As a middle-aged white male, I sure am glad that I still have the right to 'be mediocre'.
Sheesh.
Talk about the arrogance, "Joe over there, is mediocre, and i want to be just like him!" Since when has the feeling that you can slack off, ever gotten anyone ahead in the world!?
We're all trying to do our jobs... despite the fact that it's often boring, soul-sucking, unfeeling, unrewarding drudgery.
--Ray
I think that's what made my experience so difficult. Because I had purchased the product at Best Buy. At one point, I had both Best buy management and HP on the line. In the end, HP ended up sending me another one, and I sent the defective one back to them... The fact that it took me about a month to resolve the issue was what I found unnacceptable.
--Ray
I got a laptop for my birthday from Best Buy. I got the extended service agreement, cuz well... it's a laptop... and what laptop lasts for five+ years--and like an idiot, I assumed I'd get service if I had a problem. I got it home, plugged it in and noticed pretty quickly that while it ran fine, the battery wasn't charging. Soon I had a low battery warning, and yet no workie... I did a little magic work and diagnosed the problem as a bad powercord and plug adapter (if the little LED that was not lit up was no clue, the multimeter helped).
The Best Buy "geek squad" people wanted me to send my whole laptop in for the cord, even after showing them that the problem was the cord--and they refused to give me an adapter from an actual model that I bought and they sold... To their credit one of their teenage employees tried to give me a smaller power adapter from a different model computer. I told him no thanks and got a phone number to call... figuring I could get the problem solved before the quality tech place had it shipped to whereever then shipped back to the store and then sat in their back room for a few weeks before they remembered to actually CALL me that the thing was back... (another experience...)
I tried calling in, and they told me I needed to take it in. I took it in they told me I needed to call the manufacturer, because it had failed prior to the manufacturer's warranty expiring and that their extended service agreement was for when that expired. I called HP, they said if I had the service agreement I needed to call Best Buy. This went on for a couple weeks. Then I had a day off from work (and it was my birthday to boot) and I decided I would get to the bottom of this... I called Best Buy and got passed from helpline to helpline to helpline.
The point was... I knew the exact part that needed fixing, and by gosh! I was getting my power cord adapter without paying for another one (I could've done that, of course...) I was told frequently that people try to get extra power cords all the time and that they have to be careful not to just give away expensive parts to people who can't prove their parts aren't broken. I told them I'd be willing to GIVE them my broken adapter if they gave me one that worked.
After spending an entire day on the phone it got to be hillarious. I absolutely refused to give up. It had become a game at this point. I went up the chain of command at both HP and Best Buy... To make a long story less long... I finally got to one helpful employee at HP. He was in Boise Idaho. He said he could get me the part. He said he'd send me a mailer in which I'd send the broken part too. Then when it came time to get my information, he said, "Oh. Crap. I guess I can't help you. Our computers are down."
I said something to the effect, "Wow. I've got a lot of confidence in this product I just bought."
The next day he sent me an adapter express mail...
I think the guy in Idaho was the only real human I talked with...
I'm surprised WA State pulled out... this is the same state that is trying to build a monorail, though it's been proven to solve absolutely no problems regarding congestion or that it will be used sufficiently to be justified. We here in Washington like to take your money and spend it on things that never materialize. . . we're kinda like wannabe Californians... but with more rain.
I'm not a MS hater, but honestly this sort of nonsense does absolutely nothing to engender Microsoft with any sort of virtues or positive press. I mean just when you thought it was safe to stop hating them, they pull this bull into the china shop.
No company has a fulltime legal department for legal protection--this is simply another attempt at profiteering with lawyers.
You'd think they'd have the brains to remember just a decade ago when they were being threatened with antimonopolistic practices.
Sure Linux is dead, if all you want to do is display cute icons and fiddle with your desktop... If you wanna actually use your computer, or many computers together... however, it's still the cheapest way to connect and build a compute farm... or automate a data network, etc... and licensing doesn't cost 100K a pop like Oracle...
--Ray
It's getting difficult to keep track of all the companies I'm supposed to be morally outraged at...
I'm surprised that Slashdot permitted it through and tagged it so benignly, clearly someone has a political point they wanna make... Do people really blame Ebay for school shootings now?
Perhaps we should get rid of all technology that enables violence and violent thoughts to be conveyed...
--Ray
Xerox has a system that charges businesses per page... It's called their document center, we have one where I work... and you don't own the printers, etc... and you get yelled at by the boss if you print anything in color...
Imo, This is really just HP attempting to play catchup.
--Ray
I fail to see how it is ironic... it seems to be a natural thing that a company that sells the glorification of violence and criminality would eventually become entangled in criminality.
OH wait... video games could NEVER affect real world behavior... I keep forgetting that...:rolling eyes: (having a hard time feeling any sympathy for these guys... please... someone help me care...)
Read the book 1491... http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Be fore-Columbus/dp/1400032059/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-72 03278-8316165?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174416457&sr=8- 1 Modern Archaeological theory is beginning to rethink a lot of what it knew about the native americans and the times just prior to the arrival of European settlers. They propose now that The Majority of populations (upwards of 90%) of native americans died due to disease. This created a huge vaccuum in the people, in which even the Native Americans could no longer keep their thriving and sophisticated civilizations running any better than you could if 1 out of ten poeple in your community were to suddenly die. You'd be forced to head back to the ways of the stone age, too... Who would do your garbage service, run your networks, keep the gas stations filled with gas, fill the supermarkets with food, harvest the food, run the shops?
The fact is that America was settled in a vaccuum of what once was... There were tribal conflicts and infighting and wars and such, but much of that was ongoing prior to the arrival of settlers--or were the results of disease over which none of the settlers understood or had control over...
(Of course this has nothing to do with the topic of digital assets and whether such is a good means of longterm storage.
Personally i think the strength of longterm digital storage comes in one's ability to copy and recopy it. If too many controls on copying are created then the ability to store one's digital "possessions" is lost. If it's a movie or song you're trying to preserve, then companies that sell this movie or song are more than happy about this little feature, cuz they might get repeat business. If it's a datacenter at your company, this is a huge inconvenience, and lots of people still use tape backup, though the content is recorded digitally, to preserve their archives.)
I agree the Wii is a great console. Further Nintendo is the most family friendly console around--it's one of the reasons I haven't given up on gaming altogether. Honestly, i don't want to be embarrassed by something indecent on my gamescreen and I like playing games with my kids. I have to admit that when I think of Nintendo, and games like Mario and Poke'mon that I don't associate it the general internet, but with highly scrutinized content. The internet is NOT Nintendo approved, and I would think it would be in Nintendo's best interest to do what this group is doing. Some of us are loyal customers because they strive to cut the crap when it comes to content.
This is the price one pays to sell a game to the mainstream public, as opposed to the behind the curtain of the back of your local comicbook/hobby or porn shop. Believe it or not, in the "real world", people don't necessarily want their children just buying any random game they get at Walmart only to find 3d enhanced silicon boobs or whatever strikes your offend-o-meter--or they at least want to be warned it's in there.
Game developers know that in order to get good distribution they have to have a product that meets certain standards.
Ironically, we in the industry don't want videogames to be blamed for any social ills, and we hate censorship, and we are more than ready to blame the parents for their negligence in allowing their kids access to the lastest bloosplat fest game and real guns... then we shirk when labels are put on games that actually do contain the content that becomes Jr. Psycho's favorite new fantasy game.
There's a shellgame going on here. The game industry wants to be able to do anything they want, and make more money at it while they do it.
I don't have a problem with that, or the folk that say, "Hey, wait a sec, not at my expense." Just tell it like it is. Game developers have to choose between being freedom fighters actively promoting their worldview come hell or highwater--damn the torpedoes fullspeed ahead--pervert all the children in the world... or they can choose to get better distribution at Walmart, in which they can buy themselves a new home in Thailand and live out their perverse fantasies... whatever they may be.
Strange that game pros seems to be chosing money over principles. You'd think that's why they're Pros, and not doing freeware anymore.
IMO, one of the reason there's so much money required to run a political campaign is due to uninformed voters... Why else create little signs and stick them in random places all over the place? It's the whole name-recognition/logo marketting mentality. I mean if you're an uninformed voter why should you care if the car in front of me has a political bumper sticker!?
--Ray
Exactly, Nancy is playing the old "Either we win, or they cheated" card. I don't doubt there are challenges with any election, but paper ballots don't have their own problems either. Heck, here in Washington state, while driving to work, I hear of polling places in which the ballots just "didn't show up". These are paper ballots in King County, one of the most liberal/democrat-owned counties in the country... In Washington, folks are still sore about our last gubernatorial race... because of all the dead people who voted...:)
Now I don't know why the ballots didn't show up. Heck, it could be like those days when I go out of my way to make myself lunch before I go to work, with the express purpose of saving myself money, and then I end up going to work and leaving the lunch on the counter.
But because of all the irregularities now being uber-scandals... the press seems to be setting themselves up for the greatest case of sour grapes/conspiracy mongering possible... which imo, is not good for anyone...
--Ray
I remember as a kid, there were some kids that were obsessed with "cheating" to the point that playing with them was nearly impossible. At a certain point I realized (often as they were redefining the rules of the game as we were playing it) that they had the slogan, "Either I win, or you cheated..." Technology can be scary, but elections have had a "fudge-factor" since they were created. The best way to win an election is to keep it from being really close. Typically that's based upon good ideas, not on blaming the voting machines.
--Ray
Boy, the evil microsoft image is taking a serious beating this week... it's suddenly developed a conscience and is thinking about pulling out of China after its blogger persecution... it's partnering with Novell and linux, and now... it may not try to crush people who like to upgrade their hardware... You'd think they were running for public office or wanted something from all us consumers...
--Ray
He didn't release it, mostly out of courtesy to TiVo, because even if they didn't track him down, TIVO seemed to imply that if it caught on too well, TIVo would be sued out of existence. --Ray
A close buddy of mine who makes "ripping" software for Tivo, also has a suite of tools that he cannot make public, one of which automatically will remove the trailers and credits of a show, and all commercial breaks.
He wrote this on his own, and said it was pretty easy to figure out if you just watched the mpeg stream (though I've never done it...)
He had a discussion with the guys at Tivo once, and when they discovered that he had this feature, they told him NOT to make it public, and that if he did, "bad things" (involving lawyers) would happen.
Using divorce as a self-evident point is still a poor example, because you have to derail your point to prove another point, and then tie it back to the first. It may be that divorce (applied wisely) improves marriage. Further, as I noted originally, if divorce is really really bad, adding gay marriage will increase the rate of divorce, because not only will there be hetero-divorce but homo-divorce.
Of course lawyers love this stuff. So if you're a huge fan of lawyers, I can see where this would be your dream.
Further I think a majority of voters who oppose gay marriage, also oppose frivolous divorce.
Either way it's a logical bait and switch.
Further, you create a strawman argument that the debate is all about "putting the fags in their place", when it may not have anything to do with "fags". While no doubt there are religious arguments, there are also civic arguments, such as the possibility of creating social incentives for marital relations in which the potential for the next generation of tax payers can have a stable environment in which to grow.
--Ray
Like most arguments you're employing a tactic that I see threaded throughout this whole objection, which is, that IF there's something wrong with X, because of Y, that there's nothing to fear because of Z.
Therefore Z has no impact on X and is hunky-dory.
In this case, X = Marriage (or its sanctity), Y = Divorce and Z = Gay marriage.
Regardless of the devastating impact Y has on X, it should implies nothing about the relationship of X to Z.
I would think the impetus would be upon the proponents of Z to demonstrate how it "improves" X.
Using the above logical construct, I could say...
X=Computer Internet Functionality Y=Viruses bad Z=Spam's okay X=American Security Y=Terrorism Z=Income Tax Evasion X=Voting Security Y=Hacking Electronic Voting Machines Z=Illegal Aliens should be allowed to Vote
That's really my point... I see yours too, though.
Divorce has nothing to do with gay marriage.
If gay marriage is legalized there will also be gay divorce. So all things being equal, discussion of divorce rates is really a nonstarter, and really should not be part of the discussion.
--Ray
Other addictive substances and trends have regulations. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to get on the internet and NOT be subjected to porn.
I can regulate my children's internet usage at home, but I can't do it at school, or in public libraries.
Pornography wouldn't be what it is, if it weren't to some degree appealing to just about everyone. There are already laws that regulate the distribution of pornography in print so that it is not readily available to minors. Pornography is a tool used by pedophiles to groom children.
If it is effective in making children lower their guard with a little coaxing from someone with malicious intent, it has equally the power to abuse even the well-protected youth, who is naturally curious and yet does not have the wisdom to make sensible social choices...
Studies have shown that early promiscuity in boys and girls increases when they listen to sexually explicit lyrics in music, in which women are referred to as "bitches and hos". Pornography is this crap on steroids...
As a parent of five children, I don't pretend that I can or ever will be able to police my children's exposure to this stuff, but I won't sit idly by while it washes over them in wave after wave... as it becomes available on ipods, cellphones with vids, video on demand, personal devices, in commercials, over the web, or wherever... And with so many new devices out there, it is a fulltime job just keeping up with the nuances of it all, let alone trying to police the old stuff, as a parent, the task is more than fulltime.
I know it's noble to stand up for human rights, but exactly who is benefitted by the unmitigated distribution of porn on the internet? Do some of the objectors here have their own stake in the porn industry? Are they making money off of it? I doubt that, but it's ridiculous how often people are willing to stand up and defend it, when it's one of the prevailing propagators of spam, popups, spyware, and is a timesink for so many "productive" companies and organizations due to porn addiction.
So I hold an unpopular opinion? I'm not threatened by it. I've not even mentioned religion, yet you see fit to blame it all on religion, and assume my motivations are solely religious, but why can't someone agnostic hold out high standards of moral behavior for adults and children? Why is it so threatening to suggest that kids be allowed to remain free of pornographic predation?
I understand the arguments about freedom, but ask an addict how free they are... COPA doesn't eliminate pornography on the net, and all of you mature adults who insist on having pornography in your lives, will still have ample opportunity for it. The porn industry is not in danger of running out of money anytime soon... there are no lay offs planned for the foreseeable future... so why do you feel the need to lobby for porn?
And heck, if you didn't have as much porn, perhaps you'd be forced to actually meet a real girl (or boy)... and learn just how much better the real thing is to an image on spyware popup...
I hope it is found legal. Pornography is addictive, and is not victimless. I don't know of many people proud of this sort of thing, and it hurts families and breaks up stable relationships. Most people aren't proud of their involvement in it. Whenever it does come up that someone has a problem with the stuff, it's always a "scandal". It leads people to think that they need more titillation in order to be happy in their relationships.
I have always failed to understand how a thing that is addictive, warps young minds before a young boy and girl even have a chance to go on their first date they're fed garbabe from all sorts of ridiculous entertainment forms, and destroys the peace of so many people, why it cannot be regulated and controlled, in order to promote freedom, rather than the other way around.
If it were just boobies, shown in good taste, I don't think I'd care, but this deluge of all sorts of stuff, which is escalating to be "Younger, wilder, dirtier, or more perverse" isn't leading anyone in the direction which sustains and inspires citizens to treat each other with the respect we're all due.
--Ray
Slashdot Mirror
As a middle-aged white male, I sure am glad that I still have the right to 'be mediocre'. Sheesh. Talk about the arrogance, "Joe over there, is mediocre, and i want to be just like him!" Since when has the feeling that you can slack off, ever gotten anyone ahead in the world!? We're all trying to do our jobs... despite the fact that it's often boring, soul-sucking, unfeeling, unrewarding drudgery. --Ray
I think that's what made my experience so difficult. Because I had purchased the product at Best Buy. At one point, I had both Best buy management and HP on the line. In the end, HP ended up sending me another one, and I sent the defective one back to them... The fact that it took me about a month to resolve the issue was what I found unnacceptable. --Ray
I got a laptop for my birthday from Best Buy. I got the extended service agreement, cuz well... it's a laptop... and what laptop lasts for five+ years--and like an idiot, I assumed I'd get service if I had a problem. I got it home, plugged it in and noticed pretty quickly that while it ran fine, the battery wasn't charging. Soon I had a low battery warning, and yet no workie... I did a little magic work and diagnosed the problem as a bad powercord and plug adapter (if the little LED that was not lit up was no clue, the multimeter helped).
The Best Buy "geek squad" people wanted me to send my whole laptop in for the cord, even after showing them that the problem was the cord--and they refused to give me an adapter from an actual model that I bought and they sold... To their credit one of their teenage employees tried to give me a smaller power adapter from a different model computer. I told him no thanks and got a phone number to call... figuring I could get the problem solved before the quality tech place had it shipped to whereever then shipped back to the store and then sat in their back room for a few weeks before they remembered to actually CALL me that the thing was back... (another experience...)
I tried calling in, and they told me I needed to take it in. I took it in they told me I needed to call the manufacturer, because it had failed prior to the manufacturer's warranty expiring and that their extended service agreement was for when that expired. I called HP, they said if I had the service agreement I needed to call Best Buy. This went on for a couple weeks. Then I had a day off from work (and it was my birthday to boot) and I decided I would get to the bottom of this... I called Best Buy and got passed from helpline to helpline to helpline.
The point was... I knew the exact part that needed fixing, and by gosh! I was getting my power cord adapter without paying for another one (I could've done that, of course...) I was told frequently that people try to get extra power cords all the time and that they have to be careful not to just give away expensive parts to people who can't prove their parts aren't broken. I told them I'd be willing to GIVE them my broken adapter if they gave me one that worked.
After spending an entire day on the phone it got to be hillarious. I absolutely refused to give up. It had become a game at this point. I went up the chain of command at both HP and Best Buy... To make a long story less long... I finally got to one helpful employee at HP. He was in Boise Idaho. He said he could get me the part. He said he'd send me a mailer in which I'd send the broken part too. Then when it came time to get my information, he said, "Oh. Crap. I guess I can't help you. Our computers are down."
I said something to the effect, "Wow. I've got a lot of confidence in this product I just bought."
The next day he sent me an adapter express mail...
I think the guy in Idaho was the only real human I talked with...
--Ray
I'm surprised WA State pulled out... this is the same state that is trying to build a monorail, though it's been proven to solve absolutely no problems regarding congestion or that it will be used sufficiently to be justified. We here in Washington like to take your money and spend it on things that never materialize. . . we're kinda like wannabe Californians... but with more rain.
I'm not a MS hater, but honestly this sort of nonsense does absolutely nothing to engender Microsoft with any sort of virtues or positive press. I mean just when you thought it was safe to stop hating them, they pull this bull into the china shop.
No company has a fulltime legal department for legal protection--this is simply another attempt at profiteering with lawyers.
You'd think they'd have the brains to remember just a decade ago when they were being threatened with antimonopolistic practices.
Sure Linux is dead, if all you want to do is display cute icons and fiddle with your desktop... If you wanna actually use your computer, or many computers together... however, it's still the cheapest way to connect and build a compute farm... or automate a data network, etc... and licensing doesn't cost 100K a pop like Oracle... --Ray
It's getting difficult to keep track of all the companies I'm supposed to be morally outraged at... I'm surprised that Slashdot permitted it through and tagged it so benignly, clearly someone has a political point they wanna make... Do people really blame Ebay for school shootings now? Perhaps we should get rid of all technology that enables violence and violent thoughts to be conveyed... --Ray
Xerox has a system that charges businesses per page... It's called their document center, we have one where I work... and you don't own the printers, etc... and you get yelled at by the boss if you print anything in color... Imo, This is really just HP attempting to play catchup. --Ray
I fail to see how it is ironic... it seems to be a natural thing that a company that sells the glorification of violence and criminality would eventually become entangled in criminality.
:rolling eyes: (having a hard time feeling any sympathy for these guys... please... someone help me care...)
OH wait... video games could NEVER affect real world behavior... I keep forgetting that...
--Ray
Read the book 1491... http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Be fore-Columbus/dp/1400032059/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-72 03278-8316165?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174416457&sr=8- 1 Modern Archaeological theory is beginning to rethink a lot of what it knew about the native americans and the times just prior to the arrival of European settlers. They propose now that The Majority of populations (upwards of 90%) of native americans died due to disease. This created a huge vaccuum in the people, in which even the Native Americans could no longer keep their thriving and sophisticated civilizations running any better than you could if 1 out of ten poeple in your community were to suddenly die. You'd be forced to head back to the ways of the stone age, too... Who would do your garbage service, run your networks, keep the gas stations filled with gas, fill the supermarkets with food, harvest the food, run the shops?
The fact is that America was settled in a vaccuum of what once was... There were tribal conflicts and infighting and wars and such, but much of that was ongoing prior to the arrival of settlers--or were the results of disease over which none of the settlers understood or had control over...
(Of course this has nothing to do with the topic of digital assets and whether such is a good means of longterm storage.
Personally i think the strength of longterm digital storage comes in one's ability to copy and recopy it. If too many controls on copying are created then the ability to store one's digital "possessions" is lost. If it's a movie or song you're trying to preserve, then companies that sell this movie or song are more than happy about this little feature, cuz they might get repeat business. If it's a datacenter at your company, this is a huge inconvenience, and lots of people still use tape backup, though the content is recorded digitally, to preserve their archives.)
--Ray
I agree the Wii is a great console. Further Nintendo is the most family friendly console around--it's one of the reasons I haven't given up on gaming altogether. Honestly, i don't want to be embarrassed by something indecent on my gamescreen and I like playing games with my kids. I have to admit that when I think of Nintendo, and games like Mario and Poke'mon that I don't associate it the general internet, but with highly scrutinized content. The internet is NOT Nintendo approved, and I would think it would be in Nintendo's best interest to do what this group is doing. Some of us are loyal customers because they strive to cut the crap when it comes to content.
--Ray
This is the price one pays to sell a game to the mainstream public, as opposed to the behind the curtain of the back of your local comicbook/hobby or porn shop. Believe it or not, in the "real world", people don't necessarily want their children just buying any random game they get at Walmart only to find 3d enhanced silicon boobs or whatever strikes your offend-o-meter--or they at least want to be warned it's in there.
Game developers know that in order to get good distribution they have to have a product that meets certain standards.
Ironically, we in the industry don't want videogames to be blamed for any social ills, and we hate censorship, and we are more than ready to blame the parents for their negligence in allowing their kids access to the lastest bloosplat fest game and real guns... then we shirk when labels are put on games that actually do contain the content that becomes Jr. Psycho's favorite new fantasy game.
There's a shellgame going on here. The game industry wants to be able to do anything they want, and make more money at it while they do it.
I don't have a problem with that, or the folk that say, "Hey, wait a sec, not at my expense." Just tell it like it is. Game developers have to choose between being freedom fighters actively promoting their worldview come hell or highwater--damn the torpedoes fullspeed ahead--pervert all the children in the world... or they can choose to get better distribution at Walmart, in which they can buy themselves a new home in Thailand and live out their perverse fantasies... whatever they may be.
Strange that game pros seems to be chosing money over principles. You'd think that's why they're Pros, and not doing freeware anymore.
--Ray
IMO, one of the reason there's so much money required to run a political campaign is due to uninformed voters... Why else create little signs and stick them in random places all over the place? It's the whole name-recognition/logo marketting mentality. I mean if you're an uninformed voter why should you care if the car in front of me has a political bumper sticker!? --Ray
Exactly, Nancy is playing the old "Either we win, or they cheated" card. I don't doubt there are challenges with any election, but paper ballots don't have their own problems either. Heck, here in Washington state, while driving to work, I hear of polling places in which the ballots just "didn't show up". These are paper ballots in King County, one of the most liberal/democrat-owned counties in the country... In Washington, folks are still sore about our last gubernatorial race... because of all the dead people who voted... :)
Now I don't know why the ballots didn't show up. Heck, it could be like those days when I go out of my way to make myself lunch before I go to work, with the express purpose of saving myself money, and then I end up going to work and leaving the lunch on the counter.
But because of all the irregularities now being uber-scandals... the press seems to be setting themselves up for the greatest case of sour grapes/conspiracy mongering possible... which imo, is not good for anyone...
--Ray
I remember as a kid, there were some kids that were obsessed with "cheating" to the point that playing with them was nearly impossible. At a certain point I realized (often as they were redefining the rules of the game as we were playing it) that they had the slogan, "Either I win, or you cheated..." Technology can be scary, but elections have had a "fudge-factor" since they were created. The best way to win an election is to keep it from being really close. Typically that's based upon good ideas, not on blaming the voting machines. --Ray
Boy, the evil microsoft image is taking a serious beating this week... it's suddenly developed a conscience and is thinking about pulling out of China after its blogger persecution... it's partnering with Novell and linux, and now... it may not try to crush people who like to upgrade their hardware... You'd think they were running for public office or wanted something from all us consumers... --Ray
nah, that'd be my cousin... :P --Ray
PS> Yeah, I know it sounds like hearsay... cuz it is... but whatever... just figured I'd share.
He didn't release it, mostly out of courtesy to TiVo, because even if they didn't track him down, TIVO seemed to imply that if it caught on too well, TIVo would be sued out of existence. --Ray
A close buddy of mine who makes "ripping" software for Tivo, also has a suite of tools that he cannot make public, one of which automatically will remove the trailers and credits of a show, and all commercial breaks.
He wrote this on his own, and said it was pretty easy to figure out if you just watched the mpeg stream (though I've never done it...)
He had a discussion with the guys at Tivo once, and when they discovered that he had this feature, they told him NOT to make it public, and that if he did, "bad things" (involving lawyers) would happen.
So he kept the tools for his own personal use.
--Ray
Using divorce as a self-evident point is still a poor example, because you have to derail your point to prove another point, and then tie it back to the first. It may be that divorce (applied wisely) improves marriage. Further, as I noted originally, if divorce is really really bad, adding gay marriage will increase the rate of divorce, because not only will there be hetero-divorce but homo-divorce. Of course lawyers love this stuff. So if you're a huge fan of lawyers, I can see where this would be your dream. Further I think a majority of voters who oppose gay marriage, also oppose frivolous divorce. Either way it's a logical bait and switch. Further, you create a strawman argument that the debate is all about "putting the fags in their place", when it may not have anything to do with "fags". While no doubt there are religious arguments, there are also civic arguments, such as the possibility of creating social incentives for marital relations in which the potential for the next generation of tax payers can have a stable environment in which to grow. --Ray
Like most arguments you're employing a tactic that I see threaded throughout this whole objection, which is, that IF there's something wrong with X, because of Y, that there's nothing to fear because of Z.
Therefore Z has no impact on X and is hunky-dory.
In this case, X = Marriage (or its sanctity), Y = Divorce and Z = Gay marriage.
Regardless of the devastating impact Y has on X, it should implies nothing about the relationship of X to Z.
I would think the impetus would be upon the proponents of Z to demonstrate how it "improves" X.
Using the above logical construct, I could say...
X=Computer Internet Functionality Y=Viruses bad Z=Spam's okay
X=American Security Y=Terrorism Z=Income Tax Evasion
X=Voting Security Y=Hacking Electronic Voting Machines Z=Illegal Aliens should be allowed to Vote
That's really my point... I see yours too, though.
--Ray
Divorce has nothing to do with gay marriage. If gay marriage is legalized there will also be gay divorce. So all things being equal, discussion of divorce rates is really a nonstarter, and really should not be part of the discussion. --Ray
Other addictive substances and trends have regulations. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to get on the internet and NOT be subjected to porn.
I can regulate my children's internet usage at home, but I can't do it at school, or in public libraries.
Pornography wouldn't be what it is, if it weren't to some degree appealing to just about everyone. There are already laws that regulate the distribution of pornography in print so that it is not readily available to minors. Pornography is a tool used by pedophiles to groom children.
If it is effective in making children lower their guard with a little coaxing from someone with malicious intent, it has equally the power to abuse even the well-protected youth, who is naturally curious and yet does not have the wisdom to make sensible social choices...
Studies have shown that early promiscuity in boys and girls increases when they listen to sexually explicit lyrics in music, in which women are referred to as "bitches and hos". Pornography is this crap on steroids...
As a parent of five children, I don't pretend that I can or ever will be able to police my children's exposure to this stuff, but I won't sit idly by while it washes over them in wave after wave... as it becomes available on ipods, cellphones with vids, video on demand, personal devices, in commercials, over the web, or wherever... And with so many new devices out there, it is a fulltime job just keeping up with the nuances of it all, let alone trying to police the old stuff, as a parent, the task is more than fulltime.
I know it's noble to stand up for human rights, but exactly who is benefitted by the unmitigated distribution of porn on the internet? Do some of the objectors here have their own stake in the porn industry? Are they making money off of it? I doubt that, but it's ridiculous how often people are willing to stand up and defend it, when it's one of the prevailing propagators of spam, popups, spyware, and is a timesink for so many "productive" companies and organizations due to porn addiction.
So I hold an unpopular opinion? I'm not threatened by it. I've not even mentioned religion, yet you see fit to blame it all on religion, and assume my motivations are solely religious, but why can't someone agnostic hold out high standards of moral behavior for adults and children? Why is it so threatening to suggest that kids be allowed to remain free of pornographic predation?
I understand the arguments about freedom, but ask an addict how free they are... COPA doesn't eliminate pornography on the net, and all of you mature adults who insist on having pornography in your lives, will still have ample opportunity for it. The porn industry is not in danger of running out of money anytime soon... there are no lay offs planned for the foreseeable future... so why do you feel the need to lobby for porn?
And heck, if you didn't have as much porn, perhaps you'd be forced to actually meet a real girl (or boy)... and learn just how much better the real thing is to an image on spyware popup...
--Ray
I hope it is found legal. Pornography is addictive, and is not victimless. I don't know of many people proud of this sort of thing, and it hurts families and breaks up stable relationships. Most people aren't proud of their involvement in it. Whenever it does come up that someone has a problem with the stuff, it's always a "scandal". It leads people to think that they need more titillation in order to be happy in their relationships. I have always failed to understand how a thing that is addictive, warps young minds before a young boy and girl even have a chance to go on their first date they're fed garbabe from all sorts of ridiculous entertainment forms, and destroys the peace of so many people, why it cannot be regulated and controlled, in order to promote freedom, rather than the other way around. If it were just boobies, shown in good taste, I don't think I'd care, but this deluge of all sorts of stuff, which is escalating to be "Younger, wilder, dirtier, or more perverse" isn't leading anyone in the direction which sustains and inspires citizens to treat each other with the respect we're all due. --Ray
Of course in the next year or so, when they come out with the whole Cellphone IN the watch, this product will be obsolete... :) --Ray