I see a large amount of cognitive dissonance in your post.
Essentially what is going on here is that the copyright industry is trying to label those in favour of reform as extremists in an effort to shut them out.
This, at least, is true.
As history has shown, such tactics work very well--in the US in particular--where you can turn a debate completely on its head by proclaiming the exact opposite of what's going on. The best example of this is: "The Media has a Liberal Bias."
Hmm. Oddly enough, a long-term political science analysis done by UCLA (not exactly a "right-wing bastion") found quite the opposite.
They're just a bunch of asshats. I don't think there is an actual composer or author left in the group; ASCAP years ago drove anyone with any common sense into either individual publishing and licensing, or the arms of rival groups.
On the other hand, I came to see the video. If they want to run a 5-10 second bit before the video plays, like many other video sites do, I have absolutely no problem with that. They need their advert money, fine. If they want to put ads down the right side, as long as they're not neon flashing crap or those annoying expanding "a truck runs all across your screen covering up the article you came to read" flash ad crap, fine.
Where I get annoyed is that the ads are actually BLOCKING MY VIEW OF THE VIDEO. Many times, it's blocking my view of a foreign news clip or something else that has subtitles (like Auto-tune The News), which means the subtitles themselves are getting blocked.
Google/Youtube needs to learn: STOP FUCKING COVERING UP THE VIDEO. It's damn annoying and no, it does NOT make me more likely to buy the advertised product. Far from it, I'll get even more pissed off if I mis-click the tiny-ass little "x" button to get the fucking thing to go away, and then either have a new page popup happen, or have my browser wander away from the video entirely.
Far more annoying than either of these are the fucked-up popup "slide window" ads that obscure the bottom 1/3 of every fucking video on Youtube these days.
I've taken to just clicking the Download Helper button and downloading whatever video to my desktop, so I don't have to see those stupid annoying ads and can actually see the video I was looking for.
The decline in trust for media correlates almost directly with the removal of media ownership rules - proscriptions on owning both a newspaper and TV station in the same town, proscriptions on ownership of multiple TV stations in the same city, limitations on the number of radio stations ownable in the same city, etc.
This is a natural outgrowth, unfortunately, of our fucked-up view on corporations in general. I'm not going to go with the wack-job "all corporations are evil" line, but at the same time the Supreme Court decision that Corporations deserve the same rights as "people" was ill-informed, badly decided, and has caused many problems. The reality is that a "corporation" - especially a large one like Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Kraft, "Altria Group" (the rebadged Philip Morris), etc - while backed by people and an employer OF people, is itself a legal entity that is immune to 90% of society's normal legal remedies while at the same time carrying incredible power in being able to direct resources - lawyers, money, equipment, merchandise, advertising - in a tireless way.
Thus, the first reform step necessary is to de-personize corporations.
I had lousy support from them when my Gamecube's motor died 11 months in (blame the college roommates for overuse at that point, but still). I got lousy support when my Wii first had the graphics board die, and again when they've pushed these system updates and not bothered to actually document things for people to work out what the hell they changed that's fucking with wireless compatibility.
Oh, and their USB-to-ethernet adapter? Yeah, what a fucking joke that little thing was.
I'm amazed that you got good service out of them, and I really, really wonder who you talked to. The only thought that I can come up to explain it is that maybe it was their last day and they just authorized a bunch of shit to make Nintendo eat money before punching their incompetent idiot boss on the way out the door.
I can't tell if a "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin..." reference, or a "It was as if millions of nerds had suddenly cried out DO NOT WANT..." reference, is more appropriate.
Big N sure knows how to turn around and fuck their fans right up the ass. It's amazing that the company can be so dysfunctional as to make great franchises that people love, and yet at the same time pull dick moves like this over and over again that make people hate them with burning passion.
Funny. Nintendo charged me an arm and a leg to repair a Wii that was dying with a KNOWN engineering flaw (their fucking faulty heatsink that caused the video hardware to develop flicker pixels everywhere) when it was just 1 year, 3 months old.
And then I had to get 4 people deep into their support line a year later, when their "system update" caused the thing to not properly find my local wireless network. Turns out something they had "upgraded" in their code had broken compatibility with my router's configuration (if your router's IP isn't also defined as the DNS for the Wii, it breaks) - of course, nowhere did the update's documentation mention this, and the three guys before the competent one kept saying I should ship the wii to them again and pay out for a "repair" a second time.
So I'd have to say either you are the luckiest guy in the world and found someone willing to do something for you that they do for nobody else, or else you're a Nintendo plant lying out your ass.
Hmmm. Given that I didn't have a few dozen grand just burning a hole in my pocket to burn on a system that will eat just as much money in maintenance as it will "save" me generating electricity? FUCK YEAH.
So I laid in supplies before the storms. And I, and my neighbors, had already planned out what to do if/when the power went out. I got a great time hanging out with the neighbors, catching up, relaxing, being sociable (something you are probably unfamiliar with living in your parents' basement for so long). I got to sample half a dozen different dishes from the neighbors, I got to share some of my favorite items to barbecue too.
Was it "unprecedented"? Fuck no. Storms happen. Power's gone out before. One time, it was because a dumbass driving an 18-wheeler took down the main line going into my subdivision. You deal with it. And I'm not being a "follower" just because I don't feel like wasting money on what YOU think everyone should waste money on.
1. 1.How much money is it worth to you to not have an a/c outage during a heat wave?
Meh. I can rough it for a few days. Handled it well enough during two hurricanes.
2. How much money is it worth to you to not have no lights for days at a time if there is a regional blackout in the grid like the NE USA experienced just a few years ago?
See previous statement. A set of crank flashlights, a battery powered clock radio, some books to read, and I'm ok.
3. How much money is it worth to you to have refrigeration during extended power outages?
Fired up the grill, cooked the perishables, had a block party with the neighbors who were doing the same thing, chatted and socialized. Had canned soup or other nonperishables cooked over an open flame on the grill for a few days, drank a few warm cans of pepsi. I survived.
It amazes me you're so fucking wimpy that you think having your power out now and again is the end of the fucking world.
Sure. A clock should have power. Its job is to keep time. And given that a clock can run for a couple years on a pair of AA batteries, the draw for your alarm clock ought to be pretty damn low.
On the other hand, why does a game console need to waste 2.5 watts (or an astonishing NINE watts for the Wii) just to keep the fucking clock running? Sync to a radio time source, sync to an internet time source if you must, put a 9-volt battery in if you want it to keep the clock running separately, or just do without it. The players will know what time it is anyways, they ought to have a clock nearby - chances are there's one in their pants, running quite well on their fucking cell phone.
Obviously your fear isn't well based in reality enough to motivate you to install solar power, geothermal, or wind power on your house to supply all or some of your energy needs
Actually, the reason I personally haven't installed solar/geothermal/wind power to my house is simple: they COST TOO FUCKING MUCH to install. At the rate of savings I'd get, it would take me 15 years to break even on the deal - I may not own the house that long. And yes, I've factored in the tax rebates involved.
I know a way we could save at least 15% of energy usage in the USA right now:
mandate that all appliances (DVD players, TV's, etc) had an actual, PHYSICAL POWER SWITCH rather than being electrical vampires.
There's no reason every fucking device on the planet has to have a goddamn clock, and much less that it needs to eat more than 2 watts 24/7 just to wait for a power-on signal from some lazy fatass who can't stand up and walk 8 feet from the couch to turn it on.
You're wrong. Spamhaus filed a reply informing the IL court that they believed the IL court lacked jurisdiction and pointing out that in multiple places, the e360 SPAMMERS lied their asses off in court filings.
It should have been laughed out of court right then and there.
essentially they incorrectly identified spam (an easy mistake), for an opt in service no less
You obviously have never seen how e360 ACTUALLY operates. They're a bunch of fucking spammers who steal email addresses from wherever they can get them, especially spammer archives and spammer email harvesting services, and it's impossible to get them to stop sending you crap once they get hold of your address.
is that e360 managed to judge-shop to find a judge so fucking stupid that he didn't simply and correctly say "fuck you, piss off and take your nuisance lawsuit with you, SPAMMER."
Using it to revert anything other than obvious vandalism (content that you believe to be non-neutral or wrong) is grounds for your loss of rollback rights and a ban from Wikipedia.
And the chance of the admins on wikipedia actually being responsible enough to do this? If you think they will, you're insane.
No, in practice, the Huggle-jockey just goes on merrily reverting whatever the fuck they can. Nobody doublechecks them anyways.
Gag. So instead of clean, reactive control by pressing a button, I waggle the fucking thing praying it reacts in time to activate and sense what I'm trying to do?
Because THAT is what "motion control" on the Wii is. Big-ass fucking waggle motions or nothing at all. Works for their tennis game, but hasn't worked properly for anything else I've tried.
Slashdot Mirror
I see a large amount of cognitive dissonance in your post.
Essentially what is going on here is that the copyright industry is trying to label those in favour of reform as extremists in an effort to shut them out.
This, at least, is true.
As history has shown, such tactics work very well--in the US in particular--where you can turn a debate completely on its head by proclaiming the exact opposite of what's going on. The best example of this is: "The Media has a Liberal Bias."
Hmm. Oddly enough, a long-term political science analysis done by UCLA (not exactly a "right-wing bastion") found quite the opposite.
No, it's easier than that.
AS = Ass.
CAP = Hat.
They're just a bunch of asshats. I don't think there is an actual composer or author left in the group; ASCAP years ago drove anyone with any common sense into either individual publishing and licensing, or the arms of rival groups.
I mean seriously. These are the same group of dickfaces who tried to sue 5-year-olds for singing songs at summer camp. No joke.
No, I'm not a "leecher."
On the other hand, I came to see the video. If they want to run a 5-10 second bit before the video plays, like many other video sites do, I have absolutely no problem with that. They need their advert money, fine. If they want to put ads down the right side, as long as they're not neon flashing crap or those annoying expanding "a truck runs all across your screen covering up the article you came to read" flash ad crap, fine.
Where I get annoyed is that the ads are actually BLOCKING MY VIEW OF THE VIDEO. Many times, it's blocking my view of a foreign news clip or something else that has subtitles (like Auto-tune The News), which means the subtitles themselves are getting blocked.
Google/Youtube needs to learn: STOP FUCKING COVERING UP THE VIDEO. It's damn annoying and no, it does NOT make me more likely to buy the advertised product. Far from it, I'll get even more pissed off if I mis-click the tiny-ass little "x" button to get the fucking thing to go away, and then either have a new page popup happen, or have my browser wander away from the video entirely.
Far more annoying than either of these are the fucked-up popup "slide window" ads that obscure the bottom 1/3 of every fucking video on Youtube these days.
I've taken to just clicking the Download Helper button and downloading whatever video to my desktop, so I don't have to see those stupid annoying ads and can actually see the video I was looking for.
No kidding.
The decline in trust for media correlates almost directly with the removal of media ownership rules - proscriptions on owning both a newspaper and TV station in the same town, proscriptions on ownership of multiple TV stations in the same city, limitations on the number of radio stations ownable in the same city, etc.
This is a natural outgrowth, unfortunately, of our fucked-up view on corporations in general. I'm not going to go with the wack-job "all corporations are evil" line, but at the same time the Supreme Court decision that Corporations deserve the same rights as "people" was ill-informed, badly decided, and has caused many problems. The reality is that a "corporation" - especially a large one like Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Kraft, "Altria Group" (the rebadged Philip Morris), etc - while backed by people and an employer OF people, is itself a legal entity that is immune to 90% of society's normal legal remedies while at the same time carrying incredible power in being able to direct resources - lawyers, money, equipment, merchandise, advertising - in a tireless way.
Thus, the first reform step necessary is to de-personize corporations.
I had lousy support from them when my Gamecube's motor died 11 months in (blame the college roommates for overuse at that point, but still). I got lousy support when my Wii first had the graphics board die, and again when they've pushed these system updates and not bothered to actually document things for people to work out what the hell they changed that's fucking with wireless compatibility.
Oh, and their USB-to-ethernet adapter? Yeah, what a fucking joke that little thing was.
I'm amazed that you got good service out of them, and I really, really wonder who you talked to. The only thought that I can come up to explain it is that maybe it was their last day and they just authorized a bunch of shit to make Nintendo eat money before punching their incompetent idiot boss on the way out the door.
I can't tell if a "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin..." reference, or a "It was as if millions of nerds had suddenly cried out DO NOT WANT..." reference, is more appropriate.
Big N sure knows how to turn around and fuck their fans right up the ass. It's amazing that the company can be so dysfunctional as to make great franchises that people love, and yet at the same time pull dick moves like this over and over again that make people hate them with burning passion.
Funny. Nintendo charged me an arm and a leg to repair a Wii that was dying with a KNOWN engineering flaw (their fucking faulty heatsink that caused the video hardware to develop flicker pixels everywhere) when it was just 1 year, 3 months old.
And then I had to get 4 people deep into their support line a year later, when their "system update" caused the thing to not properly find my local wireless network. Turns out something they had "upgraded" in their code had broken compatibility with my router's configuration (if your router's IP isn't also defined as the DNS for the Wii, it breaks) - of course, nowhere did the update's documentation mention this, and the three guys before the competent one kept saying I should ship the wii to them again and pay out for a "repair" a second time.
So I'd have to say either you are the luckiest guy in the world and found someone willing to do something for you that they do for nobody else, or else you're a Nintendo plant lying out your ass.
And the brand new swimming pools in the judges' backyards have absolutely nothing at all to do with how they ruled... nothing to see here, move along.
Total up all the devices in your house. Multiply your wasted vampire power out.
Now multiple by the number of houses in your city. Or the number of households in the US.
Calculate how much energy we are JUST FUCKING WASTING, total. "It's just a little bit, it won't hurt", times everybody, means everybody is fucked.
Great plan you have there.
Hmmm. Given that I didn't have a few dozen grand just burning a hole in my pocket to burn on a system that will eat just as much money in maintenance as it will "save" me generating electricity? FUCK YEAH.
So I laid in supplies before the storms. And I, and my neighbors, had already planned out what to do if/when the power went out. I got a great time hanging out with the neighbors, catching up, relaxing, being sociable (something you are probably unfamiliar with living in your parents' basement for so long). I got to sample half a dozen different dishes from the neighbors, I got to share some of my favorite items to barbecue too.
Was it "unprecedented"? Fuck no. Storms happen. Power's gone out before. One time, it was because a dumbass driving an 18-wheeler took down the main line going into my subdivision. You deal with it. And I'm not being a "follower" just because I don't feel like wasting money on what YOU think everyone should waste money on.
"Death by a thousand papercuts."
1. 1.How much money is it worth to you to not have an a/c outage during a heat wave?
Meh. I can rough it for a few days. Handled it well enough during two hurricanes.
2. How much money is it worth to you to not have no lights for days at a time if there is a regional blackout in the grid like the NE USA experienced just a few years ago?
See previous statement. A set of crank flashlights, a battery powered clock radio, some books to read, and I'm ok.
3. How much money is it worth to you to have refrigeration during extended power outages?
Fired up the grill, cooked the perishables, had a block party with the neighbors who were doing the same thing, chatted and socialized. Had canned soup or other nonperishables cooked over an open flame on the grill for a few days, drank a few warm cans of pepsi. I survived.
It amazes me you're so fucking wimpy that you think having your power out now and again is the end of the fucking world.
Sure. A clock should have power. Its job is to keep time. And given that a clock can run for a couple years on a pair of AA batteries, the draw for your alarm clock ought to be pretty damn low.
On the other hand, why does a game console need to waste 2.5 watts (or an astonishing NINE watts for the Wii) just to keep the fucking clock running? Sync to a radio time source, sync to an internet time source if you must, put a 9-volt battery in if you want it to keep the clock running separately, or just do without it. The players will know what time it is anyways, they ought to have a clock nearby - chances are there's one in their pants, running quite well on their fucking cell phone.
Obviously your fear isn't well based in reality enough to motivate you to install solar power, geothermal, or wind power on your house to supply all or some of your energy needs
Actually, the reason I personally haven't installed solar/geothermal/wind power to my house is simple: they COST TOO FUCKING MUCH to install. At the rate of savings I'd get, it would take me 15 years to break even on the deal - I may not own the house that long. And yes, I've factored in the tax rebates involved.
I know a way we could save at least 15% of energy usage in the USA right now:
mandate that all appliances (DVD players, TV's, etc) had an actual, PHYSICAL POWER SWITCH rather than being electrical vampires.
There's no reason every fucking device on the planet has to have a goddamn clock, and much less that it needs to eat more than 2 watts 24/7 just to wait for a power-on signal from some lazy fatass who can't stand up and walk 8 feet from the couch to turn it on.
Of course, what's equally fucked up is that British libel laws allow people to sue in England for stuff done/said almost anywhere in the world.
Members of the fucked-up Cult of $cientology are famous for abusing the hell out of this.
e360 sends campaigns on behalf of many, many scammers who hire them to do spam the fuck out of people using illegal harvested email lists.
There, fixed that for ya.
You're wrong. Spamhaus filed a reply informing the IL court that they believed the IL court lacked jurisdiction and pointing out that in multiple places, the e360 SPAMMERS lied their asses off in court filings.
It should have been laughed out of court right then and there.
essentially they incorrectly identified spam (an easy mistake), for an opt in service no less
You obviously have never seen how e360 ACTUALLY operates. They're a bunch of fucking spammers who steal email addresses from wherever they can get them, especially spammer archives and spammer email harvesting services, and it's impossible to get them to stop sending you crap once they get hold of your address.
They're just a bunch of motherfucking, lying, dirty spammers.
is that e360 managed to judge-shop to find a judge so fucking stupid that he didn't simply and correctly say "fuck you, piss off and take your nuisance lawsuit with you, SPAMMER."
I tried to fix typos and a few people's birthdates being messed up once. That taught me all I needed to know about how fucked up Wikipedia is.
I try to avoid both ED and 4Chan for those reasons, but...
Using it to revert anything other than obvious vandalism (content that you believe to be non-neutral or wrong) is grounds for your loss of rollback rights and a ban from Wikipedia.
And the chance of the admins on wikipedia actually being responsible enough to do this? If you think they will, you're insane.
No, in practice, the Huggle-jockey just goes on merrily reverting whatever the fuck they can. Nobody doublechecks them anyways.
Gag. So instead of clean, reactive control by pressing a button, I waggle the fucking thing praying it reacts in time to activate and sense what I'm trying to do?
Because THAT is what "motion control" on the Wii is. Big-ass fucking waggle motions or nothing at all. Works for their tennis game, but hasn't worked properly for anything else I've tried.
No thanks. It's been done. It isn't fun.