I'll take you through it step by step, ok? And since this really IS informative and should be modded +5, I fully expect to be evicerated into trolldom by the idiots that modded you up.
Section 1 states: Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.
Apple never claimed to support WMA and does NOT have a monopoly on music sales or formats. Microsoft DID claim to support other vendor's software, and in fact did support Netscape until they decided to push Internet Explorer, at which time they disabled Netscape from functioning to restrain it from competing in the same space. This is where the Standard Oil comparison comes in, but with Microsoft playing that role - they own both the OS and a browser, and strongarmed a competing browser from running on the OS. Apple does not own the major format (mp3) or the only way of getting music onto an iPod (I can think of three different ways to get this done without iTunes - see links at bottom).
Section 2 states: Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $10,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $350,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding three years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
Again, same thing as my paragraph below section 1. Microsoft attempted to monopolize through their control of the OS. Apple can't monopolize something they don't have a monopoly on. These are two wholly different situations.
Section 3 states: Every contract, combination in form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce in any Territory of the United States or of the District of Columbia, or in restraint of trade or commerce between any such Territory and another, or between any such Territory or Territories and any State or States or the District of Columbia, or with foreign nations, or between the District of Columbia and any State or States or foreign nations, is declared illegal.
Oops, there it is again! Microsoft- restraint of trade: competitors actively stopped from competing. Apple, unable to restrain trade because it can't restrain something it doesn't have complete control of: there are at least six different alternatives to iTunes that I know of, three of which I've often seen installed out of the box on Windows PC's. I can't count the number of alternative music players that are as easily available and in most cases far more affordable than an iPod.
The rest of the sections define the rules for proceedings and limitations on this law.
When it comes to dominant userland OS's, Microsoft not only has the most distributed OS on the planet, but has actively stopped (to a large extent) competing OS's from even being a choice when you order a pre-built PC (another monopoly that they've gotten away with, at least in the US). Apple has the most distributed music player on the planet, but not because they forcibly removed others from being choices, rather they made a decent product and successfully marketed it. Nobody is forcing you to use iTunes to buy music online. You could just as well purchase it through, say, Windows Media Player. If you saved it as mp3 (hey, don't want to get all monopolistic now!) you can move these songs into iTunes and put it on your iPod. Try getting an iTunes Store or WMA file moved onto your generic mp3 player. Won't happen without some third party apps, and then I only know how to make it happen with the iTunes files (because I haven't tried with WMA).
Oh, and last but not least: the plaintiff's aren't asking for Apple to pony up licensing fees. That's the beauty of the scam: if Apple does it, Microsoft gets their money and these
A national ID card would offer so many benefits in the long run.
So would a colostomy bag.
The problem with the system is not cost of implementing it. It's ease of breaking it, or into it. Do you really want all your personal info in a single government database? Hell, they can't even keep veteran's info private. (I was one of those whose ID had been compromised last year.)
Above and beyond the gov's inability when it comes to information security, I'm really uncomfortable being on any kind of government list, especially one that could possibly(probably) store excessive amounts of personal info. The worst part is the ability to track these things wherever they may be, or at the least know when I've passed certain checkpoints.
Ok, I know I sound like a paranoid wacko. But you might try reading some history. Or at least '1984'.
I think that's a bullshit argument, and here's why:
The person with spyware on their computer has the ability to stop that kind of crime from happening. That's the definition of negligence - "the failure to exercise that degree of care that, in the circumstances, the law requires for the protection of other persons or those interests of other persons that may be injuriously affected by the want of such care." (from dictionary.com) Granted, no such law actually exists (yet) - but it should.
If you think a PC is unsecurable, then I must be an extremely fortunate person- no viruses or spyware on this box for 5 years running. Top that off with I spend less money on securing this system than most people who get infected do. Oh, yeah, I'm running Windows.
Ok, I'll agree that prison is too harsh a crime for letting your PC become infected with malware. But how about a fine for letting it continue? Some states have a system in place to fine people for vehicles that pollute the air, why can't we fine people for letting their PC's pollute the internet?
This, like a parking ticket, isn't a felony crime that might stop you from getting a job.
What it could do is make people think about getting some education about their PCs, or at least get someone who can maintain them properly like a decent mechanic would their car.
A major portion of the spam problem is people who allow this kind of thing to happen. You're right in the sense that we shouldn't be going after the small, petty guys alone. I still think the spammers themselves are a bigger target. But if we can take away a major source of their information, we can make their spamming job a lot harder.
As a side benefit, people would be exposed to all sorts of things, like Firefox, Linux, and other alternatives to a system that is inherently insecure.
"MacroShaft - Where do you want to get screwed today?"
I couldn't agree more. We need to seperate the bad from the good, permanently.
That's why I am all for the death penalty. Kill the fuckers, then see how much of a nuisance they are.
I think we already spend to much time & money thinking about crime. People who take advantage of our society as a whole should be removed from society, in the most permanent fashion possible. Yes, I am aware of the consequences of this kind of thinking. At the same time, I can see daily the consequences of the opposite viewpoint - millions blown on overcrowded prisons, which achieve nothing but making better criminals, who are shortly released and commit an even more offensive crime. Or worse, 'white-collar' prisoners serving a slap-on-the-wrist style sentence that for all intents and purposes has no overall effect on their lives besides being indisposed for a few months. As soon as they're out, they go right back to the mansion & money that their crime probably paid for.
As for your idea of 'public humiliation' - I think if they were afraid of this, they would not have started spamming.
Until we have a foolproof way of brainwashing the sociopathic bastards into some semblance of common decency, we will be unable to stop their behavior.
So, kill 'em. Or I just thought of a possible alternative - castrate them so they can't breed.
Having heard of this 'vi vs. emacs' fanboy war, I have yet to really see it. All I know is, I use vi, and some blowhards seem to think I am 'teh 5ux0r' - whatever the hell that is. Seriously, is that what happens if you use emacs? All your words become garbled nonsense? No wonder there are so many bugs in software.
when we open the box (for a functionality check) don't have install media. They either have a restore partition, or bug you on first startup to make DVDs. I've always thought that when I'm testing it out (I can't do the media burn unless the customer pays for that), and I click "not right now", it would ask again
It doesn't ask again. The user has to go into the utility and start it. Usually located in Start menu under Programs->CD Burner/*BrandName* Utilities->Create Restore Disks. They provided this instead of media because of problems with people losing the media. This way they have a handy copy anytime they want (unfortunately, when they need it the system is usually too hosed to make them).
The Geek Squad doesn't charge "more" (per SOP and where I work) if you don't have install discs, we just insist that you have legal install media - we don't care where/how you get them. Our fee to install an OS is the same in any situation.
This is just plain dumb. The media is secondary (even in cases where other software exists on the media). What is primary is a legit license key. Use most any freakin media you want to, MS won't care as long as your key is unique, valid and pasted on the outside of the tower. Drivers can be downloaded from the manu's website or third-party websites with little trouble when you use a generic OS install CD. Granted some of the extra software that came bundled might be left behind, but this generally can be replaced with free downloads. Even anti-virus software can be replaced if they have their registration info, not to mention the free options like AVG. Replace the essentials, most EU's wont notice all the extra bulky crap that got left out, and will sing your praises when the system runs faster than it did out of the box.
What we CAN NOT do is pull a CD from the back, slap in your install code and go to town, Activation, and probably legal issues make this a non-starter.
Seems someone in your management doesn't realize how the Windows activation works. As long as your key is unique and fits the system id tags, you are golden using whatever media you want. Hell, you can even make drastic changes to the hardware and still install legally (expect a manual call to MS to activate, a matter of about 5 minutes). Provided you have a valid license label, most shops will even make you a copy of the software so you can reinstall it.
As for the GeekSquad fees, you guys are extortionists. The last repair shop I worked in would throw a hard drive in your tower for the cost of the drive. The fees for GeekSquad are typically two to three times as high as anywhere else, and I wouldn't trust your work anyway.
If I can proffer some advice, get the hell out of the DeathSquad and get a job at a real shop. You might actually learn something.
Having recently gone through this situation, I'll tell you: 1) Pull the registry key for the software (try UltimateBootCD if your OS is hosed but the PC is still bootable) - a search for the brand of software will usually turn it up. 2) Reinstall software from anywhere you can get it (who cares if you download it?) 3) Don't worry about being labeled a pirate because you already have a valid key, and that's what you paid for, not the media it came on.
Granted sometimes downloads can be hard to find or take a long time to get, but when I was working in a repair shop we had PC's that ran 24/7 not really doing anything- these were easily enough working on a download while I could work on something else.
This is the single dumbest thing I've seen on Slashdot recently. As someone has already posted, why carry the internet as hard copy when wifi is becoming ubiquitous? In any case, is it just my tin-foil-hat nature that sees this as a great way of hiding/censoring parts of the internet? I mean, if this were to actually take off we'd be trusting a single source of info, with little or no culpability to the public. Granted if this became popular we'd see other sources come in, but....oh to hell with it.
I'm not going to waste any more time on this. It's just an exercise in paranoia. Nothing to see here, move along.
It's not a question of perfect, unexploitable code, it's a question of timeliness to patch the exploit. AFAIK, Firefox, Opera, etc. tend to have turn around times far quicker than MS does for IE. This particular exploit has been out since what, December? And they apparently plan to patch it in April? That's an awfully large gaping window for the script-kiddies to go to town. Also, whenever MS does release a patch, there's a fair chance the patch itself is exploitable or opens another exploit. Besides, why use a browser you KNOW will be compromised one way or the other when there are functional, similar-to-use browsers available for FREE? Top that off with the optionals being somewhat more secure by default, more compliant with web standards, and user-configurable (let's hear it for Firefox Extensions).
Why 'get used to it'? That's just about the exact defeatist attitude I'd expect a promo company to want me to have. It is really simple: game makers go overboard on in-game ads which causes me not to pay for their game. This in turn means less revenue for the game maker (and your promo company). So instead of 'get used to it' how about gazing down and seeing if you have the balls to stand up and say 'lets make sure it works without becoming the hated quagmire of advertising hell that is TV'?
Not against ads per se, just tired of flipping on the tube to watch 10 minutes of commercials followed by an 'in-show' commercial for the next 10 minutes. The thought of that happening to the games I play kinda makes me ill. I already despise companies that won't let me skip the intro logos.
Note I did not say support them. You forget that both Stalin and Hitler were the people's choices to place into power, not just themselves. And as for the South Africans fight, THEY WERE FIGHTING. Thus, my whole friggin point. Hello.
As for being born into freedom, yeah, you are right it is easy for me to say. But myself and my brothers have fought to keep those freedoms. So no, I may not have had to take it, but we have had to keep it, and that helps me understand the value of it.
for a baseline, you are right. 99 cents is highway robbery. While I can't agree with you on the DRM thing (I'll not even start) I can say that I am willing to pay for music; just not the stuff that comes from/through the RIAA. Russian website or not, some of that revenue is getting back to them and continuing to feed the dinosaur. Since they refuse to come up with a system that is mutually beneficial and fair, and I have plenty of other avenues for procuring music (legally, I might add), they will not be receiving any money from me. Help let the dinosaur die!!
Couldn't we get more data by drilling cores like we do at the poles and other places around the world? Seems to me that all we would really succeed in doing is throwing the evidence in a million different directions. And have we built a rover that is capable of not getting stuck in a crater?
Let me ask a question in response to your question. Do you really think the RIAA doesn't want to charge you MORE than $.99 for a song, especially if it's currently popular? Have you read NOTHING they've done recently???
How do you see what the GP said as willingness to support fascism? What he said was let it rot from the inside, a far cry from support. And as an American who does care about freedom of all humans, I feel that those humans should be willing to fight for their freedom. If you can't get off your ass to rid yourself of oppression, why should I help you? You see, I include the freedom to CHOOSE YOUR OWN FORM OF GOVERNMENT as an essential freedom!
Myself, I don't give a crap if you are sitting on oil fields or peat bog. It's the rest of my country that (in accordance with their Fundie beliefs) seems to think it's their responsibility to 'bring the light' to those less fortunate. I think that is an even more dangerous form of fascism.
It's like giving away gold. If you didn't have to work, suffer, and EARN it, would you hold it in as high regard? If you could get it just be looking sorrowful and crying 'poor me', would you be as careful with it? And if the most used tender was cow biscuits, wouldn't the gold be useless?
One last time, just to be clear: stop enforcing your ideals on others and say you are helping them to be 'free'. You are simply applying your own fascism on them.
And yet somehow the choice of colors still made me want to rip my now-pulsating eyes out of my skull with a ragged spoon. Why, oh why would you want psychedelic swirl for your font color?
There have been several times where I WISH I could just unilaterally wipe a customer's drive. I once had a client with (and I'm not kidding) 65,000 instances of the LoveLetter virus. That's every other file on her system. She had had the virus for 6 months, and just thought her computer was 'wearing out'. Of course, I could not wipe her drive because she needed her pictures off it first. Had fun explaining that one to her.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll take you through it step by step, ok? And since this really IS informative and should be modded +5, I fully expect to be evicerated into trolldom by the idiots that modded you up.
Section 1 states: Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.
Apple never claimed to support WMA and does NOT have a monopoly on music sales or formats. Microsoft DID claim to support other vendor's software, and in fact did support Netscape until they decided to push Internet Explorer, at which time they disabled Netscape from functioning to restrain it from competing in the same space. This is where the Standard Oil comparison comes in, but with Microsoft playing that role - they own both the OS and a browser, and strongarmed a competing browser from running on the OS. Apple does not own the major format (mp3) or the only way of getting music onto an iPod (I can think of three different ways to get this done without iTunes - see links at bottom).
Section 2 states: Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $10,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $350,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding three years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
Again, same thing as my paragraph below section 1. Microsoft attempted to monopolize through their control of the OS. Apple can't monopolize something they don't have a monopoly on. These are two wholly different situations.
Section 3 states: Every contract, combination in form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce in any Territory of the United States or of the District of Columbia, or in restraint of trade or commerce between any such Territory and another, or between any such Territory or Territories and any State or States or the District of Columbia, or with foreign nations, or between the District of Columbia and any State or States or foreign nations, is declared illegal.
Oops, there it is again! Microsoft- restraint of trade: competitors actively stopped from competing. Apple, unable to restrain trade because it can't restrain something it doesn't have complete control of: there are at least six different alternatives to iTunes that I know of, three of which I've often seen installed out of the box on Windows PC's. I can't count the number of alternative music players that are as easily available and in most cases far more affordable than an iPod.
The rest of the sections define the rules for proceedings and limitations on this law.
When it comes to dominant userland OS's, Microsoft not only has the most distributed OS on the planet, but has actively stopped (to a large extent) competing OS's from even being a choice when you order a pre-built PC (another monopoly that they've gotten away with, at least in the US). Apple has the most distributed music player on the planet, but not because they forcibly removed others from being choices, rather they made a decent product and successfully marketed it. Nobody is forcing you to use iTunes to buy music online. You could just as well purchase it through, say, Windows Media Player. If you saved it as mp3 (hey, don't want to get all monopolistic now!) you can move these songs into iTunes and put it on your iPod. Try getting an iTunes Store or WMA file moved onto your generic mp3 player. Won't happen without some third party apps, and then I only know how to make it happen with the iTunes files (because I haven't tried with WMA).
Oh, and last but not least: the plaintiff's aren't asking for Apple to pony up licensing fees. That's the beauty of the scam: if Apple does it, Microsoft gets their money and these
Easy way to find out - restrict support to email. If they can't figure that out, they'll probably blame you for it anyway.
A national ID card would offer so many benefits in the long run.
So would a colostomy bag.
The problem with the system is not cost of implementing it. It's ease of breaking it, or into it. Do you really want all your personal info in a single government database? Hell, they can't even keep veteran's info private. (I was one of those whose ID had been compromised last year.)
Above and beyond the gov's inability when it comes to information security, I'm really uncomfortable being on any kind of government list, especially one that could possibly(probably) store excessive amounts of personal info. The worst part is the ability to track these things wherever they may be, or at the least know when I've passed certain checkpoints.
Ok, I know I sound like a paranoid wacko. But you might try reading some history. Or at least '1984'.
When you live with apes it's hard to be clean...
Which was exactly my original point...
I think that's a bullshit argument, and here's why:
The person with spyware on their computer has the ability to stop that kind of crime from happening. That's the definition of negligence - "the failure to exercise that degree of care that, in the circumstances, the law requires for the protection of other persons or those interests of other persons that may be injuriously affected by the want of such care." (from dictionary.com) Granted, no such law actually exists (yet) - but it should.
If you think a PC is unsecurable, then I must be an extremely fortunate person- no viruses or spyware on this box for 5 years running. Top that off with I spend less money on securing this system than most people who get infected do. Oh, yeah, I'm running Windows.
Ok, I'll agree that prison is too harsh a crime for letting your PC become infected with malware. But how about a fine for letting it continue? Some states have a system in place to fine people for vehicles that pollute the air, why can't we fine people for letting their PC's pollute the internet?
This, like a parking ticket, isn't a felony crime that might stop you from getting a job.
What it could do is make people think about getting some education about their PCs, or at least get someone who can maintain them properly like a decent mechanic would their car.
A major portion of the spam problem is people who allow this kind of thing to happen. You're right in the sense that we shouldn't be going after the small, petty guys alone. I still think the spammers themselves are a bigger target. But if we can take away a major source of their information, we can make their spamming job a lot harder.
As a side benefit, people would be exposed to all sorts of things, like Firefox, Linux, and other alternatives to a system that is inherently insecure.
"MacroShaft - Where do you want to get screwed today?"
I couldn't agree more. We need to seperate the bad from the good, permanently.
That's why I am all for the death penalty. Kill the fuckers, then see how much of a nuisance they are.
I think we already spend to much time & money thinking about crime. People who take advantage of our society as a whole should be removed from society, in the most permanent fashion possible. Yes, I am aware of the consequences of this kind of thinking. At the same time, I can see daily the consequences of the opposite viewpoint - millions blown on overcrowded prisons, which achieve nothing but making better criminals, who are shortly released and commit an even more offensive crime. Or worse, 'white-collar' prisoners serving a slap-on-the-wrist style sentence that for all intents and purposes has no overall effect on their lives besides being indisposed for a few months. As soon as they're out, they go right back to the mansion & money that their crime probably paid for.
As for your idea of 'public humiliation' - I think if they were afraid of this, they would not have started spamming.
Until we have a foolproof way of brainwashing the sociopathic bastards into some semblance of common decency, we will be unable to stop their behavior.
So, kill 'em. Or I just thought of a possible alternative - castrate them so they can't breed.
Bye-bye, karma!
Having heard of this 'vi vs. emacs' fanboy war, I have yet to really see it. All I know is, I use vi, and some blowhards seem to think I am 'teh 5ux0r' - whatever the hell that is. Seriously, is that what happens if you use emacs? All your words become garbled nonsense? No wonder there are so many bugs in software.
better yet, the new game system would be called the "Nipple Wii" ew...
OK, I'm going to try and help you out:
when we open the box (for a functionality check) don't have install media. They either have a restore partition, or bug you on first startup to make DVDs. I've always thought that when I'm testing it out (I can't do the media burn unless the customer pays for that), and I click "not right now", it would ask again
It doesn't ask again. The user has to go into the utility and start it. Usually located in Start menu under Programs->CD Burner/*BrandName* Utilities->Create Restore Disks. They provided this instead of media because of problems with people losing the media. This way they have a handy copy anytime they want (unfortunately, when they need it the system is usually too hosed to make them).
The Geek Squad doesn't charge "more" (per SOP and where I work) if you don't have install discs, we just insist that you have legal install media - we don't care where/how you get them. Our fee to install an OS is the same in any situation.
This is just plain dumb. The media is secondary (even in cases where other software exists on the media). What is primary is a legit license key. Use most any freakin media you want to, MS won't care as long as your key is unique, valid and pasted on the outside of the tower. Drivers can be downloaded from the manu's website or third-party websites with little trouble when you use a generic OS install CD. Granted some of the extra software that came bundled might be left behind, but this generally can be replaced with free downloads. Even anti-virus software can be replaced if they have their registration info, not to mention the free options like AVG. Replace the essentials, most EU's wont notice all the extra bulky crap that got left out, and will sing your praises when the system runs faster than it did out of the box.
What we CAN NOT do is pull a CD from the back, slap in your install code and go to town, Activation, and probably legal issues make this a non-starter. Seems someone in your management doesn't realize how the Windows activation works. As long as your key is unique and fits the system id tags, you are golden using whatever media you want. Hell, you can even make drastic changes to the hardware and still install legally (expect a manual call to MS to activate, a matter of about 5 minutes). Provided you have a valid license label, most shops will even make you a copy of the software so you can reinstall it.
As for the GeekSquad fees, you guys are extortionists. The last repair shop I worked in would throw a hard drive in your tower for the cost of the drive. The fees for GeekSquad are typically two to three times as high as anywhere else, and I wouldn't trust your work anyway.
If I can proffer some advice, get the hell out of the DeathSquad and get a job at a real shop. You might actually learn something.
forgive != forget
Having recently gone through this situation, I'll tell you:
1) Pull the registry key for the software (try UltimateBootCD if your OS is hosed but the PC is still bootable) - a search for the brand of software will usually turn it up.
2) Reinstall software from anywhere you can get it (who cares if you download it?)
3) Don't worry about being labeled a pirate because you already have a valid key, and that's what you paid for, not the media it came on.
Granted sometimes downloads can be hard to find or take a long time to get, but when I was working in a repair shop we had PC's that ran 24/7 not really doing anything- these were easily enough working on a download while I could work on something else.
This is the single dumbest thing I've seen on Slashdot recently. As someone has already posted, why carry the internet as hard copy when wifi is becoming ubiquitous? In any case, is it just my tin-foil-hat nature that sees this as a great way of hiding/censoring parts of the internet? I mean, if this were to actually take off we'd be trusting a single source of info, with little or no culpability to the public. Granted if this became popular we'd see other sources come in, but....oh to hell with it.
I'm not going to waste any more time on this. It's just an exercise in paranoia. Nothing to see here, move along.
I think you should learn to love your elf.
It's not a question of perfect, unexploitable code, it's a question of timeliness to patch the exploit. AFAIK, Firefox, Opera, etc. tend to have turn around times far quicker than MS does for IE. This particular exploit has been out since what, December? And they apparently plan to patch it in April? That's an awfully large gaping window for the script-kiddies to go to town. Also, whenever MS does release a patch, there's a fair chance the patch itself is exploitable or opens another exploit. Besides, why use a browser you KNOW will be compromised one way or the other when there are functional, similar-to-use browsers available for FREE? Top that off with the optionals being somewhat more secure by default, more compliant with web standards, and user-configurable (let's hear it for Firefox Extensions).
Seems like a no-brainer to me...
So should I be listening for Creeping Death or Blackened? Hmmm....
Why 'get used to it'? That's just about the exact defeatist attitude I'd expect a promo company to want me to have. It is really simple: game makers go overboard on in-game ads which causes me not to pay for their game. This in turn means less revenue for the game maker (and your promo company). So instead of 'get used to it' how about gazing down and seeing if you have the balls to stand up and say 'lets make sure it works without becoming the hated quagmire of advertising hell that is TV'?
Not against ads per se, just tired of flipping on the tube to watch 10 minutes of commercials followed by an 'in-show' commercial for the next 10 minutes. The thought of that happening to the games I play kinda makes me ill. I already despise companies that won't let me skip the intro logos.
Note I did not say support them. You forget that both Stalin and Hitler were the people's choices to place into power, not just themselves. And as for the South Africans fight, THEY WERE FIGHTING. Thus, my whole friggin point. Hello.
As for being born into freedom, yeah, you are right it is easy for me to say. But myself and my brothers have fought to keep those freedoms. So no, I may not have had to take it, but we have had to keep it, and that helps me understand the value of it.
Wow, thank you. That's the best reply I've ever recieved: concise, on topic, and both great points.
for a baseline, you are right. 99 cents is highway robbery. While I can't agree with you on the DRM thing (I'll not even start) I can say that I am willing to pay for music; just not the stuff that comes from/through the RIAA. Russian website or not, some of that revenue is getting back to them and continuing to feed the dinosaur. Since they refuse to come up with a system that is mutually beneficial and fair, and I have plenty of other avenues for procuring music (legally, I might add), they will not be receiving any money from me.
Help let the dinosaur die!!
Couldn't we get more data by drilling cores like we do at the poles and other places around the world? Seems to me that all we would really succeed in doing is throwing the evidence in a million different directions. And have we built a rover that is capable of not getting stuck in a crater?
Let me ask a question in response to your question. Do you really think the RIAA doesn't want to charge you MORE than $.99 for a song, especially if it's currently popular? Have you read NOTHING they've done recently???
How do you see what the GP said as willingness to support fascism? What he said was let it rot from the inside, a far cry from support. And as an American who does care about freedom of all humans, I feel that those humans should be willing to fight for their freedom. If you can't get off your ass to rid yourself of oppression, why should I help you? You see, I include the freedom to CHOOSE YOUR OWN FORM OF GOVERNMENT as an essential freedom!
Myself, I don't give a crap if you are sitting on oil fields or peat bog. It's the rest of my country that (in accordance with their Fundie beliefs) seems to think it's their responsibility to 'bring the light' to those less fortunate. I think that is an even more dangerous form of fascism.
It's like giving away gold. If you didn't have to work, suffer, and EARN it, would you hold it in as high regard? If you could get it just be looking sorrowful and crying 'poor me', would you be as careful with it? And if the most used tender was cow biscuits, wouldn't the gold be useless?
One last time, just to be clear: stop enforcing your ideals on others and say you are helping them to be 'free'. You are simply applying your own fascism on them.
And yet somehow the choice of colors still made me want to rip my now-pulsating eyes out of my skull with a ragged spoon. Why, oh why would you want psychedelic swirl for your font color?
...and thus my pain is shared...
There have been several times where I WISH I could just unilaterally wipe a customer's drive. I once had a client with (and I'm not kidding) 65,000 instances of the LoveLetter virus. That's every other file on her system. She had had the virus for 6 months, and just thought her computer was 'wearing out'. Of course, I could not wipe her drive because she needed her pictures off it first. Had fun explaining that one to her.