Although one of the chief jobs of the US government is ensuring that industry is free to get away with its gouging, this is actually a case where you'll soon see some blowback for the RIAA.
Even nasty little bootlickers like Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman have started to squeek about the possible unfairness of the RIAA's actions. Dig up the AP article from earlier this summer where he bleats about the possibility that the accused didn't know they were hurting anyone; can you imagine a right wing senator saying this about, say, urban black kids scooped up by the voracious war on drugs?
All it will take is for the wide net of these subpoenas to scoop up several kids from the plutocracy, whose parents can afford both lawyers and politicians, and then our elected representatives will leap into action. Meanwhile, if the RIAA has any sense, its suits will target those who can't afford to fight them.
Of course an American is more important than an Indian...to OTHER AMERICANS. As an American, my level of concern for the quality of life in other countries takes a massive backseat to the quality of life in my own.
Really? By definition, conservatives don't care about "other Americans" in any grand inclusive manner; that's socialism, remember. No, your sympathy extends to those who, like yourself, believe in the opposite of liberalism. Your creed of "Hands off my pile, I made it!" is not a foundation for having much concern about other Americans.
And if you're going to profess a philosophy that stints your fellow man, then at least have the courage of your own greed. Be consistent.
Nation first, World second is exactly how Japan went from war-ravaged to having one of the strongest economies in the world.
No, that's actually how Japan went to war: Nation first, World second. Later, Japan was rebuilt at great American expense--reconstruction that was sensibly based on the view of World first, Nation second.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a strong sense of nationalism, and there is something wrong with weeping over the children on Uzbekistan when our own children are dying.
Do you read newspapers? Our own children are getting fat, and they've got video games coming out of their ears. They enjoy the highest standard of living in the world. They wear on their precious little backs clothing that is often made in sweatshops by children who have the poorest standard of living in the world. Our children aren't dying, not in numbers that are even remotely significant compared to children overseas. And that is why the plight of others elsewhere moves some Americans, these people you "loathe".
OK, OK, it looks bad, but come on. I don't think we should hasten to blame Apple for this, even though somebody else owns the trademark. As one of the great trademark and patent attorneys of the 20th century, Gustav Senkavoy, of the Copenhagen University of Law, was fond of saying over and over again, in the years after his retirement when he could be found wandering the Fluffestrasse talking to himself, "Trademark....Shmademark! Ho ho!"
In fact, there are lots of ways that these things happen, and most of them are documented in the 1998 book, Hoo Boy! Here We Go Again!: Apple's Purity Explained To Its Critics Again by the Apple Board of Directors (with a foreward by the Virgin Mary). Time and again, when viewed through any objective lens, the bottom line turns out to be that Apple is incapable of wrong, and that covers both earthly and heavenly law. If the space-time continuum puckers just long enough for an exception to this rule, the elephants who bear the world on their shoulders will have sneezing fits, so don't even go there.
And what a wide-scale market that is! How many genres have barely been tapped, or not yet invented? How do you even classify something like Popcap's Insaniquarium?
Mind-numbingly repetitive and overly simplistic fish-feeding game. Guppies for easily-amused yuppies.
Any other classifications you need, pard'ner, just ask.;-)
The dangers inherent in this carnivorous electro-beast were all spelled out in Westworld nearly thirty years ago! Robots and amusement park patrons must not mix.
"Lucky." Yeah, right. See how lucky we are when this thing starts going Yul Brynner on somebody's ass.
When a new movie appears, I pay no attention to the trailers or "Quotes" on the posters. I check IMDB,
Good call. I do it for new and old films alike. The IMDB isn't essential, but it can really augment your pleasure and knowledge of movies.
With film reviewing in many media outlets today being little more than PR, there's more reason than ever to hunt down the opinions of people who aren't co-opted by the industry. IMDB's one solution. There's a lot of chaff, to be sure, but there are also many valuable writers with good insights, and I like to see the whole spectrum of response to a movie--between the burps and grunts and gushes and bouquets you can often develop at least a hunch as to whether you'll find a movie interesting.
We know you like Apple; guess what, so do we! But wanting to make it a sacred cow not susceptible to critical discussion is a bad enough idea without trying to push that idea on a discussion board, for heaven's sake.
The sad fact is consumer protection laws are of less and less use in an era of hyper-deregulation. The philosophy that animated their rise in the 1960s has been supplanted by an outlook that holds consumers in casual disregard. Everyone is familiar with the result. Did something not work? Well, you must be at fault.
Apple's famous popularity is based on consumer satisfaction--indeed, it's hard to find a company as well liked and trusted. That Apple would squander any of this affection isn't a very smart move, but says something about its susceptibility to larger trends.
Tougher consumer protection laws aren't likely in the present political climate. In fact, the popular trend in right wing America is to lessen both restraints and liability for business on the premise that the fox should run the chicken house. If you realize what a raw deal this is for you and all of us, be sure to use that antinquated thing called democracy to do something about it.
No trackball anywhere--and I have tried them by the bucketload--is as comfortable for me as the original Microsoft trackball from the late 90s. The subsequent models are technically better, but too big and clunky.
Finding the original model (which was shoddily made, gets dirty fast, and is pre-USB) is almost impossible now, unfortunately...
Just between Elves, I feel confident that I can tell you, fairest one, the following:
O menel aglar elenath!
So, did you like the font? Cool, huh? Found it on Slashdot, heh heh. What's Slashdot? Oh, you have so much to learn, my queen, so much. But there will be years for that (particularly after I level up my Everquest wizard a bit more, which will leave mornings and evenings open).
When I heard that you wished you had more chances to speak Elvish in LOTR:TFOTR and LOTR:TTT and LOTR:TROTK, I knew that our love should no longer have to wait. For now we can speak and key Elvish to our hearts' content in our own private Lothlorien, or by IM or wirelessly!
In fact, I've made arrangements, and mom says it's OK if we crash in the basement while we get on our feet. I realize that leaving the international limelight to marry an unemployed computer programmer is kind of unusual, but look on the bright side of "
It's a shame that older iPod owners have to live with the functionality that was advertised to them when they bought it.
LOL! As snitty irony goes, the Swedish Judges give that a 9.2
Look, mod me down for dissenting, but it has to be said. The question is not, "Did you get what you paid for, and if you did, why are you spoiling my perfect Stepford Wife day with your complaints?" If it were, the answer, as the petitioners see it, would be a qualified "Well, sorta, but..."
The real question is why one set of owners is being treated with such indifference in a field where features are commonly added after purchase.
As a contented Apple owner, I'm disheartened by the level of shilling here when it brooks no complaint from other owners. Some view these threads as little more than an occasion to be self-appointed kapos for Apple, a mistaken strategy that brings us no closer to a solution while only increasing public dissatisfaction that hurts Apple in the long run.
Forget the 1990s speed - it's a home media center candidate. Existing choices in this market segment are ugly, noisy PCs. A silent beautiful Cube on the other hand...
Go, Apple! I've been kind of lukewarm towards the idea of upgrading to Panther, but this would definitely get me there. Duplicate more functions of Office in OS X, and I'll even shoot my PC.
Why the army would create a murder simulator and distribute it to kids is a question we ought to be asking as a democracy.
The answer might seem obvious - i.e., you can't have cannons without fodder for them - but recruitment isn't the only reason.
Recruitment may not even be the primary reason. The ranks of Walmart America are very deep; there are plenty of the working poor who can be drawn upon to fight our imperial wars without recourse to a draft that would be politically unpopular with the chattering classes.
No, one of "America's Army"'s unspoken purposes is cultural adjustment, or as the army likes to say, pacification. It's supposed to make you feel good about our noble wars of liberation, to innoculate you against thinking about why the rest of humanity regards them as wrong. You may be certain neither you or yours will ever join the army, but that's sort of the point. Vicarious "patriotism" breeds moral passivity: it becomes that much easier for you to accept the status quo when you have fun pretending to be a hero in "America's Army." They also serve, who only sit and click...
So click away. You paid for this, after all. Unfortunately, somewhere overseas, and much more expensively, so has someone else.
That's really great. Now the company famous for insecurity can help the president famous for not being elected to assist the government to spy on citizens in a free and open democratic republic.
Together they can look for enemies among us since the enemies not among us have discovered it's possible to run and hide after all, largely because the phony intelligence on which the War-of-the-Week is based continues to be the basis for policy long after the intelligence community that invented it no longer wants it to be believed.
At what point did we all wake up to find we're living in a Pynchon novel?
..the technology that will allow us to monitor the liars, crooks and fools who lead us?
(Apparently, some ancient technology known as the "media" used to work, and another called "the Constitution" was also formerly useful. But we didn't replace the dilithium crystals or something.)
Hell, even the GOVERNMENT didn't beat them. I know they were convicted of being a monopoly, but really, what has happened since then? They still hold a monopoly on the desktop market, they still own windows and office, and they still infest every windows computer with a copy of internet explorer. I'd say that they really won.
So would I.
The pity is that the very law designed to protect American consumers and competitors is such a rat's stew of politics, ideology, and byzantine caselaw. The sordid history of antitrust law - with its endless larding of exceptions and layers and layers of right wing theory - is one part of the tale of how corporations have come to dominate our culture.
Still, the stink rising from the MS settlement has added itself to the general odor hanging over our justice system (joining such rich fumes as the failure to prosecute major corporate criminals of the past three years, the hysterical drug war, and the 2000 election fiasco). Again, more's the pity. This type of phoniness is one of the reasons people lose their faith in the system, and a system in which fewer and fewer believe is a system in trouble.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the most progressive of the Dem contenders, has published "The Case for Public Patents" this week in The Nation. (Catch the nod to open source towards the end of the piece.)
Slashdot Mirror
Even nasty little bootlickers like Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman have started to squeek about the possible unfairness of the RIAA's actions. Dig up the AP article from earlier this summer where he bleats about the possibility that the accused didn't know they were hurting anyone; can you imagine a right wing senator saying this about, say, urban black kids scooped up by the voracious war on drugs?
All it will take is for the wide net of these subpoenas to scoop up several kids from the plutocracy, whose parents can afford both lawyers and politicians, and then our elected representatives will leap into action. Meanwhile, if the RIAA has any sense, its suits will target those who can't afford to fight them.
Really? By definition, conservatives don't care about "other Americans" in any grand inclusive manner; that's socialism, remember. No, your sympathy extends to those who, like yourself, believe in the opposite of liberalism. Your creed of "Hands off my pile, I made it!" is not a foundation for having much concern about other Americans.
And if you're going to profess a philosophy that stints your fellow man, then at least have the courage of your own greed. Be consistent.
No, that's actually how Japan went to war: Nation first, World second. Later, Japan was rebuilt at great American expense--reconstruction that was sensibly based on the view of World first, Nation second.
Do you read newspapers? Our own children are getting fat, and they've got video games coming out of their ears. They enjoy the highest standard of living in the world. They wear on their precious little backs clothing that is often made in sweatshops by children who have the poorest standard of living in the world. Our children aren't dying, not in numbers that are even remotely significant compared to children overseas. And that is why the plight of others elsewhere moves some Americans, these people you "loathe".Best line of the day. :-)
In fact, there are lots of ways that these things happen, and most of them are documented in the 1998 book, Hoo Boy! Here We Go Again!: Apple's Purity Explained To Its Critics Again by the Apple Board of Directors (with a foreward by the Virgin Mary). Time and again, when viewed through any objective lens, the bottom line turns out to be that Apple is incapable of wrong, and that covers both earthly and heavenly law. If the space-time continuum puckers just long enough for an exception to this rule, the elephants who bear the world on their shoulders will have sneezing fits, so don't even go there.
Mind-numbingly repetitive and overly simplistic fish-feeding game. Guppies for easily-amused yuppies.
Any other classifications you need, pard'ner, just ask. ;-)
"Lucky." Yeah, right. See how lucky we are when this thing starts going Yul Brynner on somebody's ass.
Good call. I do it for new and old films alike. The IMDB isn't essential, but it can really augment your pleasure and knowledge of movies.
With film reviewing in many media outlets today being little more than PR, there's more reason than ever to hunt down the opinions of people who aren't co-opted by the industry. IMDB's one solution. There's a lot of chaff, to be sure, but there are also many valuable writers with good insights, and I like to see the whole spectrum of response to a movie--between the burps and grunts and gushes and bouquets you can often develop at least a hunch as to whether you'll find a movie interesting.
To help them pick out shoes? ;-)
We know you like Apple; guess what, so do we! But wanting to make it a sacred cow not susceptible to critical discussion is a bad enough idea without trying to push that idea on a discussion board, for heaven's sake.
Apple's famous popularity is based on consumer satisfaction--indeed, it's hard to find a company as well liked and trusted. That Apple would squander any of this affection isn't a very smart move, but says something about its susceptibility to larger trends.
Tougher consumer protection laws aren't likely in the present political climate. In fact, the popular trend in right wing America is to lessen both restraints and liability for business on the premise that the fox should run the chicken house. If you realize what a raw deal this is for you and all of us, be sure to use that antinquated thing called democracy to do something about it.
...why can't our leaders?
Finding the original model (which was shoddily made, gets dirty fast, and is pre-USB) is almost impossible now, unfortunately...
Just between Elves, I feel confident that I can tell you, fairest one, the following:
O menel aglar elenath!
So, did you like the font? Cool, huh? Found it on Slashdot, heh heh. What's Slashdot? Oh, you have so much to learn, my queen, so much. But there will be years for that (particularly after I level up my Everquest wizard a bit more, which will leave mornings and evenings open).
When I heard that you wished you had more chances to speak Elvish in LOTR:TFOTR and LOTR:TTT and LOTR:TROTK, I knew that our love should no longer have to wait. For now we can speak and key Elvish to our hearts' content in our own private Lothlorien, or by IM or wirelessly!
In fact, I've made arrangements, and mom says it's OK if we crash in the basement while we get on our feet. I realize that leaving the international limelight to marry an unemployed computer programmer is kind of unusual, but look on the bright side of "
~ snip ~
Facts all come with points of view
Facts won't do what you want them to.
Somehow, I'm fairly confident Microsoft will come up with all the best facts money can buy.
Suddenly, ten flights of stairs doesn't seem so bad. ;-)
LOL! As snitty irony goes, the Swedish Judges give that a 9.2
Look, mod me down for dissenting, but it has to be said. The question is not, "Did you get what you paid for, and if you did, why are you spoiling my perfect Stepford Wife day with your complaints?" If it were, the answer, as the petitioners see it, would be a qualified "Well, sorta, but..."
The real question is why one set of owners is being treated with such indifference in a field where features are commonly added after purchase.
As a contented Apple owner, I'm disheartened by the level of shilling here when it brooks no complaint from other owners. Some view these threads as little more than an occasion to be self-appointed kapos for Apple, a mistaken strategy that brings us no closer to a solution while only increasing public dissatisfaction that hurts Apple in the long run.
Forget the 1990s speed - it's a home media center candidate. Existing choices in this market segment are ugly, noisy PCs. A silent beautiful Cube on the other hand...
Go, Apple! I've been kind of lukewarm towards the idea of upgrading to Panther, but this would definitely get me there. Duplicate more functions of Office in OS X, and I'll even shoot my PC.
The answer might seem obvious - i.e., you can't have cannons without fodder for them - but recruitment isn't the only reason.
Recruitment may not even be the primary reason. The ranks of Walmart America are very deep; there are plenty of the working poor who can be drawn upon to fight our imperial wars without recourse to a draft that would be politically unpopular with the chattering classes.
No, one of "America's Army"'s unspoken purposes is cultural adjustment, or as the army likes to say, pacification. It's supposed to make you feel good about our noble wars of liberation, to innoculate you against thinking about why the rest of humanity regards them as wrong. You may be certain neither you or yours will ever join the army, but that's sort of the point. Vicarious "patriotism" breeds moral passivity: it becomes that much easier for you to accept the status quo when you have fun pretending to be a hero in "America's Army." They also serve, who only sit and click...
So click away. You paid for this, after all. Unfortunately, somewhere overseas, and much more expensively, so has someone else.
Together they can look for enemies among us since the enemies not among us have discovered it's possible to run and hide after all, largely because the phony intelligence on which the War-of-the-Week is based continues to be the basis for policy long after the intelligence community that invented it no longer wants it to be believed.
At what point did we all wake up to find we're living in a Pynchon novel?
If you want to say she's sensible, just say it.
(Apparently, some ancient technology known as the "media" used to work, and another called "the Constitution" was also formerly useful. But we didn't replace the dilithium crystals or something.)
Nice racket! When is some country going to liberate us?
So would I.
The pity is that the very law designed to protect American consumers and competitors is such a rat's stew of politics, ideology, and byzantine caselaw. The sordid history of antitrust law - with its endless larding of exceptions and layers and layers of right wing theory - is one part of the tale of how corporations have come to dominate our culture.
Still, the stink rising from the MS settlement has added itself to the general odor hanging over our justice system (joining such rich fumes as the failure to prosecute major corporate criminals of the past three years, the hysterical drug war, and the 2000 election fiasco). Again, more's the pity. This type of phoniness is one of the reasons people lose their faith in the system, and a system in which fewer and fewer believe is a system in trouble.
http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030707 &s=kucinich