I used to be a customer of Smyrna Cable in Smyrna, GA. Charter Cable bought them out a couple months before I moved out of the area. I expected them to shut down my account when I turned in my modem at the office, but apparently they forgot that part. Periodically, I checked my old email address to make sure nothing important was going there. After a few months, I tired of this and asked them to close my inbox and remove my old personal Web site, which I'd forgotten the password to.
They insisted that the smyrnacable.net mail servers did not belong to them, and told me to contact Smyrna Cable. I patiently explained that Smyrna Cable no longer existed because they had devoured it. Apparently it was escalated to somebody with a clue, because a few days later my account was closed.
Months passed and the matter was forgotten. Until one day, some company in Smyrna emailed me. They'd found my old resume on my old site and wanted to know if I was interested in a job. Sure enough, my old site was back! Maybe somebody restored a backup or something. I went through the whole process again, only this time Charter's tech support denied even more vehemently that smyrnacable.net does not belong to them (despite the fact that it's among the choices on their Webmail page!)
I finally gave up on the. I meditated until I remembered my old FTP password, and replaced my personal Web site with the above story (suitably embellished) and a challenge to Charter Cable to permanently remove it. I then emailed the URL to tech support. Needless to say, the page came down most ricky-tick.
I made a PPT presentation for school, but the computer in the classroom wouldn't recognize my CD-R. The "tech" from the AV department said I should have burned more than just the one 3.5MB file; I should have filled the disc with junk so the DVD drive could "find it" better. I thought maybe I'd damaged the disc somehow, but when I took it home it worked fine.
That is a bad example. Even at the South's worst, the outright murder of blacks was never acceptable to the majority. Those juries were able to acquit because they were not randomly selected juries of the defendant's peers. If the jury selection process had been on the level, the result would have been a conviction, or perhaps mistrial and retrial, but never an acquittal. That's why I always bring up these two issues together; they are inextricably intertwined.
A better example is mentioned in one of the links I posted: during the prohibition years, juries often refused to convict people charged with the distribution of alcohol. If juries today were informed of their right to nullify, I expect we would be seeing the same thing with drug offenses and tax evasion.
And still the union did nothing. But I bet they still collected dues, no?
I've never been a union member and won't be unless unions get some balls. My Dad was a union machinist, though, and his local was so pathetic they once threatened to strike and came out of it with a worse deal than they were originally offered.
You do realize that trial by jury is still in effect, right?
Um, no. First of all, the jury selection process has become the jury tampering process. A jury of peers should be a randomly-selected group of eligible people, but it's more or less handpicked nowadays. The verdict is often decided by which lawyer is craftiest in "disqualifying" potential jurors. Jurors in the pool should not be asked any questions aside from:
Do you personally know the plaintiff or defendant?
Do you have any hearsay knowledge of this case?
Have you or any member of your immediate family ever been the victim of a similar crime?
Anything else is jury tampering, and jurors should refuse to answer!
Second, there is the question of jury nullification. Judges and prosecutors seldom inform juries of their right and responsibility to return a "not guilty" verdict if they feel that the law does not reflect the values of the community or has not been applied appropriately. Jury nullification is the final check against the legislative and executive functions of government, and it has a long and established history. However, citizens have been harassed and even charged with contempt of court for exercising this sacred right.
On the one hand, you're basically right. If it weren't for unions, there'd be no minimum wage, no overtime pay, no OSHA, and no child-labor laws. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, unions were greatly beneficial.
On the other hand, in recent years the unions have done more harm than good to workers and consumers. Basically, they've themselves become what they once opposed: greedy, spineless racketeers.
But back to the first hand, we should never be jealous or upset when workers demand better for themselves. We should encourage the strikers, even if their actions inconvenience us. Anyone's victory against corporate greed is a victory for all of us!
How can you define a "software GDP" when a U.S. company with a patent portfolio can suddenly declare that a few trivial lines of code are worth, say, three billion dollars?
Software is not a tangible product and it has zero value. Only the service of producing and maintaining it has value. The EU is on the verge of acknowledging this; apparently, Americans are the only ones stupid enough to be duped by companies "monetizing every little idea," as you so succinctly put it.
And in other news, the sky is reported to be blue. Film at 11.
Seriously though... I don't have a phone, not even a land line. And no, it's not because my credit's so bad I can't get one. I despise the lying, thieving telcos so much that I'd rather suffer the minor inconvenience of not having a phone than give them a bloody red cent.
Now, if only I could learn to do without my car...:-/
I'm sick and tired of hearing teachers bitch about their salaries! I make about $16,000 a year working full-time. I'm currently attending university to become an elementary school teacher, and I can expect to double my salary (and enjoy excellent job security) the day I get my diploma. Most teachers I've met aren't worth what I'm making now, much less what they think they deserve.
They argue that it would interfere with over-the-air television signals for millions of people.
Why do {advertisers|broadcasters|marketers|media distributors|lawyers} constantly make specious arguments like this? It only detracts from their credibility when they legitimately take issue with something.
Wait, nevermind... Most people's don't have the attention span to notice.
Yes, look at the situation in Iraq. Yes, lots of the opposition fighters are getting killed. But they can afford the losses; we can't, politically. Neither can we afford to keep throwing billions of dollars of high-tech weaponry at a bunch of pistol-toting camel jockeys. In the grand scheme of things, they're kicking our asses.
As for assault rifles and RPGs... private owners can and do posess these items in the U.S. (the latter illegally, but that's never stopped anyone.) If it ever comes down to war against our own government, the same political rules will apply. Voters won't stomach bloodshed like we endured at Gettysburg. If it gets ugly, stick a fork in the President, cause he's fuckin' done.
And you're very astute in observing that it will likely be "some rogue element of the Army" that finally overthrows our government. As Che Guevara wrote, "triumph will always be the product of a regular army, even though its origins are in a guerilla army." Having served in the military, I tend to believe that even the comfiest armchair Generals would think twice before obeying an order to put down a citizens' rebellion.
When I was in the Marines, we used 1/4" steel blast shields for running up APUs and generators. A regular 55-gallon drum may not be much, but it's damn sure better than nothing. These small turbos probably turn at extremely high RPMs, but they don't have much mass and they are enclosed in a heavy casting already.
Watch the videos. These guys are walking around the device in t-shirts and blue jeans, without even the most basic hearing or eye protection!
I always thought there was some law that bills had to be 80 pages long and composed of unintelligible lawyer gibberish. That one is actually an easy read, and the ideas proposed are sensible.
I work in a professional photo lab and I am angling to become a professional photographer myself. AFAIC, the PPA can go fuck themselves on this one.
Real jet engines have a Turbine Inlet Temperature sensor. These guys seem to be aware that they don't want to get the turbine too hot, because hot metal is weak metal and overheated turbines can shatter at high speed.
And I would NOT walk around perpendicular to the axis of the tubine while it's running! Jesus Christ, at least put the thing in a 55 gallon drum or something!
I registered a domain for Grover Cleveland Productions, my friend's movie studio. Now I'm pre-approved for credit cards in the name of Grover Cleveland. Idiots.
They have no concept of that in Florida. Last October, they invented a four-year-old traffic ticket and told me that the burden of proof was on me; I was two hundred miles away on the night in question, but doing what and with whom, I have no idea. So I told them in no uncertain terms to fuck off. I think they know they don't have a case, because they haven't tried to suspend my license yet. But if it comes down to it, I'll send them a check dated November 3, 2004... because I know exactly what they're up to.
I think the intent (from the MPAA) was to give the "hot head amateur" a chance to make a fool of himself. Valenti is a very polished, very smooth character that knows how to argue and can be quite persuasive.
But remember, we're talking about a student newspaper. MIT or not, the readership of student newspapers is not likely to even notice the kind of "polish" a man like Valenti has, much less appreciate it. More likely, their reasoning and ethics regarding copyright and fair use are more along the lines of the interviewer's.
If granting this interview was some kind of MPAA scheme to discredit fair use advocates, I think it backfired.
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They insisted that the smyrnacable.net mail servers did not belong to them, and told me to contact Smyrna Cable. I patiently explained that Smyrna Cable no longer existed because they had devoured it. Apparently it was escalated to somebody with a clue, because a few days later my account was closed.
Months passed and the matter was forgotten. Until one day, some company in Smyrna emailed me. They'd found my old resume on my old site and wanted to know if I was interested in a job. Sure enough, my old site was back! Maybe somebody restored a backup or something. I went through the whole process again, only this time Charter's tech support denied even more vehemently that smyrnacable.net does not belong to them (despite the fact that it's among the choices on their Webmail page!)
I finally gave up on the. I meditated until I remembered my old FTP password, and replaced my personal Web site with the above story (suitably embellished) and a challenge to Charter Cable to permanently remove it. I then emailed the URL to tech support. Needless to say, the page came down most ricky-tick.
I made a PPT presentation for school, but the computer in the classroom wouldn't recognize my CD-R. The "tech" from the AV department said I should have burned more than just the one 3.5MB file; I should have filled the disc with junk so the DVD drive could "find it" better. I thought maybe I'd damaged the disc somehow, but when I took it home it worked fine.
A better example is mentioned in one of the links I posted: during the prohibition years, juries often refused to convict people charged with the distribution of alcohol. If juries today were informed of their right to nullify, I expect we would be seeing the same thing with drug offenses and tax evasion.
Exactly. Prosecutors are terrified of jurors with well-developed critical-thinking skills.
What about the situation of potential juror being a member of a political group which would never consider the evidence.
Then maybe, once in a while, a guilty person is acquitted. That's better than the alternative.
I've never been a union member and won't be unless unions get some balls. My Dad was a union machinist, though, and his local was so pathetic they once threatened to strike and came out of it with a worse deal than they were originally offered.
Um, no. First of all, the jury selection process has become the jury tampering process. A jury of peers should be a randomly-selected group of eligible people, but it's more or less handpicked nowadays. The verdict is often decided by which lawyer is craftiest in "disqualifying" potential jurors. Jurors in the pool should not be asked any questions aside from:
Do you personally know the plaintiff or defendant?
Do you have any hearsay knowledge of this case?
Have you or any member of your immediate family ever been the victim of a similar crime?
Anything else is jury tampering, and jurors should refuse to answer!
Second, there is the question of jury nullification. Judges and prosecutors seldom inform juries of their right and responsibility to return a "not guilty" verdict if they feel that the law does not reflect the values of the community or has not been applied appropriately. Jury nullification is the final check against the legislative and executive functions of government, and it has a long and established history. However, citizens have been harassed and even charged with contempt of court for exercising this sacred right.
On the other hand, in recent years the unions have done more harm than good to workers and consumers. Basically, they've themselves become what they once opposed: greedy, spineless racketeers.
But back to the first hand, we should never be jealous or upset when workers demand better for themselves. We should encourage the strikers, even if their actions inconvenience us. Anyone's victory against corporate greed is a victory for all of us!
Software is not a tangible product and it has zero value. Only the service of producing and maintaining it has value. The EU is on the verge of acknowledging this; apparently, Americans are the only ones stupid enough to be duped by companies "monetizing every little idea," as you so succinctly put it.
Seriously though... I don't have a phone, not even a land line. And no, it's not because my credit's so bad I can't get one. I despise the lying, thieving telcos so much that I'd rather suffer the minor inconvenience of not having a phone than give them a bloody red cent.
Now, if only I could learn to do without my car... :-/
I'm sick and tired of hearing teachers bitch about their salaries! I make about $16,000 a year working full-time. I'm currently attending university to become an elementary school teacher, and I can expect to double my salary (and enjoy excellent job security) the day I get my diploma. Most teachers I've met aren't worth what I'm making now, much less what they think they deserve.
Why do {advertisers|broadcasters|marketers|media distributors|lawyers} constantly make specious arguments like this? It only detracts from their credibility when they legitimately take issue with something.
Wait, nevermind... Most people's don't have the attention span to notice.
Where are all these alleged Bush supporters, anyway? Texas? I'm beginning to think they're a fabrication of Fox News...
As for assault rifles and RPGs... private owners can and do posess these items in the U.S. (the latter illegally, but that's never stopped anyone.) If it ever comes down to war against our own government, the same political rules will apply. Voters won't stomach bloodshed like we endured at Gettysburg. If it gets ugly, stick a fork in the President, cause he's fuckin' done.
And you're very astute in observing that it will likely be "some rogue element of the Army" that finally overthrows our government. As Che Guevara wrote, "triumph will always be the product of a regular army, even though its origins are in a guerilla army." Having served in the military, I tend to believe that even the comfiest armchair Generals would think twice before obeying an order to put down a citizens' rebellion.
I'd really have to consider taking out a hit on the prosecutor...
I'd be more afraid if the government weren't incompetent.
Watch the videos. These guys are walking around the device in t-shirts and blue jeans, without even the most basic hearing or eye protection!
I work in a professional photo lab and I am angling to become a professional photographer myself. AFAIC, the PPA can go fuck themselves on this one.
And I would NOT walk around perpendicular to the axis of the tubine while it's running! Jesus Christ, at least put the thing in a 55 gallon drum or something!
Um, hello... they have guns. :o)
It's hard to imagine anybody would be so stupid, but then, it wouldn't be the first time.
I registered a domain for Grover Cleveland Productions, my friend's movie studio. Now I'm pre-approved for credit cards in the name of Grover Cleveland. Idiots.
They have no concept of that in Florida. Last October, they invented a four-year-old traffic ticket and told me that the burden of proof was on me; I was two hundred miles away on the night in question, but doing what and with whom, I have no idea. So I told them in no uncertain terms to fuck off. I think they know they don't have a case, because they haven't tried to suspend my license yet. But if it comes down to it, I'll send them a check dated November 3, 2004... because I know exactly what they're up to.
Anyone can see that's not a proper 'keep left' sign! Clear off, the lot of you.
But remember, we're talking about a student newspaper. MIT or not, the readership of student newspapers is not likely to even notice the kind of "polish" a man like Valenti has, much less appreciate it. More likely, their reasoning and ethics regarding copyright and fair use are more along the lines of the interviewer's.
If granting this interview was some kind of MPAA scheme to discredit fair use advocates, I think it backfired.
Your tag's too true, BTW... "people" especially includes developers.