins and high investments doesn't sound like a good market to be in."
Low margins on the cell phone network? Are you crazy? They buy phones that cost them $100 and turn around and sell them for $500. On top of that, they massively oversell the network resources they have available. On top of that, many operate at reduced tax rates for various technology/communications grants. On top of that, most of their employees in the sales sector make minimum wage plus commission. On top of that they sell $5 cords for $50.
High barriers to entry, check, but to say that the cell phone industry has low margins is like saying funeral homes operate on low margins.
Don't you worry your precious little head, the RIAA/MPAA has you taken care of. If they had their way, there'd be no way to use the first sale doctrine on movies or music. Instead, music and movies would require a key to be read by a device, and the entirety of that work, from then on, could only be played on that device, evermore. All consumer electronics capable of having inputs or removable media would have to 'phone home' when it receives a key, to see if it's already in use.
Oh, yeah, they wouldn't want to PAY for the authentication infrastructure and servers and bandwidth, so they'd jack prices up 2x and then change systems every few years, forcing you to buy the CD again under a new key scheme to be able to listen to it.
And yes, loaning movies to a friend is 'public viewing' since its being viewed by third parties, though I don't think it's been prosecuted unless it's viewed by your 200 friends in the town square.
You know, I'd say it's unethical to disclose private and legal information. I'd say it's ethical to disclose private and illegal information. It's also ethical to disclose immoral information along the lines of, "We're either going to have to take a 1% pay cut, or lay off 20 people." Perhaps if people start doing this, then we'll see the true face of companies.
The article has nothing to do with loyalty. If my company wants to lay me off, they're welcome to do so, but I'm still expected to remain within the bounds of the law. I might think poorly of them or get skittish the next time a lay-off spree happens in some future company, but I certainly wouldn't turn molehills into mountains by risking jail time.
The problem with all of your theories is that they don't take into account collusion. Do you think Sprint really charges $500 for a smart phone because they marked it up a little bit? Hell no. Sprint charges $500 for a smart phone because everyone else does, and we don't have any other options. Sprint locks down their phones just like AT&T locks down theirs and Verizon locks down theirs. Basically, we've got a trapped market.
Broadband is very similar. Very few options mean that there's no way in hell we'll ever get decent prices and decent service. There are many many many cases where a provider has been bought out or gone out of business only to have the sole remaining company double or triple their rates to 'provide better service for you, our beloved customers.' How they continue to get away with this is beyond me.
All in all, it'll be the same way when and if wireless technology can provide comparable speeds. The cell companies will likely keep their rates the same as the broadband providers, simply because they can. They might allow their rates to dip below it, but only with 10 year contract and $7,000 broadband card.
tl;dr: I'd be absolutely shocked if rates were even cut in half, much less down to what other countries get broadband for.
Hamburgers are much different. With hamburgers, it's much cheaper for them to provide what they advertise as to what they don't. Like McDonalds wouldn't profit off of using dog or rat over beef cattle in their hamburgers, assuming of course that their hamburgers are actually advertised as being beef. A lot of people can tell if the taste of a hamburger is off, since beef has a distinct flavor. Most of all, I can't think of any beef cattle in the world that have a natural toxin or are typically unfavorably digested.
Sushi is different. A lot of fish have very similar flavors, and look similar as well. Even a sushi chef if they aren't a veteran might have trouble telling true tuna from fake tuna. Personally, as long as they aren't using endangered or toxic fish, I'm fine with them offering tuna-like fish, as long as they don't offer it for tuna-specific prices.
EA really is the touch of death.
They suck up a company and intellectual property, they cut the budgets, take over management of the game, and demand a copy be on the shelves six months from three months ago, whether it's ready to go or not. They'll release an alpha build if that's what it takes, then they'll take it out of the ass of the company they bought when the game fails. They never take responsibility for their actions.
I pray EA never comes out with a Wing Commander game. The Command and Conquer days have long since been over, the dream has been killed off. I don't want that to happen to Wing Commander. From my experiences with the SNES Wing Commanders and the Privateer games, I hold those sacred in my heart. EA doesn't need to fuck those up, either, but neither will they sell the IP in fears that it might conflict with Madden games.
Hey, don't discount snow storms.
Your home being covered in 5ft of snow with the power out and not enough supplies to last a week could easily be fatal to people who aren't prepared. What if you're old and physically can't get out of your door, or your oxygen machine only has a day or two of battery power? Hopefully people have the common sense to keep a look out for the weather, though, because playing in a spring thunderstorm can just as surely be fatal as being snowed in and not being found for a month.
I've known many great people who have gotten fucked by 'the system' once they complete their degrees and get a job in education. They can barely afford to survive and pay off their loans, and God forbid they need good insurance or wreck their car and don't have full coverage.
We need for the educators to be paid better, or at least, fairly. Perhaps they can have support staff to grade the papers, perhaps they can be paid fair overtime if the support staff fail them. Taxes would have to be raised, yes, but I'm tired of seeing the best teachers living in a tiny four room house with a '96 Mazda with an oil leak because they'll never be able to afford anything more since 80% of their free time goes to school.
Well, we're gearing up for 'nationalized' healthcare, so in order for everyone to afford it, the floodgates are open to ban what is deemed 'unhealthy.' I agree that mixing large amounts of caffeine and alcohol is inherently unhealthy, it's not something that can't be recovered from with a multivitamin, a lot of water, and a good meal. If you were drinking a few Sparks' a day, though, you'd die by 40 of hypertension.
In the end, the consumers will not get all of their money back, even if the company is sued into oblivion. What will happen is lawyers will get the largest share, with a small sum going back to the actual consumers.
Maybe not even in cash.
Why bother running a successful business with a plan when you can run a fake business and get the hell out of Dodge when it starts coming down around you? The customers, of course, will want their money back, but will probably get a 15% off your next purchase coupon, good until yesterday, while the lawyers will get a few million to settle.
The lawsuit will end up failing because they don't have set terms as to what the termination fee is to pay for. We all know that it's to 'pay for the phone' that they subsidized, but also remember that they get the phones for VERY cheap. We're talking $50 for a low end flip phone with a camera on it, and then they tell us that they actually cost them $250. Smart phones are a little different, and the market is opening up, slowly but surely. Still, I know my two year old Treo 755p doesn't cost as much as a decent laptop to produce. It's more like $100. Still, though, the cell companies will tell you that they paid $500+ for it, and will expect you to pay that much.
Anyway.
AT&T has a lot of experience with contract tomfoolery. They'll turn around and say that the early termination fee is to cover many things. The subsidizing of the phone, the 'resources' on the network that you were projected to use but aren't going to be using any more, the administration of your account, the process of disconnecting and freeing up your phone number, etc. Each one of these things SHOULD already be covered in your cell phone bill, but cell phone companies like to think that their monthly fees should be 100% profit, with their operating costs tacked on to each account, to make more money. Kind of like kids that think if they go out and waste their money on an expensive meal, that they're entitled to more allowance money, because of 'expenses'
A kid with a length of chain and a potato gun could also take out some significant infrastructure in the power industry. Physical security is important as well.
Most systems here in the US are only secure because they're obscure. Someone who has worked in the industry for more than about a year has enough knowledge to cause some widespread destruction. Up until recently, the emergency broadcast service was only a phone number and modem, with no authentication!
In other news, Greedo McGreedly Insurance Company denies to pay for woman's life saving appendectomy, claiming that having an appendix is a 'prior condition' and paying for its removal shouldn't fall on their shoulders.
The woman said that she had paid her dues for 20 years, only going to the doctor once or twice for unrelated causes.
A friend of mine is obsessed with all things Japanese. I'm interested in the language myself, so I used the Rosetta stone software. I was impressed with what I was able to learn. Fast forward two years.
He knows way more Japanese than I do. I can barely remember the katakana/hirogana. He has a real actual USE for it, and uses it daily. I don't use it much at all. When I do, I have to look everything up.
I suspect if I had gotten some manga (in Japanese) or read a lot of Japanese websites, I'd be much better at it today.
The government, when it conducts things like this, is divided from the people. Sometimes this is necessary to protect the country, especially in matters relating to war.
This is not war. The government has no 'good' reason to make this treaty secret. Many inquiring minds want to know what's going on, so we know what to say to our senators, to approve or disapprove, to agree or disagree. That leaves us with only one option, which is malice. This is being done with malice. A lot of money is changing hands, a lot of hands are being shaken, and thus a new era is launched, the government and the corporations.
The corporations are the new citizens. The old citizens will merely be discounted in all but the most obvious of democratic process. Hired thugs will kick in doors to seize 'counterfeit' music and 'counterfeiting' (aka devices or computers used in counterfeiting' machines.
So, this could be the straw that broke the camel's back. We've known that the government has been in various pockets over the years, but now this? What can anyone do once the controllers of resources and energy are set against them?
You can think of a swarm of smaller drones as just that, a swarm. Each element can behave independently or can work together with other elements, possibly more efficiently than before. As an example, you could have a few elements with sensing and targeting gear, and a few elements carrying small guided munitions (think hand grenade or smaller size). Rather than having to pilot the payload-carriers up to the target, you could use the sensor elements to relay targeting information to home base, and relay a firing solution back to the payload-carriers.
The payload carriers can then program their munitions and send them on their way.
Or, the controller of these elements can use the sensor elements to get a better angle of attack, say, by moving around behind the bunker or higher in the air, before sending down the munitions.
Right now, a drone is just that, a drone. It's a sensor package, a weapon carrier, and a communication platform, all with a big power system and avionics package.
Imagine a swarm of 20 toy helicopters carrying various packages of sensors and hand grenades. Lose one, image another one to replace it and get it ready for the next mission.
The book part is obvious, but then, so are wheels on cars. The unique and unpredictable part is the design. The Kindle is a single screen PDA type system, and Spring's design is a two screen system. Consumers will choose whichever one they like the best, and the patent is to prevent the Kindle 2 from copying Spring's design when Spring wins the competition.
Mod parent up.
There are many things besides pedal position that can potentially affect the throttle. Possibly something that is linked to failure of the brakes. However, in either circumstance, the car can be stopped by putting it in neutral to retain power steering and braking, or by turning off the ignition. Absolute worst case scenario is to look for whatever is going to do the least damage to stop you. Guard rail, runaway barriers, curbs, etc.
Most people don't make it to step 2, however, and will hold the brakes to the floor (be it brakes or 'brakes' aka gas pedal) until someone dies for it. Imagine if they were on a cell phone at the time..the startle reaction probably wouldn't happen until they've hit something.