It is shocking how putting effort into producing a good product actually pays off from time to time. Nowdays it takes a real outlaw to put significant effort into appealing to customers.
I'd rather my tax dollars went to beer breweing anyway. It's either that or some military money pit facade.
A minor issue, but that's a very dangerous, false (and common) dichotomy.
Unless this is literally coming out of the military budget, any such expense comes out of the additional money that will be borrowed somewhere. Without a zero-sum budget, there are no balancing trade-offs forcing spending less on B because we spent more on A.
While Democrats are far from ideal and *mostly* as bad as Republicans, I have one word for you -- Santorum!
That someone like Santorum was seriously considered as a Republican presidential contender, tells me that Republicans and Democrats are not the same just yet.
By creating mechanisms to lock down content, it is taking it out of the peoples' hands.
My favorite part is where no one ever worries about DRM needing to expire. One day (long after we all die, but still) the DRM-ed works are going to go into public domain.
Why doesn't all DRM have a kill switch to support that need?
The 10th says that Congress does not have the power to ban a substance inside a state. Therefore California can legalize marijuana. Or Pennsylvania can legalize natural milk. Or ____ can legalize automatic weapons. Only when you cross state lines can you be arrested
Where have you been living last couple decades?
As I understand it, almost anything can be banned by utterly stretching the "interstate commerce clause" and supported by the supreme court. Recently, there had been numerous crackdowns on the totally legitimate (by CA law) marijuana dispensaries.
Or are you describing how things should be if we lived in a sane world?
note to self - never ever ever download the facebook app for my phone.
Anyone who hasn't learned that lesson after the FB app had helpfully "updated" all of their contacts wiping out original emails... will not learn it now.
excessively poor software should result in some form of negligence... but general âoecan happen to anyoneâ type bugs.. no.
And how do you define the difference?
Based on the quality of code?
Based on the amount of unit testing that was (provably) performed?
This will start a slew of software that is only warranted under specific OS/software configurations (and then installing an aggressive anti-virus or not error-checking your RAM chips regularly would void your warranty).
My observation is that most people seem conditioned to have this totally irrational expectation that ALL of their health expenses should be covered, with maybe a nominal $20 "co-pay" at every office visit. That's silly! Why not just pay for ordinary expenses out of pocket, and save your insurance premiums for the truly disastrous stuff (i.e. broken bones, appendicitis, car accidents, etc...)?
I agree. What you are describing IS insurance, in my opinion. i.e. a disastrous, unpredictable, low-probability expensive event.
That other stuff (like a bi-annual dental cleaning, for example) is NOT insurance. I don't know what to call it... A benefit program? Of course your premiums will have to be high enough to cover a bunch of small expenses that you are guaranteed to incur.
We all agree the courts are disgusting. And yet we are doing nothing to fix them.
Judges are supposed to uphold the law. Our elected Congressmen passed the law that allows penalties of up to what? $25,000 per song? $150,000 per song?. I am not sure but it is far, far, far above $2,250
We should not pass crappy laws and then blame the judges for upholding them. Also, perhaps he is hoping that this will go to supreme court and get stricken down as unconstitutional? (I know, fat chance...)
That way people would really only pay for what they use and get a break when they take time off. I might buy a plan like that.
You are assuming that their goal is to save you money. It is not. Their goal is to make as much money as they can while doing as little work as they can
It is a feature, not a bug, that people generally pay for more than they use (i.e. under the bandwidth cap) or are charged exorbitant over-use fees (over the bandwidth cap). Actually, minute plans work the same way - you'd have to work very hard to use exactly what you bought.
Any other outcome means that you pay more per minute/per MB (either through fixed-fee underuse, or very expensive overuse).
T-Mobile is having trouble retaining / gaining subscribers. I doubt this is altruistic,
You'll have better luck finding a unicorn than an altruistic corporation. Still, sometimes corporations act in customer's interests.
I am surprised T-Mobile is not gaining ground because to me they have two selling points:
1. They actually throttle you (instead of CHARGING per MB) when you go over data cap. Now throttling sucks (and I haven't subscribed to data plan yet), but it sure beats being charged. I don't even know if you can get AT&T to kill your internet when you hit the cap instead automatically charging you more.
2. Little known fact - T-mobile offers unsubsidized plans at about $10 less/month. You know, when you bring your own phone and don't get a subsidized freebie? I believe every other provider (AT&T, Verizon) will happily charge you the regular monthly rate, even though you got no free phone (or got a very cheap free phone) from them.
The thing I have a problem with is that they will collect all your personal information to activate the disposable SIM
You can buy a naked SIM in T-Mobile store -- I have done so several times. They do not really collect your information (they do ask for a name and for a birthday, but told me that this is for phone-support authentication. they don't verify with ID or anything.).
You certainly do not have to provide them with an address.
personal opinion in to allow the TOP level domain ONLY if an add wants to run a script -- NO WAY
Too many (legitimate) sites use 3rd party domain to process what you need (hotel booking, payment processing, etc.)
And if I want the service of the website, I need to play the guessing game of which domain besides the top-level one actually needs to run a script...
Advertising is a perfectly legitimate way to fund a site if there is no other way.... It does go too far sometimes though.
I don't think you are even coming close to examples of "too far" here
Too far is when 2 full fledged videos start playing when the page loads. Plus a float window opening over article text with another video in it and sometimes popups in addition to that. And at least one of the ads is playing full blast sound. That does wonders when I am trying to listen to music while browsing!
Yes, advertising is a perfectly legitimate way to fund a site, but things like flashblock were not born to combat small unobtrusive google-esque ads. The amount of abuse even on reasonably legitimate sites is too great.
Swedish authorities refuse multiple invitations to interview Assange for inquiry purposes in UK
That's nothing. I find it more telling that (according to what I read) they refused to guarantee that Assange won't be extradited to US. He asked if if Sweden guarantees that he will not be sent to US afterwards and Swedish side was unable to guarantee that.
They are really the exact opposite of subtle.
apology from all those "No its not, its about a crime, its raaape!" dumbasses
Indeed, let those "it's about crime" people explain why Sweden was unwilling to guarantee that they won't extradite Assange to US. If this doesn't say, "we actually want him for US", I don't know what does.
We must be bombing a dozen foreign countries on regular basis (now with drones). We are hardly "at peace". Oh, and we are in "War on Terror" which is projected to end approximately never.
Congress needs to man up and demand that the Administration has to get damn permission and issue official war declaration in order to bomb anyone. And de-fund any and all money that goes toward "unofficial" offensive military action.
I would be very interested to know where I can get a laptop with a 2880x1800 display panel for cheaper than Apple is charging.
Hah! I will settle for finding a 13-14" laptop with 1600x900 resolution and even a bit competitive with mac book air's weight. The only one that I have been able to find a year ago is definitely more expensive than mac book air.
Linux has shipped with more hardware support out of the box than Windows for ages now. You just don't care that you have to download Windows drivers for hardware because its normal to you.
I don't know what that measure means. There is plenty of hardware that is simply not supported (or supported poorly) by Linux. That's the measure that matters -- I don't mind downloading drivers as long as I can get them at all.
Yes, I know that manufacturers don't open specs and write Windows-only drivers. I know it's not Linux's fault. But it doesn't help me as the end-user.
People looking for ebooks in places like Amazon often have trouble figuring out which ebooks have DRM and which don't because Amazon does not advertise that information.
How can they NOT make that information easily available? Why do people not return books more as soon as they run into an unadvertised DRM problem?
this shows just how much trouble he is for the powers that be.
I don't understand this part - it isn't like Wikileaks will immediately power down just because Assange is in jail.
Is this simply about making an example out of him?
They probably figured that people who don't really care would rather be listed, but were unlikely to pay for it
Not at all! They are selling the listed people's numbers and figured they need another way to get money from from people who do not want their number to be sold
Trying to make a continuous revenue stream out of privacy fanatics
There are some legitimate reasons to be unlisted though. Think of Sarah Connor! Or, more realistically, someone who had changed their number to avoid harassing calls. Demanding $5/month to hide your number seems like blackmail to me. At least when they have a land-line monopoly.
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It is shocking how putting effort into producing a good product actually pays off from time to time.
Nowdays it takes a real outlaw to put significant effort into appealing to customers.
I'd rather my tax dollars went to beer breweing anyway. It's either that or some military money pit facade.
A minor issue, but that's a very dangerous, false (and common) dichotomy.
Unless this is literally coming out of the military budget, any such expense comes out of the additional money that will be borrowed somewhere. Without a zero-sum budget, there are no balancing trade-offs forcing spending less on B because we spent more on A.
The differences are inconsequential.
While Democrats are far from ideal and *mostly* as bad as Republicans, I have one word for you -- Santorum!
That someone like Santorum was seriously considered as a Republican presidential contender, tells me that Republicans and Democrats are not the same just yet.
By creating mechanisms to lock down content, it is taking it out of the peoples' hands.
My favorite part is where no one ever worries about DRM needing to expire. One day (long after we all die, but still) the DRM-ed works are going to go into public domain.
Why doesn't all DRM have a kill switch to support that need?
The 10th says that Congress does not have the power to ban a substance inside a state. Therefore California can legalize marijuana. Or Pennsylvania can legalize natural milk. Or ____ can legalize automatic weapons. Only when you cross state lines can you be arrested
Where have you been living last couple decades?
As I understand it, almost anything can be banned by utterly stretching the "interstate commerce clause" and supported by the supreme court. Recently, there had been numerous crackdowns on the totally legitimate (by CA law) marijuana dispensaries.
Or are you describing how things should be if we lived in a sane world?
note to self - never ever ever download the facebook app for my phone.
Anyone who hasn't learned that lesson after the FB app had helpfully "updated" all of their contacts wiping out original emails... will not learn it now.
excessively poor software should result in some form of negligence ... but general âoecan happen to anyoneâ type bugs.. no.
And how do you define the difference?
Based on the quality of code?
Based on the amount of unit testing that was (provably) performed?
This will start a slew of software that is only warranted under specific OS/software configurations (and then installing an aggressive anti-virus or not error-checking your RAM chips regularly would void your warranty).
My observation is that most people seem conditioned to have this totally irrational expectation that ALL of their health expenses should be covered, with maybe a nominal $20 "co-pay" at every office visit. That's silly! Why not just pay for ordinary expenses out of pocket, and save your insurance premiums for the truly disastrous stuff (i.e. broken bones, appendicitis, car accidents, etc...)?
I agree. What you are describing IS insurance, in my opinion. i.e. a disastrous, unpredictable, low-probability expensive event.
That other stuff (like a bi-annual dental cleaning, for example) is NOT insurance. I don't know what to call it... A benefit program? Of course your premiums will have to be high enough to cover a bunch of small expenses that you are guaranteed to incur.
We all agree the courts are disgusting. And yet we are doing nothing to fix them.
Judges are supposed to uphold the law. Our elected Congressmen passed the law that allows penalties of up to what? $25,000 per song? $150,000 per song?. I am not sure but it is far, far, far above $2,250
We should not pass crappy laws and then blame the judges for upholding them. Also, perhaps he is hoping that this will go to supreme court and get stricken down as unconstitutional? (I know, fat chance...)
That way people would really only pay for what they use and get a break when they take time off. I might buy a plan like that.
You are assuming that their goal is to save you money. It is not. Their goal is to make as much money as they can while doing as little work as they can
It is a feature, not a bug, that people generally pay for more than they use (i.e. under the bandwidth cap) or are charged exorbitant over-use fees (over the bandwidth cap). Actually, minute plans work the same way - you'd have to work very hard to use exactly what you bought.
Any other outcome means that you pay more per minute/per MB (either through fixed-fee underuse, or very expensive overuse).
T-Mobile is having trouble retaining / gaining subscribers. I doubt this is altruistic,
You'll have better luck finding a unicorn than an altruistic corporation. Still, sometimes corporations act in customer's interests.
I am surprised T-Mobile is not gaining ground because to me they have two selling points:
1. They actually throttle you (instead of CHARGING per MB) when you go over data cap. Now throttling sucks (and I haven't subscribed to data plan yet), but it sure beats being charged. I don't even know if you can get AT&T to kill your internet when you hit the cap instead automatically charging you more.
2. Little known fact - T-mobile offers unsubsidized plans at about $10 less/month. You know, when you bring your own phone and don't get a subsidized freebie? I believe every other provider (AT&T, Verizon) will happily charge you the regular monthly rate, even though you got no free phone (or got a very cheap free phone) from them.
The thing I have a problem with is that they will collect all your personal information to activate the disposable SIM
You can buy a naked SIM in T-Mobile store -- I have done so several times. They do not really collect your information (they do ask for a name and for a birthday, but told me that this is for phone-support authentication. they don't verify with ID or anything.).
You certainly do not have to provide them with an address.
So remind us Ubisoft, why exactly did you create that horrible DRM?
The DRM is the only thing keeping piracy rate under 100% and away from the natural 1000%-1300%!
personal opinion in to allow the TOP level domain ONLY if an add wants to run a script -- NO WAY
Too many (legitimate) sites use 3rd party domain to process what you need (hotel booking, payment processing, etc.)
And if I want the service of the website, I need to play the guessing game of which domain besides the top-level one actually needs to run a script...
Advertising is a perfectly legitimate way to fund a site if there is no other way. ... It does go too far sometimes though.
I don't think you are even coming close to examples of "too far" here
Too far is when 2 full fledged videos start playing when the page loads. Plus a float window opening over article text with another video in it and sometimes popups in addition to that. And at least one of the ads is playing full blast sound. That does wonders when I am trying to listen to music while browsing!
Yes, advertising is a perfectly legitimate way to fund a site, but things like flashblock were not born to combat small unobtrusive google-esque ads. The amount of abuse even on reasonably legitimate sites is too great.
Swedish authorities refuse multiple invitations to interview Assange for inquiry purposes in UK
That's nothing. I find it more telling that (according to what I read) they refused to guarantee that Assange won't be extradited to US. He asked if if Sweden guarantees that he will not be sent to US afterwards and Swedish side was unable to guarantee that.
They are really the exact opposite of subtle.
apology from all those "No its not, its about a crime, its raaape!" dumbasses
Indeed, let those "it's about crime" people explain why Sweden was unwilling to guarantee that they won't extradite Assange to US. If this doesn't say, "we actually want him for US", I don't know what does.
even when we are at complete peace.
We must be bombing a dozen foreign countries on regular basis (now with drones). We are hardly "at peace". Oh, and we are in "War on Terror" which is projected to end approximately never.
Congress needs to man up and demand that the Administration has to get damn permission and issue official war declaration in order to bomb anyone. And de-fund any and all money that goes toward "unofficial" offensive military action.
I would be very interested to know where I can get a laptop with a 2880x1800 display panel for cheaper than Apple is charging.
Hah! I will settle for finding a 13-14" laptop with 1600x900 resolution and even a bit competitive with mac book air's weight. The only one that I have been able to find a year ago is definitely more expensive than mac book air.
Linux has shipped with more hardware support out of the box than Windows for ages now. You just don't care that you have to download Windows drivers for hardware because its normal to you.
I don't know what that measure means. There is plenty of hardware that is simply not supported (or supported poorly) by Linux. That's the measure that matters -- I don't mind downloading drivers as long as I can get them at all.
Yes, I know that manufacturers don't open specs and write Windows-only drivers. I know it's not Linux's fault. But it doesn't help me as the end-user.
People looking for ebooks in places like Amazon often have trouble figuring out which ebooks have DRM and which don't because Amazon does not advertise that information.
How can they NOT make that information easily available?
Why do people not return books more as soon as they run into an unadvertised DRM problem?
this shows just how much trouble he is for the powers that be.
I don't understand this part - it isn't like Wikileaks will immediately power down just because Assange is in jail.
Is this simply about making an example out of him?
... who's going to start a kickstarter project to build an Edison museum across from the Tesla one?
They probably figured that people who don't really care would rather be listed, but were unlikely to pay for it
Not at all! They are selling the listed people's numbers and figured they need another way to get money from from people who do not want their number to be sold
Trying to make a continuous revenue stream out of privacy fanatics
There are some legitimate reasons to be unlisted though. Think of Sarah Connor! Or, more realistically, someone who had changed their number to avoid harassing calls. Demanding $5/month to hide your number seems like blackmail to me. At least when they have a land-line monopoly.
when can we expect "conspiracy to defraud" cases to be initiated e.g., the suits in charge of RBS
As soon one of them pirates Margin Call.