Its an interesting strategy though. Whipping out something that so clearly is a question of privacy and so clearly is a civil liberties issue, and then just declaring "no its not" to stifle any debate.
Microsoft probably would not be able to afford eBay. I'm a shareholder of ebay myself, and the way I see it, I would need either:
$45 per share in cash or 2.5 MSFT shares per 1 ebay share
Which means Microsoft is either going to have to issue $30 billion in debt and spend all their existing cash, or relinquish 30%+ of the ownership of the combined company to eBay shareholders.
I find it hard to believe they're willing to do either.
Now, if they want to buy Skype from us or something, that's a different matter.
I agree 100%... the ZIP was fine tech for its time, and was no more unreliable than the floppy drives it was meant to replace.
I've still got a ZIP 250 drive in my system, and a 100 drive for my laptop. They're perfectly servicable, and I've never lost data on any one of them.
Now, the SparQ drive, that was a different matter entirely. Nevermind a 0.05% hardware failure rate or whatever of the ZIP drive, I never once saw a SparQ drive that didn't eat half the carts given to it.
Well in the first place "bunch of guys with guns that steal your money every year and throw you in prison if you refuse" is a dubious benefit... but whatever...
I tell you what then... I'll sell all my possessions, and I'll leave.
IF... you can guarentee me that the united states military isn't going to ever invade whatever land I buy in the future.
I don't want any of the US military's alleged protection, nor any of the federal government's glorious five year plans. I want them to leave us alone. That seems like a reasonable offer... but of course it's one they never seem willing to listen to.
If you want us to believe that you don't have to pay your fair share to society, then stop taking what society pays for.
Sounds like we're close to a deal.
Here's my offer. I and some other people buy some land somewhere a fair ways away from cities... we stay there and you guys agree to leave us the fuck alone. Think of it like an Indian reservation, only instead of Indians its just general people who are sick of all the state's bullshit.
You can keep your police and military... its not just that I'm annoyed at paying for them because I didn't ask for them, I don't want them. We can handle our own fire prevention (as, I might add, do many rural communities) through a volunteer fire department. But we'll handle that ourselves, don't even worry about it.
Oh, and you need to acknowledge our right to generate our own electricity and to buy goods and services from private companies. I don't know if you really meant to claim that government provides those things or not, but saying you can't use electricity is just as silly as saying you can't eat potatoes.
Oh... and one more thing, though this is unrelated. Do you really have state subsidized sidewalks? Because I gotta tell you, I have to pave my own.
Nonsense... I'm neither requesting nor receiving any such services. They can't charge you for theoretical availability any more than the McDonald's down the road can charge you for theoretically being able to buy a hamburger there.
Enforcing things in a court of law is probably a sin anyhow. I'd be contented with a signed document and a public statement.
I just want to know, if I and a bunch of other people go buy up a bunch of land in the middle of nowhere, don't use any government services, and basically just keep to ourselves, the state will leave us alone in matters of taxation, conscription, et al.
In other words, are they really only interested in charging services provided or are they treating us as possessions to be used for their own benefit?
I'd be glad to as well, but I'm worried about the whole "stigma" thing.
They specifically said they were trying to create a stigma around having one if you aren't a student. I love the idea of help out in this way, but I don't want everybody thinking I lifted one off some kid.
Now, if they shipped the $300 ones in a special donor color, I'd be all over that. You can't tell me that wouldn't be good for picking up women:)
Yeah, the other problem with expecting Sony to react to this defeat is that they seem totally oblivious to it. To hear them talk, the PS3 was a rousing success and the "true gamers" will be lining up for it no matter what the price. This is evidenced by defenses like "if anything, it's too cheap".
Yeah, and now we're grinding the faces of millions of foreigners under the heel of the American military.
And now you can be held in prison for basically forever, without being charged with a crime.
Isn't that change enough? Can we at least make it clear how much is enough instead of there just always being something new?
Why not at least be open with whatever your long term solution is. Are we going to massacre every muslim? Forcably convert them to Christianity? Maybe we'll have to solve the question of mind control and implant a chip in everyone's brain to keep them docile and obedient? Where are we heading, I seriously want to know.
As others have pointed out, NiCd batteries are still preferred in many applications. I've still got quite a few around the house myself, actually.
But hey, at least you can change the battery is your disposable camera. Now if you could just get a law mandating that you be able to change the film too you'd have... a camera.
Well I guess it depends where the monitor is... between computer monitors and TV screens I doubt there's much of my house that's totally free from the gaze of such a screen, depending of course on how wide the range of the monitor's view is.
Not that it'd need total coverage... Winston's apartment in 1984 actually had portions that were outside of the view of the monitors, but spending prolonged periods in those nooks and crannies itself is probably a suspicious thing to do.
It's easy enough to manage, just don't prosecute the people who you're not "after". Just because somebody turns over evidence of a crime doesn't mean the Justice Department has to act on it... if that was the case Presidents would be getting indicted almost non-stop during their terms.
Step 1: send an email that autoloads in image from a banned website Step 2: wait for the ISP to report that the recipient of the email obtained data from the banned website Step 3: profit
The same could work with a pop-under, an URL forward, even a simple Javascript app that grabs a piece of data off such a site without ever using it for anything or even making it apparent it's done anything.
As the notion of detaining people for years or even decades without charging them with any crime starts to come under fire, it must be a great relief to the Department of Justice to have every ISP gathering mountains of prima facie evidence to initiate criminal proceedings against anybody who happens to use the internet.
In my opinion, if they're going down the road of a police state, the least they can do is give us an up-to-date list of the websites that are considered illegal to visit so that we can make a hosts file to avoid 'accidental' prosecutions. I guess it's too much to ask for a police state to play fair though.
Sure, it must've been hijacked somewhere along the way. The Chinese government would never want to curb free speech jsut for the sake of curbing free speech.
It's not like Wal-mart is playing through every single game carried in their stores. They're just looking at the M-rated ones to see which are unsuitable for their own stores' family friendly image.
This makes it sound like they're playing through E-rated games changing dialogue just for the hell of it.
I'd already switched to a Mac awhile ago (from linux, not Windows), but this has me seriously contemplating upgrading to an Intel chip to take advantage of this. Before I had my eye on getting a cheap high end G5 Powermac when they finally switched those over to Intel. So instead of me being on the secondary market for a lightly used uber PPC Mac in a few months, I'm looking at buying an iMac directly from Apple.
But I think this guy (and all the people on CNBC who talk about this being "for businesses") is missing the point. People aren't saying "boy, I'd sure like to combine the price of Apple hardware with the stability of Windows", they're saying "OSX is just flat out a better all-around experience for most things, but some app categories are really missing, I wish I could dual boot so I can use a Windows app when necessary".
Games are the killer app that is keeping a lot of younger users, annoyed by all of Windows' failings, from switching. The young gamer of today could be the head of an IT department in the future, and if he sees OSX as a more productive system for doing actual work, and Windows as basically "something to play games on", that's going to factor in to future hardware purchases.
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Its an interesting strategy though. Whipping out something that so clearly is a question of privacy and so clearly is a civil liberties issue, and then just declaring "no its not" to stifle any debate.
Microsoft probably would not be able to afford eBay. I'm a shareholder of ebay myself, and the way I see it, I would need either:
$45 per share in cash
or
2.5 MSFT shares per 1 ebay share
Which means Microsoft is either going to have to issue $30 billion in debt and spend all their existing cash, or relinquish 30%+ of the ownership of the combined company to eBay shareholders.
I find it hard to believe they're willing to do either.
Now, if they want to buy Skype from us or something, that's a different matter.
Well, I need to get it in writing from the US government, of course. Might want to call your Congressman or something.
I agree 100%... the ZIP was fine tech for its time, and was no more unreliable than the floppy drives it was meant to replace.
I've still got a ZIP 250 drive in my system, and a 100 drive for my laptop. They're perfectly servicable, and I've never lost data on any one of them.
Now, the SparQ drive, that was a different matter entirely. Nevermind a 0.05% hardware failure rate or whatever of the ZIP drive, I never once saw a SparQ drive that didn't eat half the carts given to it.
Well in the first place "bunch of guys with guns that steal your money every year and throw you in prison if you refuse" is a dubious benefit... but whatever...
I tell you what then... I'll sell all my possessions, and I'll leave.
IF... you can guarentee me that the united states military isn't going to ever invade whatever land I buy in the future.
Can you promise that? Can I get that in writing?
I don't want any of the US military's alleged protection, nor any of the federal government's glorious five year plans. I want them to leave us alone. That seems like a reasonable offer... but of course it's one they never seem willing to listen to.
If you want us to believe that you don't have to pay your fair share to society, then stop taking what society pays for.
Sounds like we're close to a deal.
Here's my offer. I and some other people buy some land somewhere a fair ways away from cities... we stay there and you guys agree to leave us the fuck alone. Think of it like an Indian reservation, only instead of Indians its just general people who are sick of all the state's bullshit.
You can keep your police and military... its not just that I'm annoyed at paying for them because I didn't ask for them, I don't want them. We can handle our own fire prevention (as, I might add, do many rural communities) through a volunteer fire department. But we'll handle that ourselves, don't even worry about it.
Oh, and you need to acknowledge our right to generate our own electricity and to buy goods and services from private companies. I don't know if you really meant to claim that government provides those things or not, but saying you can't use electricity is just as silly as saying you can't eat potatoes.
Oh... and one more thing, though this is unrelated. Do you really have state subsidized sidewalks? Because I gotta tell you, I have to pave my own.
Nonsense... I'm neither requesting nor receiving any such services. They can't charge you for theoretical availability any more than the McDonald's down the road can charge you for theoretically being able to buy a hamburger there.
Enforcing things in a court of law is probably a sin anyhow. I'd be contented with a signed document and a public statement.
I just want to know, if I and a bunch of other people go buy up a bunch of land in the middle of nowhere, don't use any government services, and basically just keep to ourselves, the state will leave us alone in matters of taxation, conscription, et al.
In other words, are they really only interested in charging services provided or are they treating us as possessions to be used for their own benefit?
Leave the country? So the existance of the land is one of the services the government is providing now?
Can I get that in writing?
Indeed, that seemed tailor-made for Skype (which eBay owns).
I'd be glad to as well, but I'm worried about the whole "stigma" thing.
:)
They specifically said they were trying to create a stigma around having one if you aren't a student. I love the idea of help out in this way, but I don't want everybody thinking I lifted one off some kid.
Now, if they shipped the $300 ones in a special donor color, I'd be all over that. You can't tell me that wouldn't be good for picking up women
Up there at the top we could also throw in the LaserActive as well.
Yeah, the other problem with expecting Sony to react to this defeat is that they seem totally oblivious to it. To hear them talk, the PS3 was a rousing success and the "true gamers" will be lining up for it no matter what the price. This is evidenced by defenses like "if anything, it's too cheap".
Yeah, and now we're grinding the faces of millions of foreigners under the heel of the American military.
And now you can be held in prison for basically forever, without being charged with a crime.
Isn't that change enough? Can we at least make it clear how much is enough instead of there just always being something new?
Why not at least be open with whatever your long term solution is. Are we going to massacre every muslim? Forcably convert them to Christianity? Maybe we'll have to solve the question of mind control and implant a chip in everyone's brain to keep them docile and obedient? Where are we heading, I seriously want to know.
Shame on you, you forgot the forced feedings with "extra-wide" tubes.
As others have pointed out, NiCd batteries are still preferred in many applications. I've still got quite a few around the house myself, actually.
But hey, at least you can change the battery is your disposable camera. Now if you could just get a law mandating that you be able to change the film too you'd have... a camera.
Well I guess it depends where the monitor is... between computer monitors and TV screens I doubt there's much of my house that's totally free from the gaze of such a screen, depending of course on how wide the range of the monitor's view is.
Not that it'd need total coverage... Winston's apartment in 1984 actually had portions that were outside of the view of the monitors, but spending prolonged periods in those nooks and crannies itself is probably a suspicious thing to do.
It's easy enough to manage, just don't prosecute the people who you're not "after". Just because somebody turns over evidence of a crime doesn't mean the Justice Department has to act on it... if that was the case Presidents would be getting indicted almost non-stop during their terms.
Step 1: send an email that autoloads in image from a banned website
Step 2: wait for the ISP to report that the recipient of the email obtained data from the banned website
Step 3: profit
The same could work with a pop-under, an URL forward, even a simple Javascript app that grabs a piece of data off such a site without ever using it for anything or even making it apparent it's done anything.
As the notion of detaining people for years or even decades without charging them with any crime starts to come under fire, it must be a great relief to the Department of Justice to have every ISP gathering mountains of prima facie evidence to initiate criminal proceedings against anybody who happens to use the internet.
In my opinion, if they're going down the road of a police state, the least they can do is give us an up-to-date list of the websites that are considered illegal to visit so that we can make a hosts file to avoid 'accidental' prosecutions. I guess it's too much to ask for a police state to play fair though.
Or for that matter, the SCO lawsuit... the stock skyrocketed after they sued IBM... how'd that work out?
Sure, it must've been hijacked somewhere along the way. The Chinese government would never want to curb free speech jsut for the sake of curbing free speech.
It's not like Wal-mart is playing through every single game carried in their stores. They're just looking at the M-rated ones to see which are unsuitable for their own stores' family friendly image.
This makes it sound like they're playing through E-rated games changing dialogue just for the hell of it.
I'd already switched to a Mac awhile ago (from linux, not Windows), but this has me seriously contemplating upgrading to an Intel chip to take advantage of this. Before I had my eye on getting a cheap high end G5 Powermac when they finally switched those over to Intel. So instead of me being on the secondary market for a lightly used uber PPC Mac in a few months, I'm looking at buying an iMac directly from Apple.
But I think this guy (and all the people on CNBC who talk about this being "for businesses") is missing the point. People aren't saying "boy, I'd sure like to combine the price of Apple hardware with the stability of Windows", they're saying "OSX is just flat out a better all-around experience for most things, but some app categories are really missing, I wish I could dual boot so I can use a Windows app when necessary".
Games are the killer app that is keeping a lot of younger users, annoyed by all of Windows' failings, from switching. The young gamer of today could be the head of an IT department in the future, and if he sees OSX as a more productive system for doing actual work, and Windows as basically "something to play games on", that's going to factor in to future hardware purchases.