So let's call it "Godwin's Second Law" that anyone pulling this particular lame stunt automatically loses,
Aside from the other problems with your post that others have pointed out, why do we really need to codify all sorts of silly named rules for engaging in rational discussion of a topic? What's wrong with just using good old logic to point out flaws in a argument?
It's hardly a secret that governments conduct cyber-espionage - what seems shocking in this instance is that they have been caught and that a major company
All governments spy. Its just good business to know what is happening next door. However, there is quite a bit of difference between keeping tabs on what other governments are doing, and aggressively stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
A good analogy for this situation is that spying is eavesdropping. What China is doing is kicking in doors and stealing everything in sight. The former is expected to some degree by governments. The latter isn't.
The trade deficit through China is still in our favor - appears to be over 200 billion if I was looking at the right website.
Also consider the nature of the goods being traded - if a large percentage of the goods coming from China are consumer goods, it isn't going to hurt us that bad to get in a trade war, it will just drive up prices for crap that really isn't that vital.
That was a good article, thanks! Not really anything surprising though. If you read government press releases correctly, they have been telling other people who understand 'diplomateeze' this for years.
Why can't they lobby for an ebook reader that does cater to the blind.
Better yet, why don't they lobby FOR the readers, to help them achieve the critical mass needed to support tertiary products, LIKE BRAILLE READERS AND TEXT TO SPEECH PLUGINS.
To the blind: I wholly empathize with your plight, but you have some really dumb fucking people trying to help your cause...
When has UN condemnation ever acomphished anything?
Even if the condemnation doesn't scare off investors (Which China wants and needs), it is the next step in the process. International diplomacy is a game with rules.
Who exactly woud sanctions against China hurt? (Hint: not China)
Yes it would actually hurt China. They need markets to sell to. While it wouldn't also cause other short term pain, it would allow development of markets in other countries, eroding China's long term markets. China is not the only game in town by a long shot.
Who is going to declare war on a country with over a billion people and manufacturers most of all but the most secretive millitrary hardware for just about the rest of the world?
Again, China is not the only market, especially for military hardware. While China is a powerful country, it cannot stand alone against the world.
While warfare isn't on the table yet, China will not be able to behave like this indefinitely without suffering repercussions.
No matter how powerful a corporation gets, it's goal is to make money for its investors. A government doesn't have any such mandate. As such governments have far more resources to invest in non-profitable sources of power: Soldiers, guns, and tanks. Money is powerful, but it is always trumped by a soldier with a gun. A powerful corporation is only powerful while it is allowed to be by the local government.
Why is the government wasting time with this? Everybody knows what the answer is going to be, the Chinese government is going to deny everything and change nothing. Unless Secretary Clinton is willing to back up those words with some sort of action, they are just a waste of breath.
Because by publicly asking the government to respond, they are making them look like a pack of inept idiots. It tells the rest of the world that they are attempting to spy (still), and doing a bad job of it. Security services globally will probably now be reviewing their intrusion detection procedures, making it more difficult for the Chinese government skript kiddies to make headway toward their goals. It will scare away some companies considering investment in China, slowing their internal ecenomic growth, and costing them money. It is also the first step in the diplomatic process that can lead to condemnations from the UN, sanctions, or even war. Rational states don't simply skip to straight to attacking other states over stuff like this.
The very fact that they have put this in the public realm as opposed to quietly telling the Chinese government that they know what they are doing (which they have been for years) indicates that the next step in the process is being taken.
Which in turn means that there might be something else at play.
Reading some of the news coming out about hackers in China, I get the impression that there might be unofficial sanctioning or sponsorship by the government of some Chinese hacker groups.
It also strikes me as a little off that a company announces it 'might' pull out of a country. Usually, these decisions are made internally and press conferences are called to either announce or deny that something is going to happen. If you are a company like Google, you don't openly call the government for hacking and spying. I wonder if this is Google telling the government that it won't put up with their shit?
I am very worried that they might be able to preserve a fuzzy resemblance of my body after I go through an airport scanner. I devote a lot of effort to man-scrapping, and I would appreciate it if they would at least use good enough quality equipment to show off my efforts...
That question suggests that they are somehow a unified, discreet group that can make that decision. I would be the first to admit I know next to nothing about political structures and groups in the pr0n industry, I don't get the impression that they are organized in that fashion.
don't you know why this is done? TV manufacturers are running out of ways for being able to insulate the price barrier.
I don't buy that. All it takes is one hungry smaller company that decides it doesn't need to try to milk consumers with gradual feature creep to produce a product that costs the same but has more features. Implementing 3d on tvs should be no more complex that cranking the refresh rate up, and selling overpriced polarized glasses.
Anyone want to place a bet on how long before companies are accused of "gaming" the financial reporting system with their press releases?
As opposed to 'gaming' the media with their press releases? Isn't that what a PR person is supposed to to, create press releases that cast the company in a favorable light?
so we have a nation of ninja warriors. Nobody will fuck with anybody ever again. ...BECAUSE WE WILL HAVE REAL ULTIMATE POWER(tm)!!!!111!One
he now has a plane full of ninjas to deal with; oops.
Hey, can I use that for the title of the screenplay I am working on? 'Ninjas on a Plane' sounds totally HARDCORE!
I'm actually chair of the National Ninja Warrior's Advocacy Group;
As a fellow martial artist, could I ask that you please stop advocating? You are making the rest of us look really, really silly...
Maybe I'd have a character who doesn't have to run around scantily clad with huge breasts. These are things we do complain about (and are reasons some of my other female friends won't start playing).
I mentioned earlier in this thread that my wife is a gamer. She likes playing games using sexy looking female avatars. You can complain that you don't like your characters sexualized, but you shouldn't assume that women in general are put off by it. That would be inaccurate as me claiming that all women like sexualized avatars simply because my wife likes them.
Oblig. nitpick: if you dated and married a gamer girl, then you CANNOT say from experience what a non-gamer girl will or won't ever do. You'd have to have dated and married a non-gamer girl (actually, all of them) in order to make that blanket statement.
Nitpick denied. I can accurately make that statement without having married one or all girls who are not gamers.
As the act of compulsively leveling alts in a MMO is the act of one who belongs to the set of female persons that are labeled a 'Gamer Girls', there exists no such person who can engage in this activity without being a gamer girl. Hence, a girl who does that must be a gamer.
Which really begs the question; is it better to date a gaming girl or a 'normal' girl?
Having dated and then married a gamer girl, I can say from experience that a non-gamer girl will never drag your ass out of bed at 6 am on a Saturday morning to work on leveling alts with her.
I suppose it's like any relationship, a mixed bag.
Writing code is creating a 'thing', and falls under patent law.
Copying that program and selling it falls under copyright law.
of course, software falling under patent law is pure bullshit, not only for all the reasons that dozens of posts on this thread will mention, but also because nobody is actually disclosing usable source code in their patents. A patent is supposed to explain an exact method for doing something, not just vague hand waving and hints about how something is done.
I would have far less of a problem with software patents if they actually disclosed fully functional source code with the patent. The way things work now, they get the benefits of a patent, and the secrecy of having a trade secret.
LOL, You just said that you don't agree with my thesis, and then in the second sentence of your reply, you reworded exactly what I said.
My point wasn't that the movies couldn't have been better, but rather that it is probably impossible to make a better 'star wars' film in the eyes of the emotionally invested fans.
TPM was lame when compared to the original Star Wars trilogy
While I would agree with most people that TPM wasn't as strong as the first three films, I often wonder what sort of movie Lucas would have to have made to appease the fanboi masses. After all, the 'holy trinity' was a cornerstone of growing up for many and its awful hard to compete with deeply ingrained nostalgia and twenty years of anticipation.
Could TPM been better? Sure. Could TPM been what everyone imagined? I don't know, its awful hard to compete with childhood memories...
If I am starting a country, I'd ignore the question entirely. My secret police, however, would insure that any companies that used closed source standards would be compliant to my needs on demand.
I jokingly mention this, because this is a good example where you can watch some multinationals butt heads with a state. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
Slashdot Mirror
So let's call it "Godwin's Second Law" that anyone pulling this particular lame stunt automatically loses,
Aside from the other problems with your post that others have pointed out, why do we really need to codify all sorts of silly named rules for engaging in rational discussion of a topic? What's wrong with just using good old logic to point out flaws in a argument?
What are you, some kind of logic rule nazi?
It's hardly a secret that governments conduct cyber-espionage - what seems shocking in this instance is that they have been caught and that a major company
All governments spy. Its just good business to know what is happening next door. However, there is quite a bit of difference between keeping tabs on what other governments are doing, and aggressively stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
A good analogy for this situation is that spying is eavesdropping. What China is doing is kicking in doors and stealing everything in sight. The former is expected to some degree by governments. The latter isn't.
The trade deficit through China is still in our favor - appears to be over 200 billion if I was looking at the right website.
Also consider the nature of the goods being traded - if a large percentage of the goods coming from China are consumer goods, it isn't going to hurt us that bad to get in a trade war, it will just drive up prices for crap that really isn't that vital.
That was a good article, thanks! Not really anything surprising though. If you read government press releases correctly, they have been telling other people who understand 'diplomateeze' this for years.
Why can't they lobby for an ebook reader that does cater to the blind.
Better yet, why don't they lobby FOR the readers, to help them achieve the critical mass needed to support tertiary products, LIKE BRAILLE READERS AND TEXT TO SPEECH PLUGINS.
To the blind: I wholly empathize with your plight, but you have some really dumb fucking people trying to help your cause...
When has UN condemnation ever acomphished anything?
Even if the condemnation doesn't scare off investors (Which China wants and needs), it is the next step in the process. International diplomacy is a game with rules.
Who exactly woud sanctions against China hurt? (Hint: not China)
Yes it would actually hurt China. They need markets to sell to. While it wouldn't also cause other short term pain, it would allow development of markets in other countries, eroding China's long term markets. China is not the only game in town by a long shot.
Who is going to declare war on a country with over a billion people and manufacturers most of all but the most secretive millitrary hardware for just about the rest of the world?
Again, China is not the only market, especially for military hardware. While China is a powerful country, it cannot stand alone against the world. While warfare isn't on the table yet, China will not be able to behave like this indefinitely without suffering repercussions.
No matter how powerful a corporation gets, it's goal is to make money for its investors. A government doesn't have any such mandate. As such governments have far more resources to invest in non-profitable sources of power: Soldiers, guns, and tanks. Money is powerful, but it is always trumped by a soldier with a gun. A powerful corporation is only powerful while it is allowed to be by the local government.
Why is the government wasting time with this? Everybody knows what the answer is going to be, the Chinese government is going to deny everything and change nothing. Unless Secretary Clinton is willing to back up those words with some sort of action, they are just a waste of breath.
Because by publicly asking the government to respond, they are making them look like a pack of inept idiots. It tells the rest of the world that they are attempting to spy (still), and doing a bad job of it. Security services globally will probably now be reviewing their intrusion detection procedures, making it more difficult for the Chinese government skript kiddies to make headway toward their goals. It will scare away some companies considering investment in China, slowing their internal ecenomic growth, and costing them money. It is also the first step in the diplomatic process that can lead to condemnations from the UN, sanctions, or even war. Rational states don't simply skip to straight to attacking other states over stuff like this.
The very fact that they have put this in the public realm as opposed to quietly telling the Chinese government that they know what they are doing (which they have been for years) indicates that the next step in the process is being taken.
Which in turn means that there might be something else at play.
Reading some of the news coming out about hackers in China, I get the impression that there might be unofficial sanctioning or sponsorship by the government of some Chinese hacker groups.
It also strikes me as a little off that a company announces it 'might' pull out of a country. Usually, these decisions are made internally and press conferences are called to either announce or deny that something is going to happen. If you are a company like Google, you don't openly call the government for hacking and spying. I wonder if this is Google telling the government that it won't put up with their shit?
I am very worried that they might be able to preserve a fuzzy resemblance of my body after I go through an airport scanner. I devote a lot of effort to man-scrapping, and I would appreciate it if they would at least use good enough quality equipment to show off my efforts...
That question suggests that they are somehow a unified, discreet group that can make that decision. I would be the first to admit I know next to nothing about political structures and groups in the pr0n industry, I don't get the impression that they are organized in that fashion.
don't you know why this is done? TV manufacturers are running out of ways for being able to insulate the price barrier.
I don't buy that. All it takes is one hungry smaller company that decides it doesn't need to try to milk consumers with gradual feature creep to produce a product that costs the same but has more features. Implementing 3d on tvs should be no more complex that cranking the refresh rate up, and selling overpriced polarized glasses.
It's ok, the message hasn't actually been decoded by a third party as long as you don't read it.
Anyone want to place a bet on how long before companies are accused of "gaming" the financial reporting system with their press releases?
As opposed to 'gaming' the media with their press releases? Isn't that what a PR person is supposed to to, create press releases that cast the company in a favorable light?
so we have a nation of ninja warriors. Nobody will fuck with anybody ever again.
...BECAUSE WE WILL HAVE REAL ULTIMATE POWER(tm)!!!!111!One
he now has a plane full of ninjas to deal with; oops.
Hey, can I use that for the title of the screenplay I am working on? 'Ninjas on a Plane' sounds totally HARDCORE!
I'm actually chair of the National Ninja Warrior's Advocacy Group;
As a fellow martial artist, could I ask that you please stop advocating? You are making the rest of us look really, really silly...
Maybe I'd have a character who doesn't have to run around scantily clad with huge breasts. These are things we do complain about (and are reasons some of my other female friends won't start playing).
I mentioned earlier in this thread that my wife is a gamer. She likes playing games using sexy looking female avatars. You can complain that you don't like your characters sexualized, but you shouldn't assume that women in general are put off by it. That would be inaccurate as me claiming that all women like sexualized avatars simply because my wife likes them.
Oblig. nitpick: if you dated and married a gamer girl, then you CANNOT say from experience what a non-gamer girl will or won't ever do. You'd have to have dated and married a non-gamer girl (actually, all of them) in order to make that blanket statement.
Nitpick denied. I can accurately make that statement without having married one or all girls who are not gamers.
As the act of compulsively leveling alts in a MMO is the act of one who belongs to the set of female persons that are labeled a 'Gamer Girls', there exists no such person who can engage in this activity without being a gamer girl. Hence, a girl who does that must be a gamer.
QED
Which really begs the question; is it better to date a gaming girl or a 'normal' girl?
Having dated and then married a gamer girl, I can say from experience that a non-gamer girl will never drag your ass out of bed at 6 am on a Saturday morning to work on leveling alts with her.
I suppose it's like any relationship, a mixed bag.
Writing code is creating a 'thing', and falls under patent law.
Copying that program and selling it falls under copyright law.
of course, software falling under patent law is pure bullshit, not only for all the reasons that dozens of posts on this thread will mention, but also because nobody is actually disclosing usable source code in their patents. A patent is supposed to explain an exact method for doing something, not just vague hand waving and hints about how something is done.
I would have far less of a problem with software patents if they actually disclosed fully functional source code with the patent. The way things work now, they get the benefits of a patent, and the secrecy of having a trade secret.
LOL, You just said that you don't agree with my thesis, and then in the second sentence of your reply, you reworded exactly what I said.
My point wasn't that the movies couldn't have been better, but rather that it is probably impossible to make a better 'star wars' film in the eyes of the emotionally invested fans.
I think your just validated my point.
TPM was lame when compared to the original Star Wars trilogy
While I would agree with most people that TPM wasn't as strong as the first three films, I often wonder what sort of movie Lucas would have to have made to appease the fanboi masses. After all, the 'holy trinity' was a cornerstone of growing up for many and its awful hard to compete with deeply ingrained nostalgia and twenty years of anticipation.
Could TPM been better? Sure. Could TPM been what everyone imagined? I don't know, its awful hard to compete with childhood memories...
If I am starting a country, I'd ignore the question entirely. My secret police, however, would insure that any companies that used closed source standards would be compliant to my needs on demand.
I jokingly mention this, because this is a good example where you can watch some multinationals butt heads with a state. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top.
The botnets are already more intelligent than your average spammer; making them autonomous is a small matter of programming.
I'm pretty sure that we don't need to program spammers to be autonomous.
Perhaps we should start referring to this guy as the asshole formerly named 'Ted Alvin Klaudt'?
Judge: "Fair use might be a justifiable defense, but we find for the platiff to the tune of $625k."
Defense Council: "YAAAAAY! Wait a flippin second..."