Bill Clinton pushed for Chinese admission into the WTO as a means of liberalizing China through open international trade. The US has already accused China of illegally hindering its importation of US movies and music (http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/12/business/fi-wto12). Completely banning the iTunes Store (the largest online music retailer, which is US-based) further these charges.
The problem isn't with government monitoring citizens, it's with citizens not being able to monitor government. Dick Cheney's phone conversations would be a whole lot more incriminating than mine. If we knew exactly what our government was doing, it wouldn't matter what they knew about us because we could once again be able to control our government to serve us.
My complaint about wiretapping and privacy in general isn't that the government can listen in on my phone calls. It's that I can't listen in on theirs.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove say much more interesting and important on the telephone and in their emails, I'm sure, than the frivolous trivialities of my communication.
And generally, the more responsibilities you have, the more you need be overlooked, otherwise there's no accountability.
Making fun of the the mentally handicapped while trying to make a political point probably isn't such a good idea. Rarely are people swayed by insults, and even less so by insults that offend other they may potentially agree with you - not that I came close to agreeing with you in the first place though.
I know it's a trivial bit of rhetoic, but I think I should point out a fallacy in Tenet's reasoning. In the article, he said, "ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control." For those acquainted with analytical philosophy, this represent a fallacy of convoluting "is" and "ought". Because the Wild West was tamed by government and controls, does not mean the Wild West should have been tamed by government and controls. This is an unwarranted claim. But yeah, it's just trivial rhetoric - but trivial rhetoric that makes his case seem compelling.
For those who don't know - and for those that do, here's a refresher:
Marx's Labor Theory of Value, though much critiqued in recent times, purports the value of product is a product of the various types of labor and resources that go into producing it. Typically, if one wants to lower the value of that product to make it more competitive, labor must be "squeezed". For more information, and a bit more lengthy description, click here.
In relation to the issues of EA, as if EA were the only tech company with practices like these, it is obvious that programmers are the labor being squeezed. What makes the case interesting however is that as the economy becomes more competitive sections of labor that formerly considered themselves insulated from the squeeze are now feeling it. In many industries, the value of products reflects more the marketing costs than the actual production costs. I'm not sure about the specifics of EA games, but I'm willing to wager that they spend more money on marketing (NFL endorsements, advertising, packaging, etc.) than paying their developers and production staff.
In the 1990's, we were warned about this happening. As more kids were guided into technology jobs - being told it's the way of the future - some bright individuals saw that eventually the high demand would bottom out. We still need programmers today, that's for sure, but just not at the incredible rate we did in say 1995. We have too many programmers for them to be a valuable labor commodity any more. Sorry, that's the truth.
Next in line though to lose the value of their labor is likely to be the marketing guys. Not the football players or NFL execs, but the guys who decide which football players and what color to use on the damn box. Business schools are booming with students looking to fill these positions. Students enrolling in CS classes fortunately has leveled off, but students enrolling in business classes continues to climb. After all, you can't make much money doing CS, philosophy, psychology, or very many other disciplines.
With marketing guys and business guys starting to be squeezed as well, unless something can be done to unite all labor, we will continue to see wealth concentrated in fewer and fewer individuals. In the US, the middle class is shrinking. Not because they are being paid less outright, but because there are fewer positions that pay what they should and the pay rates do not always reflect inflation and the pressing tax burden. Whether we like it or not, unless the labor movement can be revived, the average man will continue to see less value for his toil. EA is just one small example. In the immortal words of Malcolm X and many before him: "It's the chicken coming home to roost." Perhaps if the fortunate and privileged helped labor back in the past, their could it could have been a chickening coming home to roast instead.
I see how music could have some content in the way of emotion, and I guess that would count as a semantic composition, but whether individual phrases can translate to words, I'm not so sure about. Perhaps it has more to do with some sort of innate appeal to aesthetics, and as we listen to and formulate speech, it starts to conform to some aesthetic pattern. This isn't too far out. Some languages are considered more beautiful than others.
Slashdot Mirror
It sounds like they have a problem with their flux capacitor.
Bill Clinton pushed for Chinese admission into the WTO as a means of liberalizing China through open international trade. The US has already accused China of illegally hindering its importation of US movies and music (http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/12/business/fi-wto12). Completely banning the iTunes Store (the largest online music retailer, which is US-based) further these charges.
The problem isn't with government monitoring citizens, it's with citizens not being able to monitor government. Dick Cheney's phone conversations would be a whole lot more incriminating than mine. If we knew exactly what our government was doing, it wouldn't matter what they knew about us because we could once again be able to control our government to serve us.
My complaint about wiretapping and privacy in general isn't that the government can listen in on my phone calls. It's that I can't listen in on theirs. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove say much more interesting and important on the telephone and in their emails, I'm sure, than the frivolous trivialities of my communication. And generally, the more responsibilities you have, the more you need be overlooked, otherwise there's no accountability.
Does anyone else think it's funny the link goes to MSN? I'm sure they published that piece with a big smile.
Do you think maybe they were eavesdroppping on him too?
They [hardware engineers] never get laid Oops, did I not finish the article quote?
Making fun of the the mentally handicapped while trying to make a political point probably isn't such a good idea. Rarely are people swayed by insults, and even less so by insults that offend other they may potentially agree with you - not that I came close to agreeing with you in the first place though.
Over 30,000 federal warrants were request last year. Only 32 were denied.
I know it's a trivial bit of rhetoic, but I think I should point out a fallacy in Tenet's reasoning. In the article, he said, "ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control." For those acquainted with analytical philosophy, this represent a fallacy of convoluting "is" and "ought". Because the Wild West was tamed by government and controls, does not mean the Wild West should have been tamed by government and controls. This is an unwarranted claim. But yeah, it's just trivial rhetoric - but trivial rhetoric that makes his case seem compelling.
For those who don't know - and for those that do, here's a refresher: Marx's Labor Theory of Value, though much critiqued in recent times, purports the value of product is a product of the various types of labor and resources that go into producing it. Typically, if one wants to lower the value of that product to make it more competitive, labor must be "squeezed". For more information, and a bit more lengthy description, click here. In relation to the issues of EA, as if EA were the only tech company with practices like these, it is obvious that programmers are the labor being squeezed. What makes the case interesting however is that as the economy becomes more competitive sections of labor that formerly considered themselves insulated from the squeeze are now feeling it. In many industries, the value of products reflects more the marketing costs than the actual production costs. I'm not sure about the specifics of EA games, but I'm willing to wager that they spend more money on marketing (NFL endorsements, advertising, packaging, etc.) than paying their developers and production staff. In the 1990's, we were warned about this happening. As more kids were guided into technology jobs - being told it's the way of the future - some bright individuals saw that eventually the high demand would bottom out. We still need programmers today, that's for sure, but just not at the incredible rate we did in say 1995. We have too many programmers for them to be a valuable labor commodity any more. Sorry, that's the truth. Next in line though to lose the value of their labor is likely to be the marketing guys. Not the football players or NFL execs, but the guys who decide which football players and what color to use on the damn box. Business schools are booming with students looking to fill these positions. Students enrolling in CS classes fortunately has leveled off, but students enrolling in business classes continues to climb. After all, you can't make much money doing CS, philosophy, psychology, or very many other disciplines. With marketing guys and business guys starting to be squeezed as well, unless something can be done to unite all labor, we will continue to see wealth concentrated in fewer and fewer individuals. In the US, the middle class is shrinking. Not because they are being paid less outright, but because there are fewer positions that pay what they should and the pay rates do not always reflect inflation and the pressing tax burden. Whether we like it or not, unless the labor movement can be revived, the average man will continue to see less value for his toil. EA is just one small example. In the immortal words of Malcolm X and many before him: "It's the chicken coming home to roost." Perhaps if the fortunate and privileged helped labor back in the past, their could it could have been a chickening coming home to roast instead.
Yeah, that's Fox News for you. Here's another link at WISH TV/CBS.
not only fat people who take up more than there fair share on my seat, but also people who can't hang up their damn phone? Oh great.
I see how music could have some content in the way of emotion, and I guess that would count as a semantic composition, but whether individual phrases can translate to words, I'm not so sure about. Perhaps it has more to do with some sort of innate appeal to aesthetics, and as we listen to and formulate speech, it starts to conform to some aesthetic pattern. This isn't too far out. Some languages are considered more beautiful than others.