The pirate bay are a group who believes that theft should be legal. Like NAMbLA, these groups are tolerated under a free society that believes in free speech. Ordinary people know these associations are doing bad things, and over time people who associate them will find fewer and fewer doors open to them. Do you really think you are doing Linux users a favour by associating them with the Pirate Bay? Please go away. Download an illegal copy of windows, or leopard, and stick to what you can steal.
If you want to be free, use what is legally available to you under copyleft, and pay for what is not. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
* 250 million people in the market rather than 60 million
* Employment laws that allow you to sack non-performing, useless staff
* You don't need to worry about EU legislation (see below)
* They speak English (not French, also spoken by the Algerians and Vietnamese)
* The working week is longer than 35 hours
* People work during August
* The entire country doesn't get closed down by striking trade unions, or riots
* The mindset is entrepreneurial rather than rural
* They don't have to compete with governmental legislation to protect "local culture" (i.e. discrimination against foreign artists).
I don't agree with the pricing policy of, say, iTunes favouring Americans over Europeans. But if you're wondering why Kanye West's CDs cost more in France than America, the above list might be a starting point. Of course Sarkozy is trying to move France out of this rut. I wish him luck.
Most people who download (like my dumb ex-flatmates) aren't clever enough to crack wifi. Sarkozy is aiming at most, not all. That's the genius of this legislation. I love to listen to the slashdot crowd rationalising why stealing is okay:
* I read a book by Marx and he said stealing is okay
* Music is rubbish so stealing it is okay (but the same doesn't apply to my car)
* Free software front says copyright is bad so stealing is okay
* The record companies make more money than me, so stealing is okay, although cracking leopard is wrong because apple is like virtually a non-profit
The problem is - if you aren't interested in participating in the existing process, which you claim is "broken", then why should you be allowed to participate at all? I hope Sarkozy screws the shit out of thieves who think that all of mp3.com is legal, and the rich college boys who get away with taking for free what the people who sell them burgers have to pay for.
Fight for freedom! Fight for the ability of well paid IT professionals and trust-funded students to steal music, rather than have to pay for it. Of course proles, those stupid blue collar people, *buy* music, and make it too, but we geeks deserve to get our music for free. It's part of freedom, and any attempt to enforce the laws of the state, or enforce property rights, are fascism. Except of course if someone puts a rootkit on my computer, in which case they are violating my rights.
In case you are wondering why everyone thinks that linux users are not worth supporting, the reason is you.
Down with selfish, greedy, self serving socially inept geeks, who believe that they deserve free access to what other people can't get because they have 1337 skills like downloading bittorrent.
Well done Sarkozy (by the way - the people who vote for him are going to love this. The people who don't vote, or already vote reflexively for Reyal, are going to hate it).
It does not mean Apple machines make up 8% of all the computers in the US.
Too right they don't - that stat (overall installation base) actually means something. Did you know that 100% of boxed OSes sold in the last 19 seconds in Japan were Windows Vista? Is Microsoft "leaving apple in the dust"?
Leopard Claims Half the Japanese OS Market In October - most misleading slashdot title ever? Does this mean that half of Japanese computer users use Mac OSX? No. Does this mean that Mac OSX is claiming half of new users? No. Does this mean that Japan, the place that coined the derogatory name fanboi is full of young boys wetting themselves to upgrade their version of OSX?
No - I think you've got a good point. If there isn't a zero punctuation review, why the fuck is slashdot reporting it? Mod the article down, it hasn't happened yet, please repost when Yahtzee's had time to look at it. I was genuinely interested in what he makes of 4, and of the whole CoD series. I couldn't give a fuck what Zonk says - I *need* to know what Yahtzee thinks. Or Maddox.
That link is so fucking funny. I've seen Maddox before and admired his work, but the piss-taking of Jobs's "pornographic media storage device" is masterful. Job's grossly inflated ego needs deflating.
let's look at this from someone else's perspective and see what we get:
Though it's funny to imply that Windows ME gets blue screens of death it's really just a case of some third -party software not being compatible with the new operating system.
Does that still sound convincing to you? Why does it crash the ^"$%ing OS?
For 's sake, why can't I use my modem (it's vista). Why has the PC locked up (it's vista). Why am I logging in again (it's vista). Why is the CPU running at 99% or thrashing the hard drive?.... Sorry - I can't use any modem? In Southern Ireland where I can't get broadband? (No internet access for you - this is Windows Vista:)
Let's go through the value proposition of vista -...(please fill this in, cos I haven't heard a convincing reason yet)...
so given the 0% return of using vista, and the fact that people who used to maintain windows systems for a living (me) can't fix this shit, should we use vista? Hey you tell me. Should we go short MSFT? People tell me the shares are trading at a discount. I wonder why.
It goes to show, 4 out of 5 slashdot posters are statistically illiterate. The article itself is even worse. The figures were obtained by a political party who published their own "analysis" of the results. My favourite line is:
The figures appear to confirm earlier studies which have thrown doubt on the effectiveness of CCTV cameras. I appear to have some doubts about the importance of this article.
I think you're generally right but this...
For it to be 'reasonable suspicion', they would need evidence that would lead them to think he shoplifted. Since he did, in fact, NOT shoplift, there can, by definition, be no evidence that he did shoplift. (You cannot have evidence of a crime that was not comitted.) Therefore, they had NO evidence. No evidence means no 'reasonable suspicion'. That's obviously false, and a fallacious argument. By your argument there is only evidence against people who were guilty, there can be no evidence against innocent people. The idea of "suspicion" no longer exists - if you suspect someone, the evidence that led you to suspect them is proof of guilt. The logical conclusion of your idea is that there is no need for a court system, since all suspects are automatically guilty. Sounds a bit Judge Dredd.
Nice title - how exactly can a cock like you get voted +4 insightful? An asteroid hitting planet could be bad therefore don't even try. Just find a new planet - to fuck up? Can someone put a "no dumb Americans" filter on the comments please - I don't care about your fucking democrats, or republicans. You're irrelevant now.
If you want to know where the money you are paying allofmp3 goes, look in your inbox. The spam you receive is largely sent by Russian botnet operators. If you know anyone who's been hurt by a phishing attack, bear in mind that by using allofmp3 you're helping that happen. Of course the thieves who run allofmp3 may not be the same thieves that phish, spam and run botnets, but they bankroll the same corrupt Russian politicians that make this happen.
Of course the music labels don't want to accept their money, any more than you would want to accept the money of someone that had an affair with your spouse - offering money for a stolen "service" doesn't make it right.
You can't have it both ways. If allofmp3.com is a "legal company" then "execute homosexuals" is a legal law. If you don't like that law, then maybe we should take an objective look at laws. One to review is the purported "law" in Russia that says "you may export music to foreigners without them paying for it". In Russia the government sees nothing wrong with stealing - this goes hand in hand with the attitude that there's nothing wrong with killing minorities (e.g. the Chechens), or closing down the opposition press. But on slashdot, a lot of people seem happy to overlook that. A few cheap mp3s seem to go a long way here.
yep, America, England, Germany, Japan, France, they're all suffering under the yoke of the WTO. Those lucky Russians only have to worry about their polonium poisoning ex-KGB president, secret services who accidentally gas 400 people a predicted population drop of 20% and a legal system that takes 2 years to close a website which openly steals music from the people who produce it. They don't know how lucky they are, yeah?
Why single out Mac users Stupid isn't it. Another take is that Windows 98 users, who still outnumber Mac users, will find their upgrade path involves buying a new PC.
Furthermore - who cares? Is anyone installing Vista? The only reason that I thought people used it was because it came on their PC. The one thing that does seem relevant to this is the waste of electricity caused by Windows' constant need for more processing power. Can anyone explain why a desktop user actually needs (or even wants) 64 bits? Just in case you need to model an atomic bomb exploding or something?
I think that's a pretty good point - I agree that the overall level of violent gun crime may actually be higher in a society with gun control. My point was that massacres are more likely to occur if there is no gun control - for the reasons I gave. The massacres that occur are generally the result of weeks of planning, by young men with clean criminal records. These people find it very difficult to source illegal weapons.
In the UK gun massacres are a significant element of the overall gun murder rate - last year 67 people were killed in gun assaults in Britain, so when 16 children can be killed in a single day, that is a very significant event.
I'm glad you're upfront about saying it's a price worth paying in the US, I think that's a fair argument. As for not reading the articles - I try not to read Daily Express editorials, it's a shitty paper. The editorial swaps between "gun deaths rising in UK" (presumably he's including suicide here) to "lower gun murder rates in Switzerland" (probably not including suicide, since it would screw up his argument, Switzerland has very low crime levels and a very high suicide rate) to "it is hard to disentangle the statistics" (presumably that's true if you have 24 hours to publication). On the bbc article, the research it quotes is from a pro gun lobby, which ignores the severity of crime to simply focus on the numbers, since severity does not appear to suit its argument.
In short - I don't like your sources, your argument doesn't work very well for the UK, but it may well work for America, and you're an honest man for making it so clearly. Here's the article with last years (UK) stats for your info :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,19992 01,00.html
I don't claim that banning guns it would have prevented september the 11th, or the Oklahoma bombing either. Or Pearl Harbour. Or Dresden, or Nagasaki. I'm sorry I wasn't perfectly clear about this - I was referring to crimes committed with guns - I hoped that could be inferred from the context.
Do you even think before posting this crap? I was thinking just the same thing reading your post. Or more exactly, I was thinking is it possible to actually type out of your arse?
There have been no massacres in the UK since handguns were banned in 1997. 32 people died in two massacres in the previous 10 years. The link between massacres and teenagers being able to pick up a gun at the store is blindingly obvious to anyone outside of America. But it is true the constitution defends their right to be armed with a device designed to kill people very quickly. Perhaps the constitution should be amended.
The reason guns cause massacres is that they introduce an asymmetry into any confrontation. A can kill B but B can't kill A - or stop A. This is what happened in My Lai too. This is how a disaffected freak in America can and does kill lots of people.
Switzerland also has issues with murder suicides, there is currently a campaign to remove weapons from households and keep them in barracks instead. Additionally, in Switzerland the arms are property of the state, and the people that hold them (most adult males) are trained soldiers. So one solution to America's problem might be universal national service, the other is gun control. The third is to say massacres like this are a price worth paying for the freedom to bear arms and avoid national service. But to say the constitution says it, so it can't be changed - that's a cop out.
Isn't it strange that so few guns are sold on www.ebay.co.uk? Could it be something to do with the fact the uk has a sane gun law? But of course, this is slashdot.org, so it must be ebay's fault. After all, slashdot is more than happy to accept complete responsibility for any comments posted here.
People affected by schizophrenia will completely change their arguments to fit evidence that disproves it. Hence even valid arguments reinforce their beliefs. What's your excuse?
Slashdot Mirror
If you want to be free, use what is legally available to you under copyleft, and pay for what is not. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
* Employment laws that allow you to sack non-performing, useless staff
* You don't need to worry about EU legislation (see below)
* They speak English (not French, also spoken by the Algerians and Vietnamese)
* The working week is longer than 35 hours
* People work during August
* The entire country doesn't get closed down by striking trade unions, or riots
* The mindset is entrepreneurial rather than rural
* They don't have to compete with governmental legislation to protect "local culture" (i.e. discrimination against foreign artists).
I don't agree with the pricing policy of, say, iTunes favouring Americans over Europeans. But if you're wondering why Kanye West's CDs cost more in France than America, the above list might be a starting point. Of course Sarkozy is trying to move France out of this rut. I wish him luck.
* I read a book by Marx and he said stealing is okay
* Music is rubbish so stealing it is okay (but the same doesn't apply to my car)
* Free software front says copyright is bad so stealing is okay
* The record companies make more money than me, so stealing is okay, although cracking leopard is wrong because apple is like virtually a non-profit
The problem is - if you aren't interested in participating in the existing process, which you claim is "broken", then why should you be allowed to participate at all? I hope Sarkozy screws the shit out of thieves who think that all of mp3.com is legal, and the rich college boys who get away with taking for free what the people who sell them burgers have to pay for.
In case you are wondering why everyone thinks that linux users are not worth supporting, the reason is you.
Down with selfish, greedy, self serving socially inept geeks, who believe that they deserve free access to what other people can't get because they have 1337 skills like downloading bittorrent.
Well done Sarkozy (by the way - the people who vote for him are going to love this. The people who don't vote, or already vote reflexively for Reyal, are going to hate it).
Too right they don't - that stat (overall installation base) actually means something. Did you know that 100% of boxed OSes sold in the last 19 seconds in Japan were Windows Vista? Is Microsoft "leaving apple in the dust"?
hmm... Does it taste salty boys?
No - I think you've got a good point. If there isn't a zero punctuation review, why the fuck is slashdot reporting it? Mod the article down, it hasn't happened yet, please repost when Yahtzee's had time to look at it. I was genuinely interested in what he makes of 4, and of the whole CoD series. I couldn't give a fuck what Zonk says - I *need* to know what Yahtzee thinks. Or Maddox.
Is 60 years long enough? Will they have the charged electrodes attached to his testicles for at least half of that?
That link is so fucking funny. I've seen Maddox before and admired his work, but the piss-taking of Jobs's "pornographic media storage device" is masterful. Job's grossly inflated ego needs deflating.
Though it's funny to imply that Windows ME gets blue screens of death it's really just a case of some third -party software not being compatible with the new operating system.
Does that still sound convincing to you? Why does it crash the ^"$%ing OS?
ITS SHIT!!!!!!
For 's sake, why can't I use my modem (it's vista). Why has the PC locked up (it's vista). Why am I logging in again (it's vista). Why is the CPU running at 99% or thrashing the hard drive? .... Sorry - I can't use any modem? In Southern Ireland where I can't get broadband? (No internet access for you - this is Windows Vista :)
Let's go through the value proposition of vista - ...(please fill this in, cos I haven't heard a convincing reason yet)...
so given the 0% return of using vista, and the fact that people who used to maintain windows systems for a living (me) can't fix this shit, should we use vista? Hey you tell me. Should we go short MSFT? People tell me the shares are trading at a discount. I wonder why.
Nice title - how exactly can a cock like you get voted +4 insightful? An asteroid hitting planet could be bad therefore don't even try. Just find a new planet - to fuck up? Can someone put a "no dumb Americans" filter on the comments please - I don't care about your fucking democrats, or republicans. You're irrelevant now.
Of course the music labels don't want to accept their money, any more than you would want to accept the money of someone that had an affair with your spouse - offering money for a stolen "service" doesn't make it right.
You can't have it both ways. If allofmp3.com is a "legal company" then "execute homosexuals" is a legal law. If you don't like that law, then maybe we should take an objective look at laws. One to review is the purported "law" in Russia that says "you may export music to foreigners without them paying for it". In Russia the government sees nothing wrong with stealing - this goes hand in hand with the attitude that there's nothing wrong with killing minorities (e.g. the Chechens), or closing down the opposition press. But on slashdot, a lot of people seem happy to overlook that. A few cheap mp3s seem to go a long way here.
yep, America, England, Germany, Japan, France, they're all suffering under the yoke of the WTO. Those lucky Russians only have to worry about their polonium poisoning ex-KGB president, secret services who accidentally gas 400 people a predicted population drop of 20% and a legal system that takes 2 years to close a website which openly steals music from the people who produce it. They don't know how lucky they are, yeah?
Hey well it only took him 6-7 years to change his mind!
Furthermore - who cares? Is anyone installing Vista? The only reason that I thought people used it was because it came on their PC. The one thing that does seem relevant to this is the waste of electricity caused by Windows' constant need for more processing power. Can anyone explain why a desktop user actually needs (or even wants) 64 bits? Just in case you need to model an atomic bomb exploding or something?
Ironic that technology was apple's undoing in this case - one would have expected it to happen to Microsoft first.
I think that's a pretty good point - I agree that the overall level of violent gun crime may actually be higher in a society with gun control. My point was that massacres are more likely to occur if there is no gun control - for the reasons I gave. The massacres that occur are generally the result of weeks of planning, by young men with clean criminal records. These people find it very difficult to source illegal weapons.
2 01,00.html
In the UK gun massacres are a significant element of the overall gun murder rate - last year 67 people were killed in gun assaults in Britain, so when 16 children can be killed in a single day, that is a very significant event.
I'm glad you're upfront about saying it's a price worth paying in the US, I think that's a fair argument. As for not reading the articles - I try not to read Daily Express editorials, it's a shitty paper. The editorial swaps between "gun deaths rising in UK" (presumably he's including suicide here) to "lower gun murder rates in Switzerland" (probably not including suicide, since it would screw up his argument, Switzerland has very low crime levels and a very high suicide rate) to "it is hard to disentangle the statistics" (presumably that's true if you have 24 hours to publication). On the bbc article, the research it quotes is from a pro gun lobby, which ignores the severity of crime to simply focus on the numbers, since severity does not appear to suit its argument.
In short - I don't like your sources, your argument doesn't work very well for the UK, but it may well work for America, and you're an honest man for making it so clearly. Here's the article with last years (UK) stats for your info : http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1999
There have been no massacres in the UK since handguns were banned in 1997. 32 people died in two massacres in the previous 10 years. The link between massacres and teenagers being able to pick up a gun at the store is blindingly obvious to anyone outside of America. But it is true the constitution defends their right to be armed with a device designed to kill people very quickly. Perhaps the constitution should be amended.
The reason guns cause massacres is that they introduce an asymmetry into any confrontation. A can kill B but B can't kill A - or stop A. This is what happened in My Lai too. This is how a disaffected freak in America can and does kill lots of people.
Switzerland also has issues with murder suicides, there is currently a campaign to remove weapons from households and keep them in barracks instead. Additionally, in Switzerland the arms are property of the state, and the people that hold them (most adult males) are trained soldiers. So one solution to America's problem might be universal national service, the other is gun control. The third is to say massacres like this are a price worth paying for the freedom to bear arms and avoid national service. But to say the constitution says it, so it can't be changed - that's a cop out.
Isn't it strange that so few guns are sold on www.ebay.co.uk? Could it be something to do with the fact the uk has a sane gun law? But of course, this is slashdot.org, so it must be ebay's fault. After all, slashdot is more than happy to accept complete responsibility for any comments posted here.
People affected by schizophrenia will completely change their arguments to fit evidence that disproves it. Hence even valid arguments reinforce their beliefs. What's your excuse?