A lot of the titles here are great Sci-Fi but not as accessible as real "made for kids" stuff that contain science that is easily transitional to the titles mentioned.
The stuff that got me started down the Sci-Fi path:
"a man has as much right to own rifle as he does to burn the flag"
The way the U.S. government is going, I suspect that in due course, a man will have neither of those rights nor many others. The publics apparent view, that we only have the rights enumerated in the constitution, is appalling.
On the one side you have the Democrats working to take away second amendment protections and bolstering copyrights to corporations by eliminating fair use and public domain, while on the other side you have the Republicans working to take away those pesky privacy rights and freedom of speech.
Neither of these parties seem to represent the public in general and always they strive to expand government powers.
It's a lose-lose.
I know that if I were a defense attorney, I would be making the argument that it was a broadcast vs. distribution as the laws and penalties around distribution are designed to target real for profit pirates stamping disks and not casual file sharers. Unauthorized or unlicensed broadcast laws would seem to be much more forgiving. Also, if it is a broadcast I doubt RIAA have much standing as performance payments go to the songwriter, not the publisher as far as I can tell, and unlike the RIAA, ASCAP and BMI actually DO give money to the artists.
"I do think though that they are well aware that any judge will decide it ISN'T a form of broadcast"
Wait, broadcast? I like this line of reasoning. How much does a radio station pay when they broadcast a song? Is it somewhat based on the number of listeners? I can see a parallel between file sharing and a radio broadcast where the song is recorded. Is the radio station guilty of copyright infringement when I record a song off of the radio? Is not the difference in this scenario just that one is digital and the other analogue?
I do not think it would be in the best interest of the RIAA for it to be ruled a broadcast as the penalty for broadcasting a song without paying the dues to ASCAP or BMI (I think) is nowhere near the settlements that they have been seeking.
If it were ruled a broadcast, the RIAA would get NOTHING.
Your lack of understanding of the "Dell" process with XP and Vista is telling.
Vista includes all languages and a substantial amount of drivers and such while XP requires an inordinately large amount of work to support.
Vista is ~4GB while XP is ~1.5 and both require a completely separate development and test environment requiring Dell to double their development and test expenditures.
I largely agree with your sentiment and but notice that the 3%+3% that realtors get has been static for a substantial amount of time. I suspect that those commissions will be much more variable going foward as agents will now need to compete on service and merit, rather that an accepted standare. You still have to pay for what you get, but now you might beging to get what you pay for.
The thing about the "online realtors" is that they are offering their service at a substantial discount to traditional ones. That is what got the the Assn, in a bind, is that the discount realtors were competing on price.
"It's not plausible."
That is because you are someone who understands both finance and technology. To the unwashed masses they might just fall for it and if they do, the legislators\regulators who should know better, might just let them get away with it as they were to some extent complicit in the whole scam.
"There's a sucker born every minute" -Barnum
"You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time." -Lincoln
You might be able to fool most of the people most of the time. I mean W. got elected somehow... twice.
If you think voice actors are a dime a dozen you should consider that programmers are a nickel a bushel. But in each category there are the cream of the crop. Dan Castellaneta vs Carmack. I'm pretty sure the Simpson's voice actors get residuals on reruns of that show and I would suspect that video game voice actors wish that they received a similar gravy train.
I would argue that Microsoft DOES need incompatibility in many things beyond drivers. They need developers to migrate their applications over to the new OS in a way that forces users to upgrade the OS. Otherwise, XP is good enough, adoption rates are minimal and Microsoft is left with an OS that does not have enough critical mass that developers drop support for the previous one.
If a core application has support on both the New and Current OS Microsoft loses control and DRM is dead in the water, as no-one will leave XP.
Spot on. It is not the tree that should count for and offset but the LAND for trees to grow on. "Plant a tree" programs are the biggest fucking joke. Reserving undeveloped land from any other propose would be of value. Converting farms/ranches to National park would be far more productive in achieving some kind of "Green" benefit.
Very cool, more details of IT kicking ass please. In my place of work they are just a bunch of money grubbing, resource grabbing, non-innovating sons of bitches.
WTF, are you on crack? You even say it in your post "able to market them" MicroSoft is a marketing agency and a convicted of abusing a monopoly to stifle competition. The free market does not work without competition. MicroSofts monopoly in the operating system market is what allowed them to "cut off the air supply" of Netscape. Not any innovation on the part of MicroSoft.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of the titles here are great Sci-Fi but not as accessible as real "made for kids" stuff that contain science that is easily transitional to the titles mentioned.
The stuff that got me started down the Sci-Fi path:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Looney/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Investigators/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown/
Then of course The Hobbit, and Asimov and Niven's short stories. After that any youngster would be hooked and need a 12 step to quit the habit.
Here is my favorite illustration http://www.laddertheory.com/
"a man has as much right to own rifle as he does to burn the flag"
The way the U.S. government is going, I suspect that in due course, a man will have neither of those rights nor many others. The publics apparent view, that we only have the rights enumerated in the constitution, is appalling.
On the one side you have the Democrats working to take away second amendment protections and bolstering copyrights to corporations by eliminating fair use and public domain, while on the other side you have the Republicans working to take away those pesky privacy rights and freedom of speech.
Neither of these parties seem to represent the public in general and always they strive to expand government powers. It's a lose-lose.
I know that if I were a defense attorney, I would be making the argument that it was a broadcast vs. distribution as the laws and penalties around distribution are designed to target real for profit pirates stamping disks and not casual file sharers. Unauthorized or unlicensed broadcast laws would seem to be much more forgiving. Also, if it is a broadcast I doubt RIAA have much standing as performance payments go to the songwriter, not the publisher as far as I can tell, and unlike the RIAA, ASCAP and BMI actually DO give money to the artists.
"I do think though that they are well aware that any judge will decide it ISN'T a form of broadcast"
Wait, broadcast? I like this line of reasoning. How much does a radio station pay when they broadcast a song? Is it somewhat based on the number of listeners? I can see a parallel between file sharing and a radio broadcast where the song is recorded. Is the radio station guilty of copyright infringement when I record a song off of the radio? Is not the difference in this scenario just that one is digital and the other analogue?
I do not think it would be in the best interest of the RIAA for it to be ruled a broadcast as the penalty for broadcasting a song without paying the dues to ASCAP or BMI (I think) is nowhere near the settlements that they have been seeking.
If it were ruled a broadcast, the RIAA would get NOTHING.
2K rocks. Why upgrade to anything less?
Your lack of understanding of the "Dell" process with XP and Vista is telling.
Vista includes all languages and a substantial amount of drivers and such while XP requires an inordinately large amount of work to support.
Vista is ~4GB while XP is ~1.5 and both require a completely separate development and test environment requiring Dell to double their development and test expenditures.
Clearly the experts did not know better... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121314811278463077.html?mod=fpa_editors_picks
I largely agree with your sentiment and but notice that the 3%+3% that realtors get has been static for a substantial amount of time. I suspect that those commissions will be much more variable going foward as agents will now need to compete on service and merit, rather that an accepted standare. You still have to pay for what you get, but now you might beging to get what you pay for.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/79166-realtors-prepare-to-lose-your-6-percent?source=feed
The thing about the "online realtors" is that they are offering their service at a substantial discount to traditional ones. That is what got the the Assn, in a bind, is that the discount realtors were competing on price.
"It's not plausible." That is because you are someone who understands both finance and technology. To the unwashed masses they might just fall for it and if they do, the legislators\regulators who should know better, might just let them get away with it as they were to some extent complicit in the whole scam. "There's a sucker born every minute" -Barnum "You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time." -Lincoln You might be able to fool most of the people most of the time. I mean W. got elected somehow... twice.
If you think voice actors are a dime a dozen you should consider that programmers are a nickel a bushel. But in each category there are the cream of the crop. Dan Castellaneta vs Carmack. I'm pretty sure the Simpson's voice actors get residuals on reruns of that show and I would suspect that video game voice actors wish that they received a similar gravy train.
I wish SO much for the "person hood" of corporations or other non-human organizations to be revoked. It is just not natural.
I imagine that without perpetual drug patents we might actually start getting cures instead of treatments.
I would argue that Microsoft DOES need incompatibility in many things beyond drivers. They need developers to migrate their applications over to the new OS in a way that forces users to upgrade the OS. Otherwise, XP is good enough, adoption rates are minimal and Microsoft is left with an OS that does not have enough critical mass that developers drop support for the previous one. If a core application has support on both the New and Current OS Microsoft loses control and DRM is dead in the water, as no-one will leave XP.
Fucking brilliant!
It is not all guys, there are a lot of fat chicks too!
"11. Rollback Copyright extensions to life of author + 25 years." Still too long.
Spot on. It is not the tree that should count for and offset but the LAND for trees to grow on. "Plant a tree" programs are the biggest fucking joke. Reserving undeveloped land from any other propose would be of value. Converting farms/ranches to National park would be far more productive in achieving some kind of "Green" benefit.
I hate to admit it but 2k is a brilliant OS. I only wish that MS had said "Perfect and done."
Still running 2K. Let me know when Vista catches up. You can polish a turd as long as you like but all you have is a piece of shit.
Google AND YouTube? Last I checked it was just Google.
Very cool, more details of IT kicking ass please. In my place of work they are just a bunch of money grubbing, resource grabbing, non-innovating sons of bitches.
WTF, are you on crack? You even say it in your post "able to market them" MicroSoft is a marketing agency and a convicted of abusing a monopoly to stifle competition. The free market does not work without competition. MicroSofts monopoly in the operating system market is what allowed them to "cut off the air supply" of Netscape. Not any innovation on the part of MicroSoft.