Is there anywhere you can buy IP cameras, DVRs, and NVRs that aren't made in China and full of vulnerabilities? Does any company offer secure security camera systems?
If anyone knows of any I'd love to hear about your experience with them. I've looked and even the "high-end" (aka expensive) name-brand devices like Sony and Panasonic have major security flaws like TVT firmware, HTTP only access, passwords stored on the device in plain text, etc.
We had to separate the camera systems at my company onto their own VLAN that can only be accessed from a few computers on our internal network or over our VPN. It is a pain but much better than letting anyone in the world onto our camera system. I want to replace all of them with something better, but it seems like OEM or branded its all the same insecure, never patched, never updated Chinese garbage.
I couldn't agree with you more. It's not illegal currently but should be. Alternatively as others have suggested, if you stop making a medication other companies should be able to make a generic version.
Others have called this "ever-greening" but that's not completely right. The Namenda XR is evergreening but what Actavis/Forest (it was Forest when this started, now they are part of Actavis), what they have been doing is known as a "forced-switch" and has only been tried a few times. Its been extremely effective. Companies normally lose 90% market share when a generic comes out, but if they've done a forced-switch a year or more in advance it is usually only around a 25% loss.
Forest (now Actavis) has been desperate since the patent expired on their other blockbuster drug, Lexapro, in 2012. This was an attempt to retain the marketshare of their other blockbuster, and would have worked if they hadn't screwed up the implementation so badly. Forest cut over $500 million from their RnD and manufacturing budget in the last 2 years which I'm guessing is part of why they couldn't ramp up manufacturing of the new extended release quickly enough. Drug makers have to report on shortages and potential shortages to the FDA, and Forest/Actavis was fully aware that they could not make enough of the extended release to cover all the people they were forcing off of the instant release. However they decided to stop the manufacturing lines making their instant release anyway, since they knew the longer they kept making the instant release the more market share they would lose to the generic manufacturers when the patent expired. They really are scum.
The summary doesn't make clear whats going on. I've been dealing with this personally for several months and what Actavis has been doing is terrible, the judge made the right decision.
They have been making the drug in question, Namenda, for many years and it has become a critical component of treating Alzheimers and several other related conditions. It is an instant release form.
There are no generics, it is still under patent until later next year. What Actavis did was create a new version of the drug which is extended release, and patent that. Its the exact same thing but with some coating that makes part of it release more slowly.Earlier this year they announced that they were discontinuing the instant release version, and they stopped manufacturing it.
Again, there are no generics yet, and no alternatives. The point was to force everyone to switch over to the extended release (which they have the patent on until 2025) BEFORE any other company could start making a generic version of the drug. This would make it extremely unlikely that any generic company would start making it at all since sales would be low and margins on generic medications aren't high. Most generic manufacturers don't have much in the way of a marketing budget, so once Actavis has gotten everyone prescribing the extended release version it would be too difficult for the generics to get doctors to switch back to the instant release version just because there was a cheaper option. Additionally, you don't want to change an Alzheimers patients medication any more than you have to, and since Actavis is forcing them to switch from the instant release to extended now you wouldn't want to switch them back to the instant just a year later, unless you had to.
To be clear Actavis stated all of this in their shareholder report. They were confident this plan would prevent generic manufacturers from taking any significant amount of the sales.
To make this much worse, Actavis stopped making the instant release without making nearly enough of the extended release. Google Namenda shortage to see the affects this has caused. Nursing homes have been forced to give patients their medication every other day, or instant some days and extended other days, because there isn't nearly enough to go around. I had to fill a 30 day Rx for it in September and had to contact 44 pharmacies to find one that had any (I was lucky and it had just arrived). People have been flying to other cities, even other states to fill the medication for their loved ones. Its been terrible for anyone suffering from Alzheimer's or any of the other conditions that it treats, as well as their families and the people providing care for them.
This is what I do for a living, my company is the largest retailer and distributor of classic video games in North America (and most likely the world). Over the years we've built up a database with hundreds of millions of price points and sales transactions for tens of thousands of games. The overall trends haven't changed much, and with most games it's fairly easy to tell if the value is going to increase or decrease.
First, if you are talking about a new game - if you open it then it is highly unlikely the game will become worth more than you paid for it any time soon. If you don't open it and it is a limited edition or collector's edition, and actually contains figures, books, artwork, etc, it may increase in value. If it ends up being a popular game it can skyrocket in value, especially if no one expected it to be a huge success when it first came out. We bought several copies of the original Mass Effect Limited Edition in 2007, never opened them, kept the receipts, paid 69.95 for each and sold them all for over 1k each last year. During its peak unopened copies of the original World of Warcraft were going for several thousand dollars. But those are the exceptions. RPGs tend to do far better than other genres, most other games will lose value even if unopened.
Now if you are talking about older games, its a completely different story. For the last 8 years prices for classic video games have been going up at a steady, rapid rate. There are a few main factors. 1) - People get older, get better jobs, have money, and want to either replay the games they loved as a kid, get the games they couldn't afford when they were young, or show the games to their own children. 2) - International buyers are buying a HUGE number of classic video games - many of them were never released in their country and they only way they can legal play the game is to import it from the US. 3) - These games aren't made anymore. The supply is only decreasing. A decreasing supply combined with a rapidly increasing demand means price increases.
As long as people continue to enjoy collecting games, and as long as they continue to enjoy playing classic games on the original systems, prices are likely to increase, although more slowly than in the past. Virtual Console, PSN, and other re-releases usually result in a small increase in demand for the original games (unless they were already way too expensive). Roms have been around for far longer than we've been doing this and the demand for the originals, and the prices, are still increasing. But keep in mind that unless you are talking about unopened games, then the prices are increasing relative to their value a few years ago. A good, new NES game for bought for $60 in 1988 may only be worth $20 today. But in 2010 you could have bought it for $6. In 2008, $3.
If you have a bunch of old video games and need some cash, I'd sell them. Don't count on them to skyrocket in value. But if you don't need the cash and if you still enjoy playing them, it's fine to hold on. They should continue to increase in value. If they are new games - sell them as quick as you can! But not to GameStop. Sell them on Ebay or Craigslist. Places like GameStop will rip you off and give you half what you could have gotten selling it yourself.
The patent was applied for in 1912 and approved in 1914 as I understand it. It's not impossible I am wrong on that. Not that it matters, it would be more correct to refer to it as 1912.
In your original post you claimed "this is the specific reason that Ecstasy was originally developed by Merck". In this post you claim "The original development premise for the chemical family was as an appetite suppressant", so it seems like you are contradicting yourself. However you keep saying "under that guise" - so are you saying that the real reasons for development are not the same as the stated reasons? If so I'd like to hear more about that.
Everything I've seen says that the original development was to control bleeding from wounds, from Wikipedia (yes, not the most reliable source at all) - "At the time, MDMA was not known to be a drug in its own right; rather, it was patented as an intermediate chemical used in the synthesis of a hydrastinine (a drug intended to control bleeding from wounds)." Is that incorrect? If so can you point me to a more accurate account of the history of the drug?
I know this is Slashdot but there is no reason to be defensive or insulting. I don't know all that much about this subject, nor have I claimed to but I wanted to share what I know. If I'm wrong that's great, share the real information about it and we'll have learned something. But don't say things like "Please stop pretending to know things you don't. Crack a book." The point of these discussions SHOULD be to share and gain information, not to be insecure and defensive. When you reply like that you just make yourself look immature. You want me to crack a book? Ok. I should if I want to know more. It's been 5+ years since I've read a book on MDMA, and honestly I've only read one. You obviously have studied the subject, so what would you recommend? What book(s) have you found to be the best?
Actually that is not the reason MDMA was developed. It was patented in 1914 as a chemical used to make a kind of drug that controls bleeding. The first research on it for human use was in the late 1950's as a possible stimulant. It wasn't until the mid 70's that it began to be used in therapy when psychotherapist Leo Zeff began using it with some of his patients.
The limit isn't $5000 a month, it's $5000 a year. Plenty of people can sell off $5000 worth of stuff in a year and not be running a business. I'm not sure where you got that it is $5000 a month but whoever wrote that was mistaken.
That's my concern, $5000 in sales for a year is really low. Thats a few pieces of equipment, maybe a couple of collectables, some stuff laying around in the garage, etc. And unless you kept your receipts (if you even got them) you won't be able to prove that you didn't make money on those sales. You could clear out a bunch of old stuff you paid $20000 for over a course of many years, get $5000 for it, and owe $1500+ in taxes.
About your 3rd point, the article actually says - "While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it say the N.S.A. eavesdrops without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time."
I have tried the Groupwise 7 client for Linux, several of our clients have been testing it for awhile, and a few have it running live. It's out of beta now. It's a step in the right direction, but is missing a few critical features like notifications. It also has problems with rules, and some other minor issues.
Novell told us the rules problems and other minor issues would be fixed with the first support pack, however the notifications are "on the radar" to be included in the future.
Its a pretty good product, but not good enough on the linux side yet. Hopefully they will get it at the same level as their Windows client soon.
No sorry, Saint Louis. My name comes from a character from the old Ultima games.
And the two best game stores around here IMHO are Game Trader and Trade-n-Games.
I keep seeing everyone say they are overpriced. Maybe my area is different, but the indie stores around here aren't bad at all. They sell new games for the same as the major retailers, but they don't focus on that much at all. Several of the best don't even sell new games.
Where indie stores really shine is in the used games. I've found them to be MUCH cheaper than Gamestop, EBGames, etc. For example I recently picked up a complete boxed copy of Final Fantasy 1 in decent condition for the same price Game Crazy wanted for just the cartridge. I also picked up Dragon Warrior 3 for half of what the bigger stores wanted. I could go on and on with examples, but I've found them to always be much cheaper on the classic games. Also, you can actually haggle with them and get a better price for a larger purchase or a purchase with trade-in. Good luck with that at a major game shop.
The other place where they shine is the fact that they actually have knowledgable staff. I can go into one of those and find out the going rate for Waterworld for VirtualBoy and background on Neo Geo AES systems or anything else I ask about. The workers at the big stores don't have the faintest clue what I am talking about. I'm also lucky enough to have a major indie store that imports thousands of Japanese games, which I am a big fan of. Without them I would be stuck paying Lik-sangs massive markups.
I'm not saying indie stores aren't going to go away some day, but they definately have a place and if you are interested in classic or foreign games you don't have much of an alternative. If the ones around here ever closed I guess I'd be stuck with Ebay and importers.
I recently bought a big screen hdtv and the Gamecube games didn't look that great on it. Luckily I have an older Gamecube with the digital connector so I picked up a composite cable and its a night and day difference. Almost all Gamecube games support progressive scan and they are MUCH clearer and brighter with the composite/progressive hookup than the regular RBG. My wife said it was like she had just put her contacts in, it's that much of an improvement in the picture quality.
Its a shame they removed the port from the newer Gamecubes. Nintendo said the reason was that only 1% of Gamecube owners used the digital output, but I think that is in large part due to the fact that you couldn't get the cables anywhere but from Nintendo directly and they never advertised them.
The patchwork laws you are referring to are on a state by state basis. Most (but not all) states have laws requiring employers to provide time for their employees to vote. The laws vary state to state, but generally you must give your employee a few hours off when the polls are open so they can vote. Most state laws require the employees to be PAID for their time off to vote as well!
I agree with you 100% that it should be a national law, but that isn't the kind of thing you could restrict to just national elections. There are many state and local elections and ballot measures the people vote on when they vote for the President. If the laws were only applied to national elections you would have half of the House elected on days everyone was off and the other half elected when not everyone could come out, etc. There would be a lot of fighting about when a certain measure/canidate/whatever should be voted on, and I'm sure there would be lawsuits...
I really don't think a National Holiday would be very effective. All the white-collar or union workers would be off, but just like Labor day, Memorial day, etc all the service industry would still have to work. As would many individuals who have jobs at places that must be running 24/7/365.
What we need is a simple, national law about allowing time off. Most states require 3 hours paid off to vote (unless the polls are open at a time when you would have 3 hours available anyway) - we could apply that nationwide. But even more importantly, people need to know that they can't be forced to work and not vote! The majority of America has guaranteed time off to vote as it is - but very few know it.
Here's a link that lists what law are currently in place -
That's a nice setup! And congrats on the 10-year mark, it's becoming a rare thing it seems.
Yes you are 100% right about the corporate world trying to capitalize on DJ culture. I have NO problem with Denon or Pioneer working on making CD tables that can really simulate the vinyl experience - as a matter of fact it'd be great if the technology were 100% there (and its getting close) and you could get good quality cd tracks.
But, as a DJ and a promoter myself, it really ticks me off when someone comes out with equipment and hypes it up to be for "pro djs" when it isn't even close. It also bugs me a bit when someone who doesn't know anything about djing trys to talk about what it takes or what is needed.
I know JACK about guitars. I can't play one, can't tell you what to buy. And I wont try to either. It seems though with djing more and more people are trying to chip in their own, uneducated opinion - as if knowing what electronic music is (and most of them don't know DnB from Jungle) is enough to say how to make it.
This isn't even close to being what a DJ (pro or amature) would want. It's really more of a toy.
Only now are we seeing CD tables - like the Pioneer DJM-1000 that are high enough quality to be considered worthy of using. 90% of DJs are still into vinyl. And before anyone says anything about how they are living in the past or whatever - there are several reasons for that. You still have greater control over vinyl - you can touch it and move it exactly how you want, other systems have to simulate that. Also, ALMOST ALL GOOD DANCE MUSIC COMES OUT ON VINYL ONLY!! Go to www.dancerecords.com or www.satelliterecords.com, and see exactly how many tracks are available on anything other than vinyl.
Yeah, if you are spinning Top 40 right off the cd you got at BestBuy, or in this case the MP3 you downloaded from iTunes or wherever, and you aren't trying to do anything advanced, then maybe something like this could be a fun diversion.
But if you are trying to mix interesting, unique music you are still going to use vinyl.
But again, this just doesnt have anywhere NEAR the functionality that a DJ would want. They would be better off to buy two cheap tables and a cheap mixer off of ebay than to try to use this thing.
And yes, even amatures usually have 2 1200s and a stack of vinyl.
When a new form of entertainment emerges, it can take away from the time spent with current forms.
People only have so much free time in a day. If they begin spending 2-3 hours a day playing video games, that's 2-3 less hours they have for tv, music, reading, etc.
There was a time when you read books for entertainment, and that's about all you COULD do. Then radio came along, and families sat around in the evening listening to radio shows. Then TV, now video games. It makes perfect sense.
I do want to say that I think this is a good thing. For the most part TV is the most mindless, unstimulating, unsocial form of entertainment we have today. If more people play games (still maybe not the best entertainment, but challenging and oftentimes social none the less) than watch TV, well, I'm all for it!
Thankfully, according to the article Google has decided to NOT sell out to Microsoft.
"While the overture appears to have gained little traction - Google indicated that it preferred the initial offering route, the executives said"
However they indicated it could happen in the future -
"Though seemingly spurned, Microsoft may still be interested in pursuing Google at a later date, according to an executive briefed on the discussions"
This would be very troubling if MS did buy Google at some point. Google may have turned them away now, but one they have gone public a hostile takeover could be in the works. Heaven help us if they do - the last thing I would want to see is MS controlling the best search engine out there.
I played MMORGs for awhile, and I tried both sexes. Mostly to see how it would affect the game.
As you would expect, I was helped out by others FAR more when I played as a female. People were nicer overall, but there definately was an increase in harrassment. Of course, I always told them I weighed 750 lbs in real life, that tended to end any requests to meet in rl.
I could see why most gender-benders would be over 25. I don't see very many male teenagers being secure enough to play as a female character, I know when I was 16 I wouldn't have. Today its interesting to play as a female, to see how other react, and to compare that to how they react when I play as a male. It is really a good mirror on how society, and those in it, treat men and women differently just because of their sex.
This sounds like a great idea. I would LOVE to have a true science channel - it would be enough to get me to finally purchase cable!
But would it work? Most of American knows nothing about science. They are far more likely to be entertained and interested in psychics, the paranormal, and well, science-esque stories that they can understand.
Lets look at what popular now. Reality TV. Does it get any more mindless than that? Sitcoms are still popular, even though 95% of them are almost identical to eachother, and they repeat the same plots and stories that they have for years. Most movies that come out are unoriginal, and often the ones that do the best are the ones that stray the furthest from scientific fact.
It seems that people do not want to learn any longer. They do not want to be challenged. They just want to live in their shells, believing what they have always believed, thinking what they have always thought. And I'm afraid that for that reason, a science channel might not go over very well.
However, on the other hand, maybe having a good science channel would help to draw interest to science and facts. Maybe it would help to disprove psychics and other con-artists, maybe it could help teach people about how our world really works, and how things really are.
I hope so. But I kind of doubt it. I'm afraid most people would rather watch the same reruns of the same mindless crap over and over again.
I've seen a lot of people commenting on how this is no big deal. It is.
It is a crisis when thousands of bars, clubs, and restaurants are without alcohol. Restaurants aren't high margin businesses, and many need the revenue from alcohol sales to make a profit. Obviously, the bars and clubs can't make any money without it - if they don't get it fixed soon many, many businesses will suffer greatly, and many bartenders, waitresses, etc will go without pay. Bars and clubs have already been devistated by Camel's dropping sponsorship (in case you didn't know, Camel has been giving millions of dollars to clubs and bars to sell their cigs, that ended recently.)
Even if you don't go to bars or clubs, many people work there, and their livelyhood depends on alcohol sales. How would you all react if you couldn't work (and get paid) until the government fixed some stupid problem they had created?
I couldn't agree more.
I'm a dj, and I mostly listen to dj music. All nonstop, without breaks or gaps. That's been a BIG pain in the butt for me on my iPod. Music like that is made seamless for a reason - the irritating pauses in between songs is a HUGE annoyance for me, and many others that listen to electronic or classical music.
What I am curious about is that a friend of mine in St. Louis patented this process a little over a year ago, in anticipation of Clear Channel (and others) wanting to do this.
I know the patent has gone through, and his lawyers say its airtight. It gives him rights over any sales of a live performance while at that performance. I'll try to find the actual patent and post a link.
Maybe he'll be able to sue them and screw them over the way they've screwed over so many people lately.
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Is there anywhere you can buy IP cameras, DVRs, and NVRs that aren't made in China and full of vulnerabilities? Does any company offer secure security camera systems?
If anyone knows of any I'd love to hear about your experience with them. I've looked and even the "high-end" (aka expensive) name-brand devices like Sony and Panasonic have major security flaws like TVT firmware, HTTP only access, passwords stored on the device in plain text, etc.
We had to separate the camera systems at my company onto their own VLAN that can only be accessed from a few computers on our internal network or over our VPN. It is a pain but much better than letting anyone in the world onto our camera system. I want to replace all of them with something better, but it seems like OEM or branded its all the same insecure, never patched, never updated Chinese garbage.
I couldn't agree with you more. It's not illegal currently but should be. Alternatively as others have suggested, if you stop making a medication other companies should be able to make a generic version.
Others have called this "ever-greening" but that's not completely right. The Namenda XR is evergreening but what Actavis/Forest (it was Forest when this started, now they are part of Actavis), what they have been doing is known as a "forced-switch" and has only been tried a few times. Its been extremely effective. Companies normally lose 90% market share when a generic comes out, but if they've done a forced-switch a year or more in advance it is usually only around a 25% loss.
Forest (now Actavis) has been desperate since the patent expired on their other blockbuster drug, Lexapro, in 2012. This was an attempt to retain the marketshare of their other blockbuster, and would have worked if they hadn't screwed up the implementation so badly. Forest cut over $500 million from their RnD and manufacturing budget in the last 2 years which I'm guessing is part of why they couldn't ramp up manufacturing of the new extended release quickly enough. Drug makers have to report on shortages and potential shortages to the FDA, and Forest/Actavis was fully aware that they could not make enough of the extended release to cover all the people they were forcing off of the instant release. However they decided to stop the manufacturing lines making their instant release anyway, since they knew the longer they kept making the instant release the more market share they would lose to the generic manufacturers when the patent expired. They really are scum.
The summary doesn't make clear whats going on. I've been dealing with this personally for several months and what Actavis has been doing is terrible, the judge made the right decision.
They have been making the drug in question, Namenda, for many years and it has become a critical component of treating Alzheimers and several other related conditions. It is an instant release form.
There are no generics, it is still under patent until later next year. What Actavis did was create a new version of the drug which is extended release, and patent that. Its the exact same thing but with some coating that makes part of it release more slowly.Earlier this year they announced that they were discontinuing the instant release version, and they stopped manufacturing it.
Again, there are no generics yet, and no alternatives. The point was to force everyone to switch over to the extended release (which they have the patent on until 2025) BEFORE any other company could start making a generic version of the drug. This would make it extremely unlikely that any generic company would start making it at all since sales would be low and margins on generic medications aren't high. Most generic manufacturers don't have much in the way of a marketing budget, so once Actavis has gotten everyone prescribing the extended release version it would be too difficult for the generics to get doctors to switch back to the instant release version just because there was a cheaper option. Additionally, you don't want to change an Alzheimers patients medication any more than you have to, and since Actavis is forcing them to switch from the instant release to extended now you wouldn't want to switch them back to the instant just a year later, unless you had to.
To be clear Actavis stated all of this in their shareholder report. They were confident this plan would prevent generic manufacturers from taking any significant amount of the sales.
To make this much worse, Actavis stopped making the instant release without making nearly enough of the extended release. Google Namenda shortage to see the affects this has caused. Nursing homes have been forced to give patients their medication every other day, or instant some days and extended other days, because there isn't nearly enough to go around. I had to fill a 30 day Rx for it in September and had to contact 44 pharmacies to find one that had any (I was lucky and it had just arrived). People have been flying to other cities, even other states to fill the medication for their loved ones. Its been terrible for anyone suffering from Alzheimer's or any of the other conditions that it treats, as well as their families and the people providing care for them.
This is what I do for a living, my company is the largest retailer and distributor of classic video games in North America (and most likely the world). Over the years we've built up a database with hundreds of millions of price points and sales transactions for tens of thousands of games. The overall trends haven't changed much, and with most games it's fairly easy to tell if the value is going to increase or decrease.
First, if you are talking about a new game - if you open it then it is highly unlikely the game will become worth more than you paid for it any time soon. If you don't open it and it is a limited edition or collector's edition, and actually contains figures, books, artwork, etc, it may increase in value. If it ends up being a popular game it can skyrocket in value, especially if no one expected it to be a huge success when it first came out. We bought several copies of the original Mass Effect Limited Edition in 2007, never opened them, kept the receipts, paid 69.95 for each and sold them all for over 1k each last year. During its peak unopened copies of the original World of Warcraft were going for several thousand dollars. But those are the exceptions. RPGs tend to do far better than other genres, most other games will lose value even if unopened.
Now if you are talking about older games, its a completely different story. For the last 8 years prices for classic video games have been going up at a steady, rapid rate. There are a few main factors. 1) - People get older, get better jobs, have money, and want to either replay the games they loved as a kid, get the games they couldn't afford when they were young, or show the games to their own children. 2) - International buyers are buying a HUGE number of classic video games - many of them were never released in their country and they only way they can legal play the game is to import it from the US. 3) - These games aren't made anymore. The supply is only decreasing. A decreasing supply combined with a rapidly increasing demand means price increases.
As long as people continue to enjoy collecting games, and as long as they continue to enjoy playing classic games on the original systems, prices are likely to increase, although more slowly than in the past. Virtual Console, PSN, and other re-releases usually result in a small increase in demand for the original games (unless they were already way too expensive). Roms have been around for far longer than we've been doing this and the demand for the originals, and the prices, are still increasing. But keep in mind that unless you are talking about unopened games, then the prices are increasing relative to their value a few years ago. A good, new NES game for bought for $60 in 1988 may only be worth $20 today. But in 2010 you could have bought it for $6. In 2008, $3.
If you have a bunch of old video games and need some cash, I'd sell them. Don't count on them to skyrocket in value. But if you don't need the cash and if you still enjoy playing them, it's fine to hold on. They should continue to increase in value. If they are new games - sell them as quick as you can! But not to GameStop. Sell them on Ebay or Craigslist. Places like GameStop will rip you off and give you half what you could have gotten selling it yourself.
Actually the accuracy of breathalyzers is a topic of some debate. At least 23% of all individuals tested will have a BAC reading higher than their actual BAC. According to wikipedia many factors including temperature, the persons breathing pattern, and if the device has been recently recalibrated or not can affect the results - so much so that some states don't allow breathalyzer results in court (they require blood tests)
The patent was applied for in 1912 and approved in 1914 as I understand it. It's not impossible I am wrong on that. Not that it matters, it would be more correct to refer to it as 1912. In your original post you claimed "this is the specific reason that Ecstasy was originally developed by Merck". In this post you claim "The original development premise for the chemical family was as an appetite suppressant", so it seems like you are contradicting yourself. However you keep saying "under that guise" - so are you saying that the real reasons for development are not the same as the stated reasons? If so I'd like to hear more about that. Everything I've seen says that the original development was to control bleeding from wounds, from Wikipedia (yes, not the most reliable source at all) - "At the time, MDMA was not known to be a drug in its own right; rather, it was patented as an intermediate chemical used in the synthesis of a hydrastinine (a drug intended to control bleeding from wounds)." Is that incorrect? If so can you point me to a more accurate account of the history of the drug? I know this is Slashdot but there is no reason to be defensive or insulting. I don't know all that much about this subject, nor have I claimed to but I wanted to share what I know. If I'm wrong that's great, share the real information about it and we'll have learned something. But don't say things like "Please stop pretending to know things you don't. Crack a book." The point of these discussions SHOULD be to share and gain information, not to be insecure and defensive. When you reply like that you just make yourself look immature. You want me to crack a book? Ok. I should if I want to know more. It's been 5+ years since I've read a book on MDMA, and honestly I've only read one. You obviously have studied the subject, so what would you recommend? What book(s) have you found to be the best?
Actually that is not the reason MDMA was developed. It was patented in 1914 as a chemical used to make a kind of drug that controls bleeding. The first research on it for human use was in the late 1950's as a possible stimulant. It wasn't until the mid 70's that it began to be used in therapy when psychotherapist Leo Zeff began using it with some of his patients.
The limit isn't $5000 a month, it's $5000 a year. Plenty of people can sell off $5000 worth of stuff in a year and not be running a business. I'm not sure where you got that it is $5000 a month but whoever wrote that was mistaken.
That's my concern, $5000 in sales for a year is really low. Thats a few pieces of equipment, maybe a couple of collectables, some stuff laying around in the garage, etc. And unless you kept your receipts (if you even got them) you won't be able to prove that you didn't make money on those sales. You could clear out a bunch of old stuff you paid $20000 for over a course of many years, get $5000 for it, and owe $1500+ in taxes.
About your 3rd point, the article actually says - "While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it say the N.S.A. eavesdrops without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time."
500 at any given time.
Not 500 total.
I think the parent poster was using stealyourpassword.com as a fake example. stealyourpassword.com is not a registered domain name.
I have tried the Groupwise 7 client for Linux, several of our clients have been testing it for awhile, and a few have it running live. It's out of beta now. It's a step in the right direction, but is missing a few critical features like notifications. It also has problems with rules, and some other minor issues.
Novell told us the rules problems and other minor issues would be fixed with the first support pack, however the notifications are "on the radar" to be included in the future.
Its a pretty good product, but not good enough on the linux side yet. Hopefully they will get it at the same level as their Windows client soon.
No sorry, Saint Louis. My name comes from a character from the old Ultima games. And the two best game stores around here IMHO are Game Trader and Trade-n-Games.
I keep seeing everyone say they are overpriced. Maybe my area is different, but the indie stores around here aren't bad at all. They sell new games for the same as the major retailers, but they don't focus on that much at all. Several of the best don't even sell new games.
Where indie stores really shine is in the used games. I've found them to be MUCH cheaper than Gamestop, EBGames, etc. For example I recently picked up a complete boxed copy of Final Fantasy 1 in decent condition for the same price Game Crazy wanted for just the cartridge. I also picked up Dragon Warrior 3 for half of what the bigger stores wanted. I could go on and on with examples, but I've found them to always be much cheaper on the classic games. Also, you can actually haggle with them and get a better price for a larger purchase or a purchase with trade-in. Good luck with that at a major game shop.
The other place where they shine is the fact that they actually have knowledgable staff. I can go into one of those and find out the going rate for Waterworld for VirtualBoy and background on Neo Geo AES systems or anything else I ask about. The workers at the big stores don't have the faintest clue what I am talking about. I'm also lucky enough to have a major indie store that imports thousands of Japanese games, which I am a big fan of. Without them I would be stuck paying Lik-sangs massive markups.
I'm not saying indie stores aren't going to go away some day, but they definately have a place and if you are interested in classic or foreign games you don't have much of an alternative. If the ones around here ever closed I guess I'd be stuck with Ebay and importers.
According to the article, my contacts at Novell, and Novell themselves - http://www.novell.com/news/press/item.jsp?contenti d=879a46d41fe14010VgnVCM1000000100007f____ , they have already signed the multi-million dollar deal. Novell has begun using it as part of their advertising campaign.
So are you saying they spent millions of dollars on a multi-year deal just to secure a better deal with Microsoft?
Wouldn't they have just threatened to go with Novell if they were trying to pressure Microsoft for a better price?
I'll second that.
I recently bought a big screen hdtv and the Gamecube games didn't look that great on it. Luckily I have an older Gamecube with the digital connector so I picked up a composite cable and its a night and day difference. Almost all Gamecube games support progressive scan and they are MUCH clearer and brighter with the composite/progressive hookup than the regular RBG. My wife said it was like she had just put her contacts in, it's that much of an improvement in the picture quality.
Its a shame they removed the port from the newer Gamecubes. Nintendo said the reason was that only 1% of Gamecube owners used the digital output, but I think that is in large part due to the fact that you couldn't get the cables anywhere but from Nintendo directly and they never advertised them.
The patchwork laws you are referring to are on a state by state basis. Most (but not all) states have laws requiring employers to provide time for their employees to vote. The laws vary state to state, but generally you must give your employee a few hours off when the polls are open so they can vote. Most state laws require the employees to be PAID for their time off to vote as well!
1 014time_for_voting.asp
I agree with you 100% that it should be a national law, but that isn't the kind of thing you could restrict to just national elections. There are many state and local elections and ballot measures the people vote on when they vote for the President. If the laws were only applied to national elections you would have half of the House elected on days everyone was off and the other half elected when not everyone could come out, etc. There would be a lot of fighting about when a certain measure/canidate/whatever should be voted on, and I'm sure there would be lawsuits...
I really don't think a National Holiday would be very effective. All the white-collar or union workers would be off, but just like Labor day, Memorial day, etc all the service industry would still have to work. As would many individuals who have jobs at places that must be running 24/7/365.
What we need is a simple, national law about allowing time off. Most states require 3 hours paid off to vote (unless the polls are open at a time when you would have 3 hours available anyway) - we could apply that nationwide. But even more importantly, people need to know that they can't be forced to work and not vote! The majority of America has guaranteed time off to vote as it is - but very few know it.
Here's a link that lists what law are currently in place -
http://www.fordharrison.com/fh/news/articles/2004
That's a nice setup! And congrats on the 10-year mark, it's becoming a rare thing it seems.
Yes you are 100% right about the corporate world trying to capitalize on DJ culture. I have NO problem with Denon or Pioneer working on making CD tables that can really simulate the vinyl experience - as a matter of fact it'd be great if the technology were 100% there (and its getting close) and you could get good quality cd tracks.
But, as a DJ and a promoter myself, it really ticks me off when someone comes out with equipment and hypes it up to be for "pro djs" when it isn't even close. It also bugs me a bit when someone who doesn't know anything about djing trys to talk about what it takes or what is needed.
I know JACK about guitars. I can't play one, can't tell you what to buy. And I wont try to either. It seems though with djing more and more people are trying to chip in their own, uneducated opinion - as if knowing what electronic music is (and most of them don't know DnB from Jungle) is enough to say how to make it.
This isn't even close to being what a DJ (pro or amature) would want. It's really more of a toy. Only now are we seeing CD tables - like the Pioneer DJM-1000 that are high enough quality to be considered worthy of using. 90% of DJs are still into vinyl. And before anyone says anything about how they are living in the past or whatever - there are several reasons for that. You still have greater control over vinyl - you can touch it and move it exactly how you want, other systems have to simulate that. Also, ALMOST ALL GOOD DANCE MUSIC COMES OUT ON VINYL ONLY!! Go to www.dancerecords.com or www.satelliterecords.com, and see exactly how many tracks are available on anything other than vinyl. Yeah, if you are spinning Top 40 right off the cd you got at BestBuy, or in this case the MP3 you downloaded from iTunes or wherever, and you aren't trying to do anything advanced, then maybe something like this could be a fun diversion. But if you are trying to mix interesting, unique music you are still going to use vinyl. But again, this just doesnt have anywhere NEAR the functionality that a DJ would want. They would be better off to buy two cheap tables and a cheap mixer off of ebay than to try to use this thing. And yes, even amatures usually have 2 1200s and a stack of vinyl.
When a new form of entertainment emerges, it can take away from the time spent with current forms.
People only have so much free time in a day. If they begin spending 2-3 hours a day playing video games, that's 2-3 less hours they have for tv, music, reading, etc.
There was a time when you read books for entertainment, and that's about all you COULD do. Then radio came along, and families sat around in the evening listening to radio shows. Then TV, now video games. It makes perfect sense.
I do want to say that I think this is a good thing. For the most part TV is the most mindless, unstimulating, unsocial form of entertainment we have today. If more people play games (still maybe not the best entertainment, but challenging and oftentimes social none the less) than watch TV, well, I'm all for it!
Thankfully, according to the article Google has decided to NOT sell out to Microsoft.
"While the overture appears to have gained little traction - Google indicated that it preferred the initial offering route, the executives said"
However they indicated it could happen in the future -
"Though seemingly spurned, Microsoft may still be interested in pursuing Google at a later date, according to an executive briefed on the discussions"
This would be very troubling if MS did buy Google at some point. Google may have turned them away now, but one they have gone public a hostile takeover could be in the works. Heaven help us if they do - the last thing I would want to see is MS controlling the best search engine out there.
I played MMORGs for awhile, and I tried both sexes. Mostly to see how it would affect the game.
As you would expect, I was helped out by others FAR more when I played as a female. People were nicer overall, but there definately was an increase in harrassment. Of course, I always told them I weighed 750 lbs in real life, that tended to end any requests to meet in rl.
I could see why most gender-benders would be over 25. I don't see very many male teenagers being secure enough to play as a female character, I know when I was 16 I wouldn't have. Today its interesting to play as a female, to see how other react, and to compare that to how they react when I play as a male. It is really a good mirror on how society, and those in it, treat men and women differently just because of their sex.
This sounds like a great idea. I would LOVE to have a true science channel - it would be enough to get me to finally purchase cable!
But would it work? Most of American knows nothing about science. They are far more likely to be entertained and interested in psychics, the paranormal, and well, science-esque stories that they can understand.
Lets look at what popular now. Reality TV. Does it get any more mindless than that? Sitcoms are still popular, even though 95% of them are almost identical to eachother, and they repeat the same plots and stories that they have for years. Most movies that come out are unoriginal, and often the ones that do the best are the ones that stray the furthest from scientific fact.
It seems that people do not want to learn any longer. They do not want to be challenged. They just want to live in their shells, believing what they have always believed, thinking what they have always thought. And I'm afraid that for that reason, a science channel might not go over very well.
However, on the other hand, maybe having a good science channel would help to draw interest to science and facts. Maybe it would help to disprove psychics and other con-artists, maybe it could help teach people about how our world really works, and how things really are.
I hope so. But I kind of doubt it. I'm afraid most people would rather watch the same reruns of the same mindless crap over and over again.
I've seen a lot of people commenting on how this is no big deal. It is.
It is a crisis when thousands of bars, clubs, and restaurants are without alcohol. Restaurants aren't high margin businesses, and many need the revenue from alcohol sales to make a profit. Obviously, the bars and clubs can't make any money without it - if they don't get it fixed soon many, many businesses will suffer greatly, and many bartenders, waitresses, etc will go without pay. Bars and clubs have already been devistated by Camel's dropping sponsorship (in case you didn't know, Camel has been giving millions of dollars to clubs and bars to sell their cigs, that ended recently.)
Even if you don't go to bars or clubs, many people work there, and their livelyhood depends on alcohol sales. How would you all react if you couldn't work (and get paid) until the government fixed some stupid problem they had created?
I couldn't agree more. I'm a dj, and I mostly listen to dj music. All nonstop, without breaks or gaps. That's been a BIG pain in the butt for me on my iPod. Music like that is made seamless for a reason - the irritating pauses in between songs is a HUGE annoyance for me, and many others that listen to electronic or classical music.
What I am curious about is that a friend of mine in St. Louis patented this process a little over a year ago, in anticipation of Clear Channel (and others) wanting to do this.
I know the patent has gone through, and his lawyers say its airtight. It gives him rights over any sales of a live performance while at that performance. I'll try to find the actual patent and post a link.
Maybe he'll be able to sue them and screw them over the way they've screwed over so many people lately.