..I'm all for improving highway safety, but in a grand cosmic sorta way, we're kinda fvcking with the order of nature here. Certain numbers of people HAVE to die and the couple hundred thousand taken out by cars and trucks every year is an effective way to curtail the population, especially the idiots prone to substance abuse (I'm one of them, but my numbers haven't come up yet...I'm excited for tomorrow though..)
And plus, if we put RFID tags in cars, Ashcroft has won. And thats no good.
..In a non-offensive way, and this is the way you do it. It's either this or try to find a way to whore out the browser for profit.
The community should be supportive of this, because someone has to pay for it. Someone always pays..
...I've been in IT for about 7 years now, I make a comfortable salary, but honestly...as time goes on I find it less and less spiritually fulfilling (not to mention I don't see 'much' chance to make a great deal more money, but thats secondary to the fulfillment aspect of it all).. Many mornings I've woken up and wondered what it would be like to work with my hands building things in contracting..remodeling homes and renovating properties. Every day it seems more and more appealing as opposed to my monkey-in-a-box existence I have now.
I understand, from reading the article that this guy's gripe is due in great part to the fact that he can't get funding for what he wants to research (The UK's higher education system is fucked in alot of ways), but many of the people that I know working in offices and staring at that same ceiling as me in the morning wondering 'what if', have that same syndrome I see so many college grads and beyond. That nagging feeling that sitting still for 4 years (and beyond) in school didn't seem like that much of a good use of their time.. That no matter how many letters they put on their resume, they're still pretty much fucked because they couldn't quite get to that inner circle of good old boys (and girls). And on the other side is that fear of not having that safe office job. "Yeah I could be a plumber..and you know what? I'd probably enjoy the shit out of it but how would I survive until I had a good group of clients to throw me work?".. They've been so programmed that you must go to school, intern, write all the right letters and do all the right things and only THEN will you be respected... Anything less than that is beneath you because we were all supposed to be rockstars (rolling eyes).. Meanwhile, that kid you made fun of as 'prolitariate' because he decided to become an electrician, and now is one in the shop, just built a 100K extension onto his house at half normal cost because he knew how to do so much of it himself..
Not all of us were meant to work in an office and do pencil pushing work. Many of those people who weren't meant to went to college anyways and sure enough now they're wondering what the fuck the point of waking up tomorrow is... I know that point doesn't directly relate to the article, but it seems to me that THAT is why so many of us are discontent (aside from the idiocy that is management nowadays)..
Greatness is slowly dying at the hands of the takers, don't become one of them..
..."As I've said elsewhere, your tinfoil hat won't do a damn thing to block a magnetic field, grounded or not. Come on, you can surely find a magnet and piece of foil somewhere in your house and perform the extremely simple and obvious experiment that proves this..."
I would figure that it has something to do with piracy. Big companies and media outlets have alot of money invested in 'pushing' you info on crap you are targeted to buy. So they figure that you should be able to download this content at a fairly high speed, especially since its usually going to be choc full of fancy smanchy shit like flash animations and other web bloat (useful bloat, but bloat nonetheless).
Uploading on a large scale by the user OTOH usually signifies the transfer of large files such as MP3's. Now, some people would have valid reason for having a large upload pipe (experimental research with a huge amount of data being exchanged for example..crap like that..) but those people would be few and far between..and most of the time they'd also have someone else (an organization such as a school or business) floating the bill. I would also speculate that if that was indeed the case, the business or institution in question would purchase a special package from the provider.
It really depends on the locale. If you're talking about a suburban nightmare locale like say... Central Florida, then no they have no concept of backing into a spot (I lived there for 9 years, I know these things..they cannot grasp paralleling either..). On the flipside, if you go to a place like the NYC metro area, you pretty much learn to fit that car into a space the size of a shoebox at ANY angle possible.
Also, the type of climate of the drivers locale is a big factor as well. People who drive in places where it snows learn quickly to gauge the incline of the spot and then back in if its a decline to the front of the parking spot (slopes downwards from back to front). The reasoning being that if its snowing and you HAVE to drive you want gravity to 'pull' the car forward, which will lessen the struggle to get out of a snowed over or icy spot. This works for inclined spots too (rises from back to front) because most daily driving cars are FWD.
...You have a point, but in this case, I find its better to have too much than too little (even a big dick holder can have 'too little' when it comes to certain chicks). And plus, my dick isn't emitting any harmful gasses that could potentially fuck up the environment, nor does it cause harm...err..well you get the point..
Wrong. Its a combination of the slowpokes not staying in the proper lane (read: right lane) and the inability for a great many aggressive drivers to say 'yano I'm just riding in the left, no weave until volume gets lighter', that slows everyone down. Both sides are to blame.
This is not a political issue about 'freedom' and 'choice', its about making the circulatory system of our cities..and country really..work to maximum efficiency. There are two basic forces working towards and against this efficiency: Road design and the human element (read: your average mouthbreathing driver..the same one, mind you, that you'd give control of traffic lights too.. I'm a driving fanatic and I don't even agree with that..)..
Poor roads are a tragedy due to the immense cost it takes to build transportation infrastructure. Poor roads aren't 90 percent of the problem though, the human element is. PEOPLE can't use the roads that the engineers have set out for us. Whether it be a stubborn resistance to letting people in to merge so traffic flow is maintained, or the idiot who would rather try to make that sneaky right on red at the last moment rather than waiting 5 seconds more, PEOPLE screw the whole equation up. Traffic lights don't just go red and green as they please, there's a complex series of timings going on that keep the whole circulatory system moving at an acceptable level. Manhattan is a perfect example..
In the 'grid' in manhattan, you'll notice that at times you'll 'catch the wave' of green lights heading either up or down the avenues. This isn't a coincidence. The whole system moves at a lock step rythim, compensating inside certain parameters to allow for greater concentrated flow in specific areas.. The stop light that you're sitting at isn't just concerned with that specific intersection, its concerned with the lights 4 blocks up, near the entrance to the highway, which has been shown through historical data to be your most probable destination.. The whole system ties in together to keep the blood cells (cars, trucks etc..) moving in an orderly fasion so it doesn't 'lock' and then promptly choke on its own exhaust.
Emergency vehicles moving through traffic are a rare event, not the norm.. Many systems, I would speculate with great confidence, will allow for the vehicle to move against the 'flow' and then snap back into rythim with the rest of the traffic system as a whole. Average joe drivers aren't a 'rare event' they are the norm and therefore should fall into the normal rythmic pattern that the system provides.
But lets say for a minute that we 'democratize' the traffic control system and give everyone a directional clicker to change lights. Now lets say, for instance, we have a big event at Madison Square Garden in the mid afternoon on a Friday (not gonna happen, but lets just say the gods are crazy for a moment). The entrance/exit to the Licoln tunnel stretches from 30th to up in the low 50's. MSG is located on 8th (a major feeder road for the tunnel) and 31st. Now, if everyone could 'fight' (and it WOULD be a fight) for traffic control, what in the hell do you think would happen when the crowds coming in for the game COLLIDED with the outbound rush hour traffic. Who gets to make the choice? Who goes first? Everything within a 10 block radius of the upper and lower bounds of the tunnel would LOCK like nothing seen before.. Even with events happening at night traffic still becomes a zoo through that section...I couldn't even imagine it if some idiot from Jersey was pressing a button and calling the shots...
..Use your head..
The millitary is not the end all be all solve for this problem. If your idea came with Universal Serivce requirements, then I'd be willing to play ball, but if its seen as an 'escape' route for the underpriveleged, there's always going to be a stigma attached to being in the Armed Services (as there is, to some extent, now). Not all grunts go to officer's school, and the ones that don't seem not to get the same kind of recognition when they come back to the private sector. <BR> As was stated above by the AC, the working class, poor and working poor would pretty much only have the option of being 'cannon fodder' as their way to have a chance in our society.. No one should have to bargain with their lives just to be able to live a decent existence. The right answer is to find what ails primary and secondary education, and then fix it.. <BR> Also, and this is going out on a limb, but why not.. All societies go through revolutions as they mature. The way things are shaping up, it looks like the US could possibly be in that situation say 20 to 40 years from now as consolidation of wealth continues, as a natural function of capitalism, into the hands of the very few.. What happens when all this 'cannon fodder' from the lower classes wakes up and decides to take what they want without asking, by force? Now you've got a huge population of people trained 50 ways from Tuesday on how to kill a human being running amok across your gated community front lawn.. <BR> Who ya gonna call then?
..Well, then tell me something: What structure do you suppose would work to get these bottom rung 'burger flippers' access to better education? How do you propose we pay for that education and re-training?..More education = better job, no?.. You say they should go out and get better jobs, but how do you suppose these 'people of stupidity' could possibly hack it in a typical corporate environment, where book smarts, quick thinking and the ability to dynamically change is paramount to success(not to mention being able to fit into an 'image' because style, more often than not, takes presidence over substance)?.. Who's going to teach them how to write a cover letter and go through all the dog and pony show idiocy that is dealing with the typical HR department nowadays?..
They could work for the state, but honestly..the state is so inefficient that I'd rather have them spending money on Rims, exhaust systems and stereos... That several thousand dollars is better spent put back into commerce then eaten up by layers of beaurocracy and months of waiting over P.O.s and requisitions just to buy a box of pens...
So up-noser, what do you suppose are the answers to my questions above?..
Being a visual-spatial person I'd have to say this is a pretty good idea. As far as we've come we pretty much still like to look at the 'pretty lights', yano? Some kind of indicator that what we've built is actually doing something. Helps to bridge the gap between our fascination with machinery and the circutry that we build, which inherantly doesn't inspire the awe of say..an industrial sized crane, because of its lack of moving parts.
People like to 'see' an indicator that what they've built is actually working..Its comforting in a Man-machine sort of way. You could easily see if a bank was out (as someone mentioned before), but then again you'd know that when you tried to boot the machine...I think an interesting application of this would be to attach a bank of lights that could vary in intensity depending on power usage to the banks. One could test various in-case heat levels and actually observe the usage levels of electricity inside different parts of the ram as temperature rose. I dunno, I'm grasping here.....Pretty lights!!..
Re:moron the time space matter continuum
on
More on Spintronics
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· Score: -1, Offtopic
..I was wondering if this could be applied to a bong, thank you for verifying..
...The site is neato, but one thing..This guy must not have spooled alot of line in his lifetime...I used to fish a whole lot and changing line can be about as annoying as getting a rootcanal in the back of a pickup truck (Another thing I've gone through, but its too difficult to talk about right now..someone pass the scotch..)..
Re:The Heart of the Matter, right here...
on
Saving the Net
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· Score: 1
You're trying to turn this into a conservative vs. liberal banter fest. What this issue comes down to, at the heart of all this IP bullshit, is the fact that the CONSUMER has no RESPECT for the product that is being SHOVED down their THROATS. I will pay for a good product. Smack my hand when I want to get a taste for free to start, then follow it up with piss poor content that I HAVE to buy because I have no choices then I'm gonna find any way I possibly can to fuck you in the ass.
Sorry to be so crude about it, but I'm sick and tired of conservatives using this bullshit doctrine to justify all piracy as an act of counter-capitalism 'LETS REDISTRIBUTE ALL WEALTH' agenda because its not. Taking land away from me just because I achieved enough to own it would be a proper application of that argument. Different parcels of land are better suited to different tasks. I wouldn't build a marina in the middle of the catskills just like I wouldn't build a ski lift in brooklyn. It has definite, quantifiable value.
IP on the other hand is completely dependant on what the user of said IP thinks its intrinsic value is. You may like Britney Spears and be willing to buy it, I do not. You will pay 17 bucks for one of her CD's. I will download it for free and then delete it when I come to my senses.
Up the quality of what you push and gain the public's trust and we wouldn't be sitting here having this argument because everyone, within reason, would be willing to pay for it..
...lines of copper restraint...
on
Saving the Net
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· Score: 1
..In my eyes, the biggest problem with the structure of the telecom industry and the ensuing problems that this creates for conent providers is the fact that it COSTS to upkeep the system. Millions of miles (I'm guessing here) of copper and fiber crisscross this planet and somebody has to go out there and maintain it. That costs incredible amounts of money, which in turn (partly) justifies the incredible expense for bandwidth and operations....If we had no 'lines' tying us down but rather high speed (100 Mbit+) wireless nodes for everything the cost of ownership would plummet (only having to invest in transmission towers and satillites, which I do understand is a pretty hefty pricetag, but you can't tell me its more expensive than paying for the upkeep of all the installed copper/fiber around this country..and the world for that matter).. I'm simplifying here because I really don't understand the intricacies of the telecom industry when it comes to upkeep, but this is what I'm logically, from my limited knowledge, concluding about the situation....One could say..that just as the recording industry's business model is becoming outdated because of the advent of new and cheap digital reproduction technologies, Telecom's structure with the use of 'lines' is outdated because those lines stifle the ability for the consumer to make choices as to what provider they want to use. I understand its not as simple as I'm posing here, but without dedicated 'lines' that have to be owned and upkept one would have to admit the ballgame would get a whole lot more interesting as far as how telco's and content providers would have to operate in order to win the customer's (I hate the word consumer, it really does sound like I'm being 'fed' something rather than entering into a negotiation to buy a product..)trust....Or something to that effect..
..They (the owner of the site) doesn't owe you anything, seeing as how I would assume sites are rarely given fair warning before acutally being/.ed in the first place...
..Only because I want them to change their advertising practices to get away from the egregious misleading practices that most of the vendors they push ads for concoct....I don't care if you want to pop an ad up about performance parts for my car if I happen to be on a tuner website looking at mods for my car. What I don't agree with is all those 'your connection is not optimized' crapola that they flash at me when I'm say, reading tomshardware. That stuff IS blatantly misleading and would be equivalent in the real world to setting up a billboard on the side of the BQE and stating something to the effect of 'If you're driving a chevy, your brakes are wearing down at an alarming rate! Pull over and call Bob's car parts NOW, or you will DIE, mouthbreather!!'... That kind of advertising is a classic ploy praying on people who are ignorant of the real working of the technology being pushed and used.
Are your brakes less than optimal? Well sure, if you've taken the car out of the driveway in the last six months, hell even if its been driven off the truck that brought them to the dealership.. That does NOT mean that my brakes are going to fail that very moment and that by not following the ad to the product I'm in some sort of imminent doom....I hope they smack those bastards, I really really do..
Lawbooks are the new Market Cornering Tool. We can't find new business models to innovate with, so we'd rather sit around the country and sue each other into oblivion..
This country is in for some major comeuppance in the next couple decades.. Its gonna get NASTY.. Just you watch..
Slashdot Mirror
..I'm all for improving highway safety, but in a grand cosmic sorta way, we're kinda fvcking with the order of nature here. Certain numbers of people HAVE to die and the couple hundred thousand taken out by cars and trucks every year is an effective way to curtail the population, especially the idiots prone to substance abuse (I'm one of them, but my numbers haven't come up yet...I'm excited for tomorrow though..)
And plus, if we put RFID tags in cars, Ashcroft has won. And thats no good.
..In a non-offensive way, and this is the way you do it. It's either this or try to find a way to whore out the browser for profit.
The community should be supportive of this, because someone has to pay for it. Someone always pays..
..And thats fitty to the WHEELS, not the crank dude!...(give em the rick flair)..Woooooo!...
...I've been in IT for about 7 years now, I make a comfortable salary, but honestly...as time goes on I find it less and less spiritually fulfilling (not to mention I don't see 'much' chance to make a great deal more money, but thats secondary to the fulfillment aspect of it all).. Many mornings I've woken up and wondered what it would be like to work with my hands building things in contracting..remodeling homes and renovating properties. Every day it seems more and more appealing as opposed to my monkey-in-a-box existence I have now.
I understand, from reading the article that this guy's gripe is due in great part to the fact that he can't get funding for what he wants to research (The UK's higher education system is fucked in alot of ways), but many of the people that I know working in offices and staring at that same ceiling as me in the morning wondering 'what if', have that same syndrome I see so many college grads and beyond. That nagging feeling that sitting still for 4 years (and beyond) in school didn't seem like that much of a good use of their time.. That no matter how many letters they put on their resume, they're still pretty much fucked because they couldn't quite get to that inner circle of good old boys (and girls). And on the other side is that fear of not having that safe office job. "Yeah I could be a plumber..and you know what? I'd probably enjoy the shit out of it but how would I survive until I had a good group of clients to throw me work?".. They've been so programmed that you must go to school, intern, write all the right letters and do all the right things and only THEN will you be respected... Anything less than that is beneath you because we were all supposed to be rockstars (rolling eyes).. Meanwhile, that kid you made fun of as 'prolitariate' because he decided to become an electrician, and now is one in the shop, just built a 100K extension onto his house at half normal cost because he knew how to do so much of it himself..
Not all of us were meant to work in an office and do pencil pushing work. Many of those people who weren't meant to went to college anyways and sure enough now they're wondering what the fuck the point of waking up tomorrow is... I know that point doesn't directly relate to the article, but it seems to me that THAT is why so many of us are discontent (aside from the idiocy that is management nowadays)..
Greatness is slowly dying at the hands of the takers, don't become one of them..
..."As I've said elsewhere, your tinfoil hat won't do a damn thing to block a magnetic field, grounded or not. Come on, you can surely find a magnet and piece of foil somewhere in your house and perform the extremely simple and obvious experiment that proves this..."
...Ha ha ha!! Geek test!!..
I would figure that it has something to do with piracy. Big companies and media outlets have alot of money invested in 'pushing' you info on crap you are targeted to buy. So they figure that you should be able to download this content at a fairly high speed, especially since its usually going to be choc full of fancy smanchy shit like flash animations and other web bloat (useful bloat, but bloat nonetheless).
Uploading on a large scale by the user OTOH usually signifies the transfer of large files such as MP3's. Now, some people would have valid reason for having a large upload pipe (experimental research with a huge amount of data being exchanged for example..crap like that..) but those people would be few and far between..and most of the time they'd also have someone else (an organization such as a school or business) floating the bill. I would also speculate that if that was indeed the case, the business or institution in question would purchase a special package from the provider.
It really depends on the locale. If you're talking about a suburban nightmare locale like say... Central Florida, then no they have no concept of backing into a spot (I lived there for 9 years, I know these things..they cannot grasp paralleling either..). On the flipside, if you go to a place like the NYC metro area, you pretty much learn to fit that car into a space the size of a shoebox at ANY angle possible.
Also, the type of climate of the drivers locale is a big factor as well. People who drive in places where it snows learn quickly to gauge the incline of the spot and then back in if its a decline to the front of the parking spot (slopes downwards from back to front). The reasoning being that if its snowing and you HAVE to drive you want gravity to 'pull' the car forward, which will lessen the struggle to get out of a snowed over or icy spot. This works for inclined spots too (rises from back to front) because most daily driving cars are FWD.
Yeah, so tell me something I don't already know..
..Now why would I have a problem spending Microsoft's money, "its the principle of it" feelings aside..
...You have a point, but in this case, I find its better to have too much than too little (even a big dick holder can have 'too little' when it comes to certain chicks). And plus, my dick isn't emitting any harmful gasses that could potentially fuck up the environment, nor does it cause harm...err..well you get the point..
Wrong. Its a combination of the slowpokes not staying in the proper lane (read: right lane) and the inability for a great many aggressive drivers to say 'yano I'm just riding in the left, no weave until volume gets lighter', that slows everyone down. Both sides are to blame.
This is not a political issue about 'freedom' and 'choice', its about making the circulatory system of our cities..and country really..work to maximum efficiency. There are two basic forces working towards and against this efficiency: Road design and the human element (read: your average mouthbreathing driver..the same one, mind you, that you'd give control of traffic lights too.. I'm a driving fanatic and I don't even agree with that..)..
..Use your head..
Poor roads are a tragedy due to the immense cost it takes to build transportation infrastructure. Poor roads aren't 90 percent of the problem though, the human element is. PEOPLE can't use the roads that the engineers have set out for us. Whether it be a stubborn resistance to letting people in to merge so traffic flow is maintained, or the idiot who would rather try to make that sneaky right on red at the last moment rather than waiting 5 seconds more, PEOPLE screw the whole equation up. Traffic lights don't just go red and green as they please, there's a complex series of timings going on that keep the whole circulatory system moving at an acceptable level. Manhattan is a perfect example..
In the 'grid' in manhattan, you'll notice that at times you'll 'catch the wave' of green lights heading either up or down the avenues. This isn't a coincidence. The whole system moves at a lock step rythim, compensating inside certain parameters to allow for greater concentrated flow in specific areas.. The stop light that you're sitting at isn't just concerned with that specific intersection, its concerned with the lights 4 blocks up, near the entrance to the highway, which has been shown through historical data to be your most probable destination.. The whole system ties in together to keep the blood cells (cars, trucks etc..) moving in an orderly fasion so it doesn't 'lock' and then promptly choke on its own exhaust.
Emergency vehicles moving through traffic are a rare event, not the norm.. Many systems, I would speculate with great confidence, will allow for the vehicle to move against the 'flow' and then snap back into rythim with the rest of the traffic system as a whole. Average joe drivers aren't a 'rare event' they are the norm and therefore should fall into the normal rythmic pattern that the system provides.
But lets say for a minute that we 'democratize' the traffic control system and give everyone a directional clicker to change lights. Now lets say, for instance, we have a big event at Madison Square Garden in the mid afternoon on a Friday (not gonna happen, but lets just say the gods are crazy for a moment). The entrance/exit to the Licoln tunnel stretches from 30th to up in the low 50's. MSG is located on 8th (a major feeder road for the tunnel) and 31st. Now, if everyone could 'fight' (and it WOULD be a fight) for traffic control, what in the hell do you think would happen when the crowds coming in for the game COLLIDED with the outbound rush hour traffic. Who gets to make the choice? Who goes first? Everything within a 10 block radius of the upper and lower bounds of the tunnel would LOCK like nothing seen before.. Even with events happening at night traffic still becomes a zoo through that section...I couldn't even imagine it if some idiot from Jersey was pressing a button and calling the shots...
The millitary is not the end all be all solve for this problem. If your idea came with Universal Serivce requirements, then I'd be willing to play ball, but if its seen as an 'escape' route for the underpriveleged, there's always going to be a stigma attached to being in the Armed Services (as there is, to some extent, now). Not all grunts go to officer's school, and the ones that don't seem not to get the same kind of recognition when they come back to the private sector.
<BR>
As was stated above by the AC, the working class, poor and working poor would pretty much only have the option of being 'cannon fodder' as their way to have a chance in our society.. No one should have to bargain with their lives just to be able to live a decent existence. The right answer is to find what ails primary and secondary education, and then fix it..
<BR>
Also, and this is going out on a limb, but why not.. All societies go through revolutions as they mature. The way things are shaping up, it looks like the US could possibly be in that situation say 20 to 40 years from now as consolidation of wealth continues, as a natural function of capitalism, into the hands of the very few.. What happens when all this 'cannon fodder' from the lower classes wakes up and decides to take what they want without asking, by force? Now you've got a huge population of people trained 50 ways from Tuesday on how to kill a human being running amok across your gated community front lawn..
<BR>
Who ya gonna call then?
..Well, then tell me something: What structure do you suppose would work to get these bottom rung 'burger flippers' access to better education? How do you propose we pay for that education and re-training?..More education = better job, no?.. You say they should go out and get better jobs, but how do you suppose these 'people of stupidity' could possibly hack it in a typical corporate environment, where book smarts, quick thinking and the ability to dynamically change is paramount to success(not to mention being able to fit into an 'image' because style, more often than not, takes presidence over substance)?.. Who's going to teach them how to write a cover letter and go through all the dog and pony show idiocy that is dealing with the typical HR department nowadays?..
They could work for the state, but honestly..the state is so inefficient that I'd rather have them spending money on Rims, exhaust systems and stereos... That several thousand dollars is better spent put back into commerce then eaten up by layers of beaurocracy and months of waiting over P.O.s and requisitions just to buy a box of pens...
So up-noser, what do you suppose are the answers to my questions above?..
Being a visual-spatial person I'd have to say this is a pretty good idea. As far as we've come we pretty much still like to look at the 'pretty lights', yano? Some kind of indicator that what we've built is actually doing something. Helps to bridge the gap between our fascination with machinery and the circutry that we build, which inherantly doesn't inspire the awe of say..an industrial sized crane, because of its lack of moving parts.
..I think an interesting application of this would be to attach a bank of lights that could vary in intensity depending on power usage to the banks. One could test various in-case heat levels and actually observe the usage levels of electricity inside different parts of the ram as temperature rose. I dunno, I'm grasping here.. ...Pretty lights!!..
People like to 'see' an indicator that what they've built is actually working..Its comforting in a Man-machine sort of way. You could easily see if a bank was out (as someone mentioned before), but then again you'd know that when you tried to boot the machine.
..I was wondering if this could be applied to a bong, thank you for verifying..
..Except he's willing to say it under his real name.. Who's the introverted arrogant ass now pal? ;)
...The site is neato, but one thing..This guy must not have spooled alot of line in his lifetime...I used to fish a whole lot and changing line can be about as annoying as getting a rootcanal in the back of a pickup truck (Another thing I've gone through, but its too difficult to talk about right now..someone pass the scotch..)..
You're trying to turn this into a conservative vs. liberal banter fest. What this issue comes down to, at the heart of all this IP bullshit, is the fact that the CONSUMER has no RESPECT for the product that is being SHOVED down their THROATS. I will pay for a good product. Smack my hand when I want to get a taste for free to start, then follow it up with piss poor content that I HAVE to buy because I have no choices then I'm gonna find any way I possibly can to fuck you in the ass.
Sorry to be so crude about it, but I'm sick and tired of conservatives using this bullshit doctrine to justify all piracy as an act of counter-capitalism 'LETS REDISTRIBUTE ALL WEALTH' agenda because its not. Taking land away from me just because I achieved enough to own it would be a proper application of that argument. Different parcels of land are better suited to different tasks. I wouldn't build a marina in the middle of the catskills just like I wouldn't build a ski lift in brooklyn. It has definite, quantifiable value.
IP on the other hand is completely dependant on what the user of said IP thinks its intrinsic value is. You may like Britney Spears and be willing to buy it, I do not. You will pay 17 bucks for one of her CD's. I will download it for free and then delete it when I come to my senses.
Up the quality of what you push and gain the public's trust and we wouldn't be sitting here having this argument because everyone, within reason, would be willing to pay for it..
..In my eyes, the biggest problem with the structure of the telecom industry and the ensuing problems that this creates for conent providers is the fact that it COSTS to upkeep the system. Millions of miles (I'm guessing here) of copper and fiber crisscross this planet and somebody has to go out there and maintain it. That costs incredible amounts of money, which in turn (partly) justifies the incredible expense for bandwidth and operations.. ..If we had no 'lines' tying us down but rather high speed (100 Mbit+) wireless nodes for everything the cost of ownership would plummet (only having to invest in transmission towers and satillites, which I do understand is a pretty hefty pricetag, but you can't tell me its more expensive than paying for the upkeep of all the installed copper/fiber around this country..and the world for that matter).. I'm simplifying here because I really don't understand the intricacies of the telecom industry when it comes to upkeep, but this is what I'm logically, from my limited knowledge, concluding about the situation.. ..One could say..that just as the recording industry's business model is becoming outdated because of the advent of new and cheap digital reproduction technologies, Telecom's structure with the use of 'lines' is outdated because those lines stifle the ability for the consumer to make choices as to what provider they want to use. I understand its not as simple as I'm posing here, but without dedicated 'lines' that have to be owned and upkept one would have to admit the ballgame would get a whole lot more interesting as far as how telco's and content providers would have to operate in order to win the customer's (I hate the word consumer, it really does sound like I'm being 'fed' something rather than entering into a negotiation to buy a product..)trust.. ..Or something to that effect..
..They (the owner of the site) doesn't owe you anything, seeing as how I would assume sites are rarely given fair warning before acutally being /.ed in the first place...
..Why does 'he' have to be a 'fatass' I've seen some pretty svelt people start some shit on flights before.. Just keep that in mind..
..Only because I want them to change their advertising practices to get away from the egregious misleading practices that most of the vendors they push ads for concoct.. ..I don't care if you want to pop an ad up about performance parts for my car if I happen to be on a tuner website looking at mods for my car. What I don't agree with is all those 'your connection is not optimized' crapola that they flash at me when I'm say, reading tomshardware. That stuff IS blatantly misleading and would be equivalent in the real world to setting up a billboard on the side of the BQE and stating something to the effect of 'If you're driving a chevy, your brakes are wearing down at an alarming rate! Pull over and call Bob's car parts NOW, or you will DIE, mouthbreather!!'...
..I hope they smack those bastards, I really really do..
That kind of advertising is a classic ploy praying on people who are ignorant of the real working of the technology being pushed and used.
Are your brakes less than optimal? Well sure, if you've taken the car out of the driveway in the last six months, hell even if its been driven off the truck that brought them to the dealership.. That does NOT mean that my brakes are going to fail that very moment and that by not following the ad to the product I'm in some sort of imminent doom..
Lawbooks are the new Market Cornering Tool. We can't find new business models to innovate with, so we'd rather sit around the country and sue each other into oblivion..
This country is in for some major comeuppance in the next couple decades.. Its gonna get NASTY.. Just you watch..
..Sterling Comebacks..