>>Fuel prices are a marginal thing for most people, despite the plaintive cries that you hear ("can't afford to go to work", or the notion that food prices double when fuel prices double, tired of hearing that one.)
I don't think that's a correct statement at all. Fuel prices affect a lot more than just personal transport, and even more than food. Everything produced has to travel somewhere. While for you this may mean you choose to buy food from a locally produced outlet, what about the pop you drink? The beer? The computer you are typing on? How many of these products are produced within your immediate vicinity? Also recognize that price is another concern. It's easy to ignore the price of something if you can afford it, but for most the cheapest foods are often the ones that travel the greatest distance (packaged foods for example, or frozen foods). The same goes for almost any other product; textiles, electronics, etc.
In point in fact, fuel prices are NOT a marginal thing for most people. For MOST people, paying double for gas can impact their monthly budget by 5-10%, not small change. In addition, the spin-offs of the rise in transportation fuel means that all the cheap products people who need them most depend on, not just food but even the clothing they wear, also cost more, further eating into their budget. So not only does it cost more to get to work, it costs more to feed and cloth your family. Oh, and don't forget the rising cost of electricity and heating.
So, in short, while money seems to be no object to you, those of us living on tight budgets tend to be hurt most in such a crisis. While I don't think gasoline is sustainable in the long term, to suggest the affect the current price rise has had on the average joe is marginal is ridiculous.
At it's core, in the political sense, the original poster was correct, if we talk about the most basic classification:
Left wing=more gov't
right wing=less gov't
Nazi germany instituted work programs, appropriated industrial control, had a secret police, a huge bureaucratic machine, an even bigger military, and placed bans on many, many things (including the famous book burnings in berlin, as well as heavy controls on smoking and other drugs). The list goes on.
Part of the reason is that Bush is still president. Unless 2/3 majority passes such a law, he will veto. And, that 2/3 is impossible with the current percentages... Senate is basically a tie, and D only have about 55% of the House....or at least that's the excuse they'll use for now.
I assume that $40 Billion refers merely to sales of records and related media, not show/merch revenue. In any case, most of us musicians make a living doing a shitty day job while doing music as well. This is not to say that music is a part-time job for us; going on tour for months at a time is not exactly a cake walk. Sleeping in vans or on whatever floor you can find at a friendly home is not the luxury some might have you believe:P
In reality, the people who run the government day to day are qualified in the same way any other profession is. All the policy directives of gov't are created by those with university degrees. Our bosses are the ones elected.
And not only am i telling you what you proposed isn't easy, I am telling you it is impossible, and dangerous. You suggest a system whereby the only people with any right to rule are those born with certain intellectual or financial advantages, and in fact suggested that the majority be left out. I suggested a history lesson. Don't try to talk about our system as a liberty crushing big brother on, and the suggest one that is far more likely of becoming such a system.
The fact is that feudal systems were just what you describe. The 'academics' (i.e. nobility) were raised to rule. That worked out just well for the majority of people, didn't it? Oh, and it didn't result in any amount of inevitable social and political stife, did it? While your idea might work for a small while, inevitably, those in power will no longer be ruling for those NOT in power, they will be ruling for themselves, and then we are back at square one. Democracy has proven itself a viable long-term solution, and instead of attacking the system itself, the answers to holding corrupt leaders accountable is inevitably YOUR VOTE. That's what democracy is. You have the power to hold your politicians accountable, and if you have a good idea, run for government. I'm sorry you don't like the way others have voted, but just because you disagree with them doesn't give you the right to suggest we take away their vote.
Who makes the test? The people in power obviously. Systems like this are doomed to failure because in the end, the 'best' are not chosen, merely those who fit into the mold that will continue the current leadership. Not only that, how long until those excluded from power (which would be the majority by your definition) start to resent that? Your system would fall and we'ed be back at square one. Including everyone has its drawbacks, but not including the MAJORITY of people is unsustainable. History has taught us that your system would quickly devolve into an aristocratic oligarchy, and probably from there to a dictatorship.
If you don't agree with me, I'd can cite many history examples to prove my point.
You might think so, but remember we (as in Canadians, of which I am one) live under a minority government. While its certain the Conservative party would never support this, if the NDP can gain the support of the Liberals and the Bloc (which is entirely possible) this bill will pass.
Perhaps it's time the legislation was put in place to ensure that government actually is representative of the people. Like jury service, onyl better paid, so people actually want to do it. Athens tried this 2400 years ago. Didn't work out so well.
Yet, I have heard so many conflicting stories. One was that Vander Ark's book was going to be published, then right before it went to the printers, the court case came out, right out of the blue. In any case, the Leaky Cauldron, a fansite for HP, is hardly a credible source for accurate information.
Regardless, Card is raising a very legitimate complaint here, mainly that she is acting like a child. I don't think anyone thinks that this 'leaves' her as distraught as she claims, nor that the work itself is damaging to the HP brand or herself personally. It's a crappy reference book, of which there are many. I bet I could find a million shitty reference books for Star Trek, yet somehow, they haven't seem to have stopped that franchise from spawning 4 sequel TV series (admittedly sometimes of dubious quality, but that's beside the point).
Crying foul that a reference book contains your work is ridiculous, and the format of the book should be understood. The lack of citations or quotes stems probably from the fact that this book is NOT an academic work, and instead is, you know, designed for the same market that reads the books, infantile minds who need help following an infantile plot.
The problem here mark-t is that there are numerous other works that do what the Lexicon does, both in print and online. The fact that she has done nothing about it until she wants to publish her own work on the subject is not an excuse. While its true this work does try to make some of its down assumptions (and thus ventures into original work) the majority of it is nothing more than a Harry Potter encyclopedia from what I've seen of the site and read in the news.
Besides, do you REALLY think that such a work would alter the sales of her own work? A small publishers (probably paperback) work versus an official (probably hardcover) one by Rowling? People who are going to buy more of Rowling's drivel will do so regardless of what other competition there is out there for that drivel, as has shown by the sales of Harry Potter. After all, there are numerous BETTER books and series out there that one could read, yet the HP books continued to sell in the face of that competition.
While I don't necessarily agree with OSC's copyright argument (that's for the court to decide) the reasoning behind the suit probably has more to do with Rowling being immature than protecting her charity work.
You're mistaken. Teksavvy for example does NOT purchase wholesale internet access, they have their own routes and peering agreements. If that's the case, they shouldn't be affected by throttling AFAIK.
Bell does make one valid point that the smaller ISPs are not speaking about, namely that they are purchasing bandwidth from bell wholesale. There is nothing stopping those ISPs from installing their own routing centres, even within Bell's infrastructure whereby the only must lease the lines, not the other stuff. Instead, they want to avoid such infrastructure investment. That being said, most of the small ISP's probably lack the capital to undertake such an endeavor.
Instead of bitching about something you can't fix, maybe try to get off your high horse and help the students you can. Otherwise, you are just as guilty as the teachers that came before you, passing the buck onto the next poor sap.
Almost every aerospace firm in the world has had the benefit of large government subsidies, either through tax rebates and direct cash infusions, or simply by having the government as its main customer.
What this means is by 'government wants to encourage growth' you obviously mean 'government willing to buy and/or subsidize these companies' products'. Hey, wait, this is what the Canadian government has done!
Realistically, as has been said, if Boeing or LM were on the market, they would have been blocked. Instead, when American domestic companies associated with such high security projects are in trouble, the buyer is often forced to be another domestic manufacturer. This is really no different. While some might complain about sales like IBM's computer hardware division to Lenovo, in reality this is not comparable, and in any case the job loss from such an event is minute considering that such manufacturing already took place in Lenovo's home country.
It's also fairly ironic for anyone to complain that the United States is no threat to Canada. If the US gov't itself took that view, it would share much more of its technological secrets with not only Canada, but its other allies. For example, it took the UK being on the verge of bowing out of the JSF program for the US to provide the technolgoy necessary for them to correctly integrate that fighter with their own forces (mostly related to the computer code of the JSF, which the UK was originally not allowed to even know, let alone reprogram).
In short, not only is the blocking of the sale smart technologically and economically for Canadian industry and workers, but it is also smart security wise. The US has shown that it does not trust her allies on seemingly small things like this, so extending that same trust seems illogical to me.
See, this is my biggest problem with the way consoles are going. Although Nintendo is the worst for this, they are by no means the only ones, and it is spilling over into other industries. I remember the days when a new product announcement would come months ahead of time, and the old units were heavily discounted. Now everything from Gameboys to iPods seem to be announced the week before they hit shelves, and the old units only drop in price when those new ones arrive, leaving people who bought them earlier high and dry. This is not even mentioning how bad I feel for people who know very little about this stuff because immoral or incompetent sales people at big box chains ussually neglect to tell them about these new models even when they know about them, and brush aside the new models with excuses in order to push out old stock.
Just because WoW is popular doesn't make it perfect. Think of how much more interesting the game would be with user created items, or guild halls? User created buisnesses with actual store fronts, not just spamming "ENCHANTS. W ME IM AT THE AH BRIDGE".
Things like that help bring in a lot more people to a game while providing more entertainment even to those with no interest in such things, because it grows the user base and gives even power gamers more options.
Well, to be fair, Xbox Live, and whatever this HUB service ends up being, will offer more than just your standard online experience. Sony did make gaming free for the PS2, but XBox Live was far superior because it meant universal access. Whether you are playing NHL or Halo, xbox live allows you to still keep track of your xbox friends, as well as a stable network on which to play, not to mention media content availible through the service.
The fact is, anyone who has played PS2 online knows how varied the experience can be. Really, from my experience, only the Sony and EA games ever did it well, and that's merely because they are huge companies. These services allow even a small developer to gaurentee a stable and fun online experience because they can put the responsibility on Sony or MS.
That's not entirely true. If you are a developer and you have an idea you are set on, you will do it. The fact is that a lot of developers are just like the publishers. Doing new things involves risks, and for the development studio that can mean going under. Many developers would rather have safe games that pay consistent paychecks rather than a potential hit or flop.
How can a game with a huge amount of downloadable content and online gameplay be a one-night stand? Regardless, even if you dislike sports games, you have to admit they are a selling point of the PSP that the DS cannot match, at least yet. They are a huge part of the games market, and the PSP essentially has a stranglehold given how in depth and beautiful most of the sports games on the system have been compared to their DS counterparts.
Oh yeah, that will work REALLY well, me lugging a portable DVD player on a transit bus.
If the PSP was so crappy, why have they sold millions of units? Besides, some of us like having everything they need in one device. I'd rather carry around ONE psp than a DS, an mp3 player, and a portable DVD player. Sure, each of them might do each better than th PSP, but I can't afford the space or the cost of all three when I want all three.
Uh, you can with MS cards. As for making them writeable, why? That's why they have a thing called a memory stick slot. At the same time, how would that help them? I know how much Sony would like everyone to have easy acccess to pirated games, but somehow I don't think that fits their buisness model.
Slashdot Mirror
>>Fuel prices are a marginal thing for most people, despite the plaintive cries that you hear ("can't afford to go to work", or the notion that food prices double when fuel prices double, tired of hearing that one.)
I don't think that's a correct statement at all. Fuel prices affect a lot more than just personal transport, and even more than food. Everything produced has to travel somewhere. While for you this may mean you choose to buy food from a locally produced outlet, what about the pop you drink? The beer? The computer you are typing on? How many of these products are produced within your immediate vicinity? Also recognize that price is another concern. It's easy to ignore the price of something if you can afford it, but for most the cheapest foods are often the ones that travel the greatest distance (packaged foods for example, or frozen foods). The same goes for almost any other product; textiles, electronics, etc.
In point in fact, fuel prices are NOT a marginal thing for most people. For MOST people, paying double for gas can impact their monthly budget by 5-10%, not small change. In addition, the spin-offs of the rise in transportation fuel means that all the cheap products people who need them most depend on, not just food but even the clothing they wear, also cost more, further eating into their budget. So not only does it cost more to get to work, it costs more to feed and cloth your family. Oh, and don't forget the rising cost of electricity and heating.
So, in short, while money seems to be no object to you, those of us living on tight budgets tend to be hurt most in such a crisis. While I don't think gasoline is sustainable in the long term, to suggest the affect the current price rise has had on the average joe is marginal is ridiculous.
At it's core, in the political sense, the original poster was correct, if we talk about the most basic classification: Left wing=more gov't right wing=less gov't Nazi germany instituted work programs, appropriated industrial control, had a secret police, a huge bureaucratic machine, an even bigger military, and placed bans on many, many things (including the famous book burnings in berlin, as well as heavy controls on smoking and other drugs). The list goes on.
Part of the reason is that Bush is still president. Unless 2/3 majority passes such a law, he will veto. And, that 2/3 is impossible with the current percentages... Senate is basically a tie, and D only have about 55% of the House. ...or at least that's the excuse they'll use for now.
I assume that $40 Billion refers merely to sales of records and related media, not show/merch revenue. In any case, most of us musicians make a living doing a shitty day job while doing music as well. This is not to say that music is a part-time job for us; going on tour for months at a time is not exactly a cake walk. Sleeping in vans or on whatever floor you can find at a friendly home is not the luxury some might have you believe :P
I don't see Germany there. That translates into United States, Great Britain, Australia, NZ, and Canada. No France OR Germany there.
And not only am i telling you what you proposed isn't easy, I am telling you it is impossible, and dangerous. You suggest a system whereby the only people with any right to rule are those born with certain intellectual or financial advantages, and in fact suggested that the majority be left out. I suggested a history lesson. Don't try to talk about our system as a liberty crushing big brother on, and the suggest one that is far more likely of becoming such a system.
The fact is that feudal systems were just what you describe. The 'academics' (i.e. nobility) were raised to rule. That worked out just well for the majority of people, didn't it? Oh, and it didn't result in any amount of inevitable social and political stife, did it? While your idea might work for a small while, inevitably, those in power will no longer be ruling for those NOT in power, they will be ruling for themselves, and then we are back at square one. Democracy has proven itself a viable long-term solution, and instead of attacking the system itself, the answers to holding corrupt leaders accountable is inevitably YOUR VOTE. That's what democracy is. You have the power to hold your politicians accountable, and if you have a good idea, run for government. I'm sorry you don't like the way others have voted, but just because you disagree with them doesn't give you the right to suggest we take away their vote.
If you don't agree with me, I'd can cite many history examples to prove my point.
You might think so, but remember we (as in Canadians, of which I am one) live under a minority government. While its certain the Conservative party would never support this, if the NDP can gain the support of the Liberals and the Bloc (which is entirely possible) this bill will pass.
Regardless, Card is raising a very legitimate complaint here, mainly that she is acting like a child. I don't think anyone thinks that this 'leaves' her as distraught as she claims, nor that the work itself is damaging to the HP brand or herself personally. It's a crappy reference book, of which there are many. I bet I could find a million shitty reference books for Star Trek, yet somehow, they haven't seem to have stopped that franchise from spawning 4 sequel TV series (admittedly sometimes of dubious quality, but that's beside the point).
Crying foul that a reference book contains your work is ridiculous, and the format of the book should be understood. The lack of citations or quotes stems probably from the fact that this book is NOT an academic work, and instead is, you know, designed for the same market that reads the books, infantile minds who need help following an infantile plot.
Besides, do you REALLY think that such a work would alter the sales of her own work? A small publishers (probably paperback) work versus an official (probably hardcover) one by Rowling? People who are going to buy more of Rowling's drivel will do so regardless of what other competition there is out there for that drivel, as has shown by the sales of Harry Potter. After all, there are numerous BETTER books and series out there that one could read, yet the HP books continued to sell in the face of that competition.
While I don't necessarily agree with OSC's copyright argument (that's for the court to decide) the reasoning behind the suit probably has more to do with Rowling being immature than protecting her charity work.
Bell does make one valid point that the smaller ISPs are not speaking about, namely that they are purchasing bandwidth from bell wholesale. There is nothing stopping those ISPs from installing their own routing centres, even within Bell's infrastructure whereby the only must lease the lines, not the other stuff. Instead, they want to avoid such infrastructure investment. That being said, most of the small ISP's probably lack the capital to undertake such an endeavor.
Instead of bitching about something you can't fix, maybe try to get off your high horse and help the students you can. Otherwise, you are just as guilty as the teachers that came before you, passing the buck onto the next poor sap.
What this means is by 'government wants to encourage growth' you obviously mean 'government willing to buy and/or subsidize these companies' products'. Hey, wait, this is what the Canadian government has done!
Realistically, as has been said, if Boeing or LM were on the market, they would have been blocked. Instead, when American domestic companies associated with such high security projects are in trouble, the buyer is often forced to be another domestic manufacturer. This is really no different. While some might complain about sales like IBM's computer hardware division to Lenovo, in reality this is not comparable, and in any case the job loss from such an event is minute considering that such manufacturing already took place in Lenovo's home country.
It's also fairly ironic for anyone to complain that the United States is no threat to Canada. If the US gov't itself took that view, it would share much more of its technological secrets with not only Canada, but its other allies. For example, it took the UK being on the verge of bowing out of the JSF program for the US to provide the technolgoy necessary for them to correctly integrate that fighter with their own forces (mostly related to the computer code of the JSF, which the UK was originally not allowed to even know, let alone reprogram).
In short, not only is the blocking of the sale smart technologically and economically for Canadian industry and workers, but it is also smart security wise. The US has shown that it does not trust her allies on seemingly small things like this, so extending that same trust seems illogical to me.
Dude, Mrs. Korea wouldn't care, it's Mr. Korea that's the problem. He threw out the guitar too and the stash of pot. Bastard!
See, this is my biggest problem with the way consoles are going. Although Nintendo is the worst for this, they are by no means the only ones, and it is spilling over into other industries. I remember the days when a new product announcement would come months ahead of time, and the old units were heavily discounted. Now everything from Gameboys to iPods seem to be announced the week before they hit shelves, and the old units only drop in price when those new ones arrive, leaving people who bought them earlier high and dry. This is not even mentioning how bad I feel for people who know very little about this stuff because immoral or incompetent sales people at big box chains ussually neglect to tell them about these new models even when they know about them, and brush aside the new models with excuses in order to push out old stock.
*swoon*
Just because WoW is popular doesn't make it perfect. Think of how much more interesting the game would be with user created items, or guild halls? User created buisnesses with actual store fronts, not just spamming "ENCHANTS. W ME IM AT THE AH BRIDGE". Things like that help bring in a lot more people to a game while providing more entertainment even to those with no interest in such things, because it grows the user base and gives even power gamers more options.
The fact is, anyone who has played PS2 online knows how varied the experience can be. Really, from my experience, only the Sony and EA games ever did it well, and that's merely because they are huge companies. These services allow even a small developer to gaurentee a stable and fun online experience because they can put the responsibility on Sony or MS.
That's not entirely true. If you are a developer and you have an idea you are set on, you will do it. The fact is that a lot of developers are just like the publishers. Doing new things involves risks, and for the development studio that can mean going under. Many developers would rather have safe games that pay consistent paychecks rather than a potential hit or flop.
How can a game with a huge amount of downloadable content and online gameplay be a one-night stand? Regardless, even if you dislike sports games, you have to admit they are a selling point of the PSP that the DS cannot match, at least yet. They are a huge part of the games market, and the PSP essentially has a stranglehold given how in depth and beautiful most of the sports games on the system have been compared to their DS counterparts.
If the PSP was so crappy, why have they sold millions of units? Besides, some of us like having everything they need in one device. I'd rather carry around ONE psp than a DS, an mp3 player, and a portable DVD player. Sure, each of them might do each better than th PSP, but I can't afford the space or the cost of all three when I want all three.
Uh, you can with MS cards. As for making them writeable, why? That's why they have a thing called a memory stick slot. At the same time, how would that help them? I know how much Sony would like everyone to have easy acccess to pirated games, but somehow I don't think that fits their buisness model.
At least we never had to deal with Raiden in Shenmue. I men, seriously, what? I've seen more interesting characters in a porn movie.