I think you fell for his scheme when you basically accepted his point:
He says we should have some, but not unlimited fair use.
I want unlimited fair use! Why? Because it's fair!
I'm not arguing that I should be able to get my music for free, but once I pay for it I can do with it whatever I want, as long as it's fair use. I'm not going to accept his version of "fair" - probably no media shifting, no format shifting, if possible no time shifting and hardware-locked to a specific player - I want the rights I deserve for having paid.
You make the mistake of accepting his framing of the argument: he isn't "giving in" in the slightest, he makes an outrageous demand, and, when no one will fulfill it, backs down a little. It's the same as if I asked you to pay me a million dollars for using the same air that I breathe, and if you aren't willing to pay, well, I can back down to a payment of one dollar a month. I guess you would consider that a great deal, since I "backed down" so much...
(I'm not accusing you personally, but every time I see something like this I wish people were more aware of basic manipulating tactics - these are old tricks, and, sad as it is to see, they still work).
To quote from TrueCrypt's website: TrueCrypt can run in so-called 'traveller' mode, which means that it does not have to be installed on the operating system under which it is run.
This means you do not have a program list entry if you do not install it; all you have to do is keep the TrueCrypt.exe somewhere on the drive or on a separate thumbdrive (you should probably rename it to something like spellcheck.exe). But even if you do install it, you still get plausible deniability with TrueCrypt's two-container-model: you can create a secondary encrypted container within an encrypted container, so that you basically get two different contents depending on what password you use to open it. If you want to hide your PR0N stash, just put tax stuff, bills and personal data into the other container and if someone asks you to uncrypt this file, just show them the "sensitive data" you're protecting. It is impossible to prove the existence of a second data set.
What (to use everyone's favorite extreme example) if someone decides to "push" child porn pics on all neighbouring zunes? Can he be identified via a serial number or similar traceback mechanism? Is there any way to "agree" to a transfer or "deny" all but a select few?
What if someone uses a poisoned mp3-file (initially sounds like a very low volume, current pop hit, then abruptly cuts to full volume static or sheetmetal noise)? In most other P2P communities there is either a central oversight (torrents) or a user community rating system (like in eMule) to avoid such malicious behaviour - will Microsoft take responsibility?
Oh, and another thing: Can you imitate a zune using a WLAN access point and send out files this way? Certainly there is right now no software available to do that, but think of the opportunities in the future: stores sending targeted high-tech-ad-jingles or catalog pages to all zune owners in range; anarchists distributing (audio) versions of the anarchists cookbook or recipes for drugs or explosives; political offices sending the (audio) equivalent of leaflets to everyone passing by...
Sounds like a really great idea, if there's anything people want then that's more spam!
Maybe take a leaf out of the book of other countries that have dealt with terrorism for much longer and on a grander scale than America?
Take the IRA, for instance - there have been peace talks for a long, long time now; it is hard, it sometimes breaks down, it takes a lot of intelligence, hard negotiations and empathy for your opponent and is by far not as satisfying as just bombing the hell out of another country, but it can lead to much better results in the long run.
I'd recommend reading up on terrorism around the world and I'd especially recommend publications that actually originated in the countries involved; you'll see that this is not a completely new problem, that people have attempted to deal with it and that it is your administration that chooses to ignore the mountains of experience that have been accumulated on that topic.
Oh, and as long as you're in a library: look up "false dilemma", a rhetorical device in which the speakers offers only false alternatives to his chosen course of action. Not to rag on you unnecessarily, but attempting to frame the debate in the "should we kill or be killed" format won't do in a civilized, intelligent discussion.
Namely, that, whenever 9/11 comes up in the American press there is talk of "the 3000 American victims" which is patently untrue: ~2700 came from the US, ~300 were foreign nationals who worked in the twin towers or were passengers on the flights. And I'd like to point out that other nations have kept much, much cooler heads than the US about these victims.
As to the effectivity of this administration and its terror-fighting prowess I'd like to point you to this analyis by an expert. You'll have to agree after reading up on the facts that it is the right wing that misrepresents them.
And as for that:
On the other hand, I also have problems with the left wing appeasers and the media who show terrorist propoganda (like the "Pallywood" type videos) over and over again, and talk about daily body counts without talking about the daily progress).
I'm German: My grandparents do remember the time when the news would daily report on the great progress we made in the war on all fronts; how we went from victory to victory with no setback at all. Is that the kind of reporting you wish or even expect from your government? Mindless propaganda without even a hint of the real situation (which, at least as far as Iraq is concerned, is deteriorating - again, those are facts, this is reality)?
That's a great idea! I mean, if you're so sure about where your attackers came from (and I assume you're talking about that single incident five years back in which 316 non-Americans died), then go ahead and punish them!
You do know that's one Osama bin Laden guy who your president claims he doesn't care about?
Currently residing in Afghanistan?
And that none of the 9/11 highjackers came from Iraq?
So, using your crooked logic, I should tell the police to take a closer look at you since a man from France once kicked my car? Why do you paint all muslims with the same brush?
Oh, and why are you so stupid to assume that they won't find any caucasian-looking people to do their next attacks? After all, you don't change your skin color if you convert to Islam.
You mean like the 2006 Moscow market bombing or the 2006 Badarmude bus explosion?
Just because you're uninformed and choose to have prejudices based on your pitiful lack of knowledge doesn't mean everyone else should start hating on "brown people" because they're "all alike" and are therefore summarily guilty.
So if you had, say, a "suspected terrorist" (read: anyone looking vaguely arabic) you could just tie him down on a chair, and with those things readily available leave him "boiling alive" for a couple of hours with no visible damage done? Really great, you can do it over and over and over again! And since it leaves no marks it is impossible to prove he was tortured!
I see this going over great with your current administration - a torture device that the Spanish Inquisition would have killed for in the hands of people who have proven they're not to be trusted.
An SSN number is needed for a credit check. Therefore any company, like AT&T, that does end-of-the month billing will run a credit check on all of their customers. From their perspective they are giving one month of credit every month.
This is nonsense. In other countries, like here in Germany, we have credit cards, too - but we don't even have social security numbers. Your reasoning is flawed if you assume that just because a problem exists in the USA, it must exist everywhere.
Additionally, we have some of the strictest laws governing the privacy of our data, and leaks of the magnitude and frequency that happen in the US are unthinkable and would be punished by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 25.000 euros for each individual offense. So please don't generalize in such an uninformed fashion.
But of course we should make an exception for pedophiles! I mean, they're not human, so we shouldn't accord them the same protections of the law we all enjoy! And even if they're only suspected we should be able to hacke their computers with impunity - after all, we only condione that for pedophiles... oh, and terrorists. Terrorists must of course be included... and while we're at it, why not expand that to the really big criminals, you know gangster bosses, mafia-style... which would of yourse mean that we would let the lower ranks go, and since we can't have that, put them on the "exception from the law"-list. Oh, and maybe we should put political activists on there, too, because - you never know what you might find when you illegally gather information on someone. Might as well get some use out of that.
I'll leave you with a quote by H. L. Mencken:
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
I wonder how they select which info to give out?
What is a normal, non-heavy-duty gamer to gain from these stats?
Let's go through some of them one by one:
Frame rate over 6400 frames per second (5.8 megapixels per second)
That is... good? Better than 4 megapixels per second, I presume? If I use a 2 megapixel digicam, how do I have to set the shutter speed to equal the performance of this mouse?
High speed motion detection, up to 40ips and 15g
Ok, 15 g acceleration, works out to 15*9.81m/s^2, that's about 438 feet/sec^2. If I have that kind of acceleration on my mouse I'm clearly doing something wrong.
Zero acoustic Teflon feet for smooth motion over any surface
Unlike all those noise mice we all know and hate. I keep waking up at night and hammering on the wall to keep my neighbour from driving my insane with the decibels created by his mouse. I only hope they do something about those deafening clicks next.
Gold plated USB connector for maximum conductivity
We're talking binary signals, right? The ones that are either "on" or "off"? That don't need a perfect connection as much as, say analog signals?
7 foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
Ok, what's a non-tangle cord? One that magically uncoils itself? I see no rotating connection on either the mouse or the plug, so I assume that's just marketspeak for "a reasonably straight length of standard cable". Oh, it's "lightweight", so make that "a reasonably straight length of cheap standard cable"
On the other hand I completely missed such information as whether the scroll wheel has detents (making it click if you turn it). I for one can't stand those gliding wheels that offer no tactile feedback and which are a real pain if you try to select a weapon in a FPS game; not ahving this feature would be a dealbreaker for me, and much more important than the fact that it's got "non-slip side rails" (yeah, cause I can't remember how often my mouse went flying across the room... but maybe it's necessary for those 438 feet/sec people).
I have to agree; I get most of my news from Google News, and I usually select a couple of stories pertaining to a certain topic. I happened upon some write-ups from the CSM, and they almost always were very informed, pretty much unbiased and clearly and concisely written, even on hot-button issues like stem cell research. Not at all what I expected from a publication with "Christian" in the name (no offense meant to religious people, but the special brand of Christianity that seems to have the loudest voice in America these days does show evidence of a neanderthal mindset).
I could imagine that, if done right, it could appeal to niche markets; say, if people would like a film that hasn't seen a DVD run yet (for instance some of the older stuff from the 50s or 60s - great monster flicks) or would like a certain language version that is not normally stocked.
And while we're on the subject of desirables: why should those kiosks just mirror the inventory of the store (which is what the articles seem to imply)? Make it so you can "order up" obscure movies or create compilations and have them ready for burning the next day. In this case I'd see an added value that would make the idea worth implementing, but I fear that in reality those burning stations will only "stock" the latest blockbusters to catch the sales usually lost when a hot selling disk is temporarily out of stock...
So, now that this story has a tag with "cringley", a misspelling of the author's name, do have to wait for someone to notice that and change it in both the tags and the text, or do we just search for the wrong tags in the future?
In Germany we had the Batterieverordnung since 1998, and it hasn't had the catastrophic consequences most people in this thread imagine. It just means you can't toss old batteries in the trash (and yes, they do check occasionally) but have to take them back to any store where batteries are sold (not just electronics stores) and dump 'em into the recycling containers conveniently displayed at the entrance of the store. In the case of non-removable batteries you have to turn in your whole device and hand it in at any electronics shop. I really don't see where the problem is with that, and why it should be so much better than the American way of just putting all kinds of garbage in a bag, burying it in a landfill and then forgetting about it until the cancer rates go up.
This solution will work fine as long as you live in the USA. In the rest of the world second hand TiVos are quite hard to come by, whereas the computer parts are available around the globe.
It is a good idea to store this packaging so to be able to transport the headset in it when going to LAN-Parties and other similar events where you cannot lack not having the Everglide s-500 Headphones.
I cannot begin to not misunderstand the failure of grasping the un-concept of this sentence.
... and Deus Ex (played that one on my last four computers). Both great games with extreme replayability, since they offer so much customzing options for your character. And, what's more important, those choices actually matter in terms of gameplay and are not purely cosmetic, resulting in sometimes radically different games.
Don't get me wrong, I like (for instance) the Splinter Cell series, but if you don't sneak in the levels where you're supposed to sneak, you simply lose the game; when I've made it through such an obstacle course once I see no motivation to do the exact same thing again the next time through.
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I'm not arguing that I should be able to get my music for free, but once I pay for it I can do with it whatever I want, as long as it's fair use. I'm not going to accept his version of "fair" - probably no media shifting, no format shifting, if possible no time shifting and hardware-locked to a specific player - I want the rights I deserve for having paid.
You make the mistake of accepting his framing of the argument: he isn't "giving in" in the slightest, he makes an outrageous demand, and, when no one will fulfill it, backs down a little. It's the same as if I asked you to pay me a million dollars for using the same air that I breathe, and if you aren't willing to pay, well, I can back down to a payment of one dollar a month. I guess you would consider that a great deal, since I "backed down" so much...
(I'm not accusing you personally, but every time I see something like this I wish people were more aware of basic manipulating tactics - these are old tricks, and, sad as it is to see, they still work).
To quote from TrueCrypt's website: TrueCrypt can run in so-called 'traveller' mode, which means that it does not have to be installed on the operating system under which it is run.
This means you do not have a program list entry if you do not install it; all you have to do is keep the TrueCrypt.exe somewhere on the drive or on a separate thumbdrive (you should probably rename it to something like spellcheck.exe). But even if you do install it, you still get plausible deniability with TrueCrypt's two-container-model: you can create a secondary encrypted container within an encrypted container, so that you basically get two different contents depending on what password you use to open it. If you want to hide your PR0N stash, just put tax stuff, bills and personal data into the other container and if someone asks you to uncrypt this file, just show them the "sensitive data" you're protecting. It is impossible to prove the existence of a second data set.
...but those of the environment. Think how much less we'd pollute if we could close down 4 out of every 100 power plants.
What (to use everyone's favorite extreme example) if someone decides to "push" child porn pics on all neighbouring zunes? Can he be identified via a serial number or similar traceback mechanism? Is there any way to "agree" to a transfer or "deny" all but a select few?
What if someone uses a poisoned mp3-file (initially sounds like a very low volume, current pop hit, then abruptly cuts to full volume static or sheetmetal noise)? In most other P2P communities there is either a central oversight (torrents) or a user community rating system (like in eMule) to avoid such malicious behaviour - will Microsoft take responsibility?
Oh, and another thing: Can you imitate a zune using a WLAN access point and send out files this way? Certainly there is right now no software available to do that, but think of the opportunities in the future: stores sending targeted high-tech-ad-jingles or catalog pages to all zune owners in range; anarchists distributing (audio) versions of the anarchists cookbook or recipes for drugs or explosives; political offices sending the (audio) equivalent of leaflets to everyone passing by...
Sounds like a really great idea, if there's anything people want then that's more spam!
Maybe take a leaf out of the book of other countries that have dealt with terrorism for much longer and on a grander scale than America? Take the IRA, for instance - there have been peace talks for a long, long time now; it is hard, it sometimes breaks down, it takes a lot of intelligence, hard negotiations and empathy for your opponent and is by far not as satisfying as just bombing the hell out of another country, but it can lead to much better results in the long run.
I'd recommend reading up on terrorism around the world and I'd especially recommend publications that actually originated in the countries involved; you'll see that this is not a completely new problem, that people have attempted to deal with it and that it is your administration that chooses to ignore the mountains of experience that have been accumulated on that topic. Oh, and as long as you're in a library: look up "false dilemma", a rhetorical device in which the speakers offers only false alternatives to his chosen course of action. Not to rag on you unnecessarily, but attempting to frame the debate in the "should we kill or be killed" format won't do in a civilized, intelligent discussion.
Namely, that, whenever 9/11 comes up in the American press there is talk of "the 3000 American victims" which is patently untrue: ~2700 came from the US, ~300 were foreign nationals who worked in the twin towers or were passengers on the flights. And I'd like to point out that other nations have kept much, much cooler heads than the US about these victims.
And as for that: I'm German: My grandparents do remember the time when the news would daily report on the great progress we made in the war on all fronts; how we went from victory to victory with no setback at all. Is that the kind of reporting you wish or even expect from your government? Mindless propaganda without even a hint of the real situation (which, at least as far as Iraq is concerned, is deteriorating - again, those are facts, this is reality)?
That's a great idea! I mean, if you're so sure about where your attackers came from (and I assume you're talking about that single incident five years back in which 316 non-Americans died), then go ahead and punish them!
You do know that's one Osama bin Laden guy who your president claims he doesn't care about?
Currently residing in Afghanistan?
And that none of the 9/11 highjackers came from Iraq?
So, using your crooked logic, I should tell the police to take a closer look at you since a man from France once kicked my car? Why do you paint all muslims with the same brush?
Oh, and why are you so stupid to assume that they won't find any caucasian-looking people to do their next attacks? After all, you don't change your skin color if you convert to Islam.
You mean like the 2006 Moscow market bombing or the 2006 Badarmude bus explosion?
Just because you're uninformed and choose to have prejudices based on your pitiful lack of knowledge doesn't mean everyone else should start hating on "brown people" because they're "all alike" and are therefore summarily guilty.
I see this going over great with your current administration - a torture device that the Spanish Inquisition would have killed for in the hands of people who have proven they're not to be trusted.
Additionally, we have some of the strictest laws governing the privacy of our data, and leaks of the magnitude and frequency that happen in the US are unthinkable and would be punished by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to 25.000 euros for each individual offense. So please don't generalize in such an uninformed fashion.
I foresee interesting problems in your future.
- Frame rate over 6400 frames per second (5.8 megapixels per second)
- High speed motion detection, up to 40ips and 15g
- Zero acoustic Teflon feet for smooth motion over any surface
- Gold plated USB connector for maximum conductivity
- 7 foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord
On the other hand I completely missed such information as whether the scroll wheel has detents (making it click if you turn it). I for one can't stand those gliding wheels that offer no tactile feedback and which are a real pain if you try to select a weapon in a FPS game; not ahving this feature would be a dealbreaker for me, and much more important than the fact that it's got "non-slip side rails" (yeah, cause I can't remember how often my mouse went flying across the room... but maybe it's necessary for those 438 feet/sec people).That is... good? Better than 4 megapixels per second, I presume? If I use a 2 megapixel digicam, how do I have to set the shutter speed to equal the performance of this mouse?
Ok, 15 g acceleration, works out to 15*9.81m/s^2, that's about 438 feet/sec^2. If I have that kind of acceleration on my mouse I'm clearly doing something wrong.
Unlike all those noise mice we all know and hate. I keep waking up at night and hammering on the wall to keep my neighbour from driving my insane with the decibels created by his mouse. I only hope they do something about those deafening clicks next.
We're talking binary signals, right? The ones that are either "on" or "off"? That don't need a perfect connection as much as, say analog signals?
Ok, what's a non-tangle cord? One that magically uncoils itself? I see no rotating connection on either the mouse or the plug, so I assume that's just marketspeak for "a reasonably straight length of standard cable". Oh, it's "lightweight", so make that "a reasonably straight length of cheap standard cable"
I have to agree; I get most of my news from Google News, and I usually select a couple of stories pertaining to a certain topic. I happened upon some write-ups from the CSM, and they almost always were very informed, pretty much unbiased and clearly and concisely written, even on hot-button issues like stem cell research. Not at all what I expected from a publication with "Christian" in the name (no offense meant to religious people, but the special brand of Christianity that seems to have the loudest voice in America these days does show evidence of a neanderthal mindset).
I could imagine that, if done right, it could appeal to niche markets; say, if people would like a film that hasn't seen a DVD run yet (for instance some of the older stuff from the 50s or 60s - great monster flicks) or would like a certain language version that is not normally stocked.
And while we're on the subject of desirables: why should those kiosks just mirror the inventory of the store (which is what the articles seem to imply)? Make it so you can "order up" obscure movies or create compilations and have them ready for burning the next day. In this case I'd see an added value that would make the idea worth implementing, but I fear that in reality those burning stations will only "stock" the latest blockbusters to catch the sales usually lost when a hot selling disk is temporarily out of stock...
So, now that this story has a tag with "cringley", a misspelling of the author's name, do have to wait for someone to notice that and change it in both the tags and the text, or do we just search for the wrong tags in the future?
In Germany we had the Batterieverordnung since 1998, and it hasn't had the catastrophic consequences most people in this thread imagine. It just means you can't toss old batteries in the trash (and yes, they do check occasionally) but have to take them back to any store where batteries are sold (not just electronics stores) and dump 'em into the recycling containers conveniently displayed at the entrance of the store. In the case of non-removable batteries you have to turn in your whole device and hand it in at any electronics shop. I really don't see where the problem is with that, and why it should be so much better than the American way of just putting all kinds of garbage in a bag, burying it in a landfill and then forgetting about it until the cancer rates go up.
This solution will work fine as long as you live in the USA. In the rest of the world second hand TiVos are quite hard to come by, whereas the computer parts are available around the globe.
It is a good idea to store this packaging so to be able to transport the headset in it when going to LAN-Parties and other similar events where you cannot lack not having the Everglide s-500 Headphones.
/snarky, I know
I cannot begin to not misunderstand the failure of grasping the un-concept of this sentence.
Strange, but the first thing it reminded me of was the sumerian goddess of death: Eresh-Kigal. But maybe I'm funny that way... ;)
... and Deus Ex (played that one on my last four computers). Both great games with extreme replayability, since they offer so much customzing options for your character. And, what's more important, those choices actually matter in terms of gameplay and are not purely cosmetic, resulting in sometimes radically different games.
Don't get me wrong, I like (for instance) the Splinter Cell series, but if you don't sneak in the levels where you're supposed to sneak, you simply lose the game; when I've made it through such an obstacle course once I see no motivation to do the exact same thing again the next time through.
...there ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb...