They did. It's called Windows 95/98/ME. I think the only low-level consumers who bought any of those operating systems were
A. People that paid for them with their new computer
B. Nerds that bought a copy for their own computer, then installed that copy on all of their luddite friend's computers ("What, you mean I have to pay to get my computer to work? Can't you just install your copy on mine?)
Que a million replies how none of those OS's were functional (especiallty that horrid cash grab called ME.)
You forgot one option: educate the populace and let them know that their rights have been taken away. Yes, I know it's a difficult job. That doesn't mean that it's not worth doing.
You forgot one fact: America's apathy is at an all time high. Even if you educate people about their rights being taken away, must will say "oh well, nothing I can do." Its much easier to convince politicians (through polling, media coverage, ect.) that the public cares about something. But sometimes that doesn't even help -for example the majority of Americans believe in term limits for congressmen but you will never see that law on the books.
So, again, because it's a difficult task, we shouldn't try to make a dent in it, right?
Yep, that's the consensus for one generation after another.
Explain how making copies of your DVDs in the privacy of your own home constitutes "massive public disobedience".
Guys, quit comparing yourselves to Gandhi and Rosa Parks. Once you get out there and start risking your ass like they did, then I'll start to listen.
Its not just about copying DVDs. Its about all copyright law. Considering the fact that over 50 million Americans use P2P services, I would consider that to be "massive public disobedience." Millions of college kids are risking their necks. We just have less to gain (instead of equal rights, we just want to copy stuff we buy and be able to share it with our friends.
No, we are in this situation because there are a pitiful few number of Americans, such as myself, who will take the time to vote and write my representatives and basically get off my ass and do something to get laws changed.
Dude, not enough people give a damn about techie issues like copyright to get the law changed. If you want a law changed, you have to form a PAC that gives money to congressmen to support you. Or challenge the laws in court and have an expensive lawyer convince the judge that what you want is in "every bodies best interest."
I mean, hell, what group of citizens got together to put the DMCA on the books anyway?
Oh yeah companies that give hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in campaign contributions yet represent almost no citizens!
By "go away" I assume you mean that they remain on the books but cops don't bother to enforce them most of the time. The problem is that then you have selectively-enforced laws which is obviously not good. It is better to "clean house" and get those laws off the book. Otherwise, if we end up with lots of laws that are clearly ridiculous and never enforced it makes our system of law look like a damn joke.
What America do you live in... the law books are already a joke. Hell, here in Texas it is still illegal to carry wire cutters because of 19th century cattle theft. Every year, tons of new laws are put on the books to appease certain factions, but many of these are dead laws from the get go. It would take centuries to clean centuries of crudded books.
What I was implying is that when too many people defy the law, the courts (the only branch of the government that still pretends to serve the people) will strike the law down because enforcement is impossible.
As Gandhi showed, massive public disobedience is the only way for the (more numerous) little guys to beat out the big dogs!
Based apon this, the computer industry (which could benefit greatly if they could make set-top boxs that could copy all dvds) gives twice as much to Rick Boucher then media companies do. This is obviously the way to win, have more politicians in the industies pocket.
Too bad the media companies figured this out 30 years ago!
Because some Americans, such as myself, believe that a true patriotic (HA HA HA) American who truly loves his country should follow ALL laws of this country, not just those laws that we happen to agree with.
We are in this situation because some Americans, such as yourself, allow companies to use the laws of the land to push us around and take what is ours. They own the politicians, but if enough of us are breaking the law, then bad laws go away anyway because they are impossible to enforce. Damn son, grow some nuts and learn that you are either a pawn or a criminal in today's society- there is no in between!
Schools have a habit of shoving tons of fees on the kids anyway. Instead of a couple kids getting screwed for downloading stuff at a given school, the schools buy "protection." Just like the Mafia.
Oh well. At least they are just dealing with Napster; my student fees go to Microsoft.
The whole point of graphic cards is that they have a dedicated purpose. Using the cards for anything that is general purpose is like using a motorcycle to tow a pop-up camper.
I've seen a lot of people in this thread ask why anitvirus companies don't go after spyware. What I wonder is why don't computer makers go after spyware. Tech support at Dell and HP must have tons of problems with spyware, but since they don't want to tell them to download another company's product like Spybot it is impossible for them to solve their customer's problems. They should ship PCs with their own spyware removing software just so that their tech support doesn't have to look worthless.
What is freewill and how did humankind obtain it? In the definition set forth by philosophers, freewill is either the conscious choice made by humans based on the character and intentions or freewill is simply randomness. It is the first definition that I personally believe to be true, even though both could possibly be true at the same time. The opposite of freewill is determinism, a philosophical doctrine which maintains that every state of affairs, including every human event, act, and decision, is the inevitable consequence of antecedent states of affairs. In the view of determinism humans have no free choice as all decisions are decided beforehand by a God that exists outside of time. To a determinist, freewill is an illusion that humankind created to gain some sense of control over the world. Yet in this view of the world humans cannot be responsible for evil because it is not their choice to commit it. Instead I will discuss freewill, which is often given as a reason for the existence of deliberate evil. To some (mostly theologians) evil created by evil decisions made by mankind. In this paper I will defend the concept that freewill causes evil and that evil is necessary.
My opinions on freewill and evil do not come from strictly a perspective of philosophy or theology, but instead a combination of both. In theology freewill can be broken down into either choosing God's way in a decision or choosing Satan's. Satan is a fallen angel that was banished to Earth when he tried to go against God's will. In theology, Satan is seen to tempt people to choose actions that serve anything except God's will. In this framework God is all good while Satan is all evil. For me personally the problem of evil and freewill rely on other question, why did God create human beings at all? I think that the purpose of human existence is to create a challenge for humans which we must overcome to be worthy of the afterlife. A philosopher named John Hick calls this process of earned worth "the vale of soul-making". Many philosophers, including the great Confucian scholar Xunzi, believe that humankind is inherently evil. In life it seems easier to do "evil" than "good." It is easier to destroy something (today it takes just one bomb!) than create it. It is easier to be selfish than selfless. It is easier to take than to give. I would argue that humanity is not inherently evil based on this empirical evidence. We are just, speaking in the terms of theology, in the cage of God's enemy and we are therefore more inclined/oriented to do evil. In this reasoning, evil is maintained to challenge us as humans to overcome the easier existence of evil. The purpose is best explained by Plato and the allegory of the cave. We are born within a cave (or cage) where shadows of what is real (the shadows are evil) are easy to see and accept as truth. For Plato and myself, the purpose of life is to crawl out of the cave (or cage), an option created by free choice, and find the real truth (as in good or God). Freewill allows humanity to reject God and his path, while God used his/her omnipotence to prevent limits his/her power to over come this choice.
Many philosophers who work on the problem of evil seek to prove that there is a better possible world, one where we are all perfectly good and one where goodness comes naturally. In theology, this reality already occurred in heaven, a place that is all good and a place that has perfectly good beings called angles. Many consider this to be the logically best existence. Yet, it was philosophically perfect world that lead to the creation of the greatest evil, Satan. Satan was allowed to continue to exist on the Earth, yet was never to be let back in heaven. Humans are imperfect creatures in a world of all evil, controlled by the devil. If the same rules apply as in the case with Satan (i.e. the perfect good created the greatest evil) than our existence is to become the greatest good and ascend to heaven in the opposite way that Satan descended. Many philosophers such as JL Mackie who analyze the existence
I call Bullshit. Yes our founding fathers wanted education simply for the reason of educating voters, but in the previous century as more Americans move away from unskilled rural jobs, a solid education policy is required to create the skilled work force America needs to stay competitive. I mean really, why doesn't every company outsource all of their jobs to the third world were wages are dirt? Its because the average education level in the U.S. is higher than third world nations so our work force is more valuble. Nowadays the education level of your citizens directly affects the nations GDP, so it is the governments duty to raise the educational bar in any country to the highest possible levels. That is unless your kids want manual labor jobs with little pay
And don't tell me they will be fine because they are in a private school because if the majority of children your kid's age don't have the same skill set then there is not enough good employees for companies to bother investing money in a region to create you kid's future job.
Sooo. At $20 average cd price, and choosing the lower of the range you gave, $20*500 = $10,000. Ok, let's be REALLY conservative and say they were only $15 each. $15*500 = $7500. AND, you claim you are a student.
So, either you are bullshitting, or you are admitting to everyone here that you are from a family that is very very rich. Either way, your opinion is clearly from teh point of view of a very very small minority.
Geese, not every student has beer and pot in their budget. Some buy, well, CD's. And hookers. Damn I feel sorry for those kids (duh, you can download CD's).
Okay, but most broadband is DSL, not cable. So most people need to pay their phone company bill anyways, so they don't see any VOIP savings from that.
Ok, but most savings in VIOP will be in long distance calls, which are still relatively expense, and not local service which is provided with a DSL modem. VIOP services can charge 30% percent less just because they lack the many taxes which add to the price of regular long distance service.
I believe that TV/Movies will be comming over IP in a short time, but I'm not as optimistic about telephone service. Delay is a big deal, as is packet loss, not to mention the complete lack of security (and the additional delay security would require).
I promise you, TV shows and movies have been coming over IP everyday already for years, its just not legal in some places (yet it is easy to do!) As far as telephone service goes, many of the current major VIOP companies initially bought dark fiber back when the phone companies were putting it down in the 90's. They route there traffic over their own network which ensures quality service. I use VIOP everyday and it is like using any old phone.
Besides, we've got a long time before this happens, since they only way to get broadband right now requires either your phone service, or cable service. Until we have some other dedicated lines comming to our homes, don't expect this to become a reality.
Well, I have a cable modem right now (with small fee nor not having regular cable) that currently is used for downloading data, TV, and is also used for long distance service. Since 2 out of 5 web users already have broadband, these sorts of essentially data services can all be shifted to one line or the other (where in the past you had to have a different line for every service).
And they wonder why people are just downloading shows off the Internet.
They know exactly why people are downloading shows of the internet. Its because they are dirty pirates (ARR) that go against What Makes This Country Great (TM).
Now they are having a problem finding out why the Congresspeople want to get into their business.
He wan't censored. He was able to say what he wanted and he was then fired for what he said. Many people can and do get fired for saying the wrong things on the job. Especially if it is against guy like Donovan McNabb who plays a lot of good football which gets people to watch your highlight/fake news show. And in the end the sports journalists loved the whole event because they had something to talk about for a week. Plus he has his own radio show to vent on.
2) Trent Lott, US Senate/US mainstream media;
Again, he was able to say what he wanted. Boo-F-ing Hoo that America does not value his words like John Stewart's
3) Dr. Laura Schlessinger, gay-right groups;
This was not censorship. This was people using economic pressure to remove someone from the air that was not liked enough to produce such a sentiment. If you believe that removal of a product (even media) by boycott is censorship, I would hate to hear what you think about labor unions.
4) Conservative faulty & speakers, every college campus;
5) Bernard Goldberg, banned from network interviews while promoting NYT bestseller.
6) Ann Coulter, banned from network interviews while promoting NYT bestseller.
7) Sean Hannity, banned from network interviews while promoting NYT bestseller.
Hmmm. I think they all got plenty of air time on Fox News. That's why the network exists. And cry me a river for these people who lack media exposure but are on the bestseller list!
Um...most of the current P2P users. For instance non-nerds, older wage earners, most young women (my girlfriend likes kazaa because "its icons are pretty.") The list goes on and on. Hell, some people are still just learning about Kazaa everyday. It's really not that bad with Kazaa lite.
I personally like to steal all my data via Bit Torrent (nothing like downloading multi CD playstation games at once), but for many people Kazaa is the program that made their computer be worth their time and money. Also you are assuming that Kazaa's tainted music files should stop use of the software. For most of the people I know (albeit they all have broadband), being able to download Shriek or the latest episode of the Chappelle Show (I'm Rick James BITCH!) is more useful than downloading music that you can easily hear on the radio.
however, blocking out someone who is loudly seemingly talking to themselves is much more jarring to your brains white noise filter.
Unless you are a male and the talker is a women. Then you can turn on the feature built into your brain that blocks female voices. You know, the one that comes on when you mom/wife/girlfriend nags you during your favorite TV show. I once went to Victoria's Secret to buy panties for a girl I didn't like and I didn't hear one thing.
Ooops. Got to go. My girlfriend's brother told me that she has been calling for ten minutes.
It should be used as a way for people with no or little knowledge of games to discover which ones are in a genre they like. Experienced gamers will either just get it off the internet at any old online store, or will want to feel that box in their hands at the checkout. The only way it would be cool for real gamers is if they can come back with the receipt and a damaged game and pay $5 dollars of so to get a new copy of the game. I would use anything like which extends fair use. Especially cause crappy cd drives eat games.
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A. People that paid for them with their new computer
B. Nerds that bought a copy for their own computer, then installed that copy on all of their luddite friend's computers ("What, you mean I have to pay to get my computer to work? Can't you just install your copy on mine?)
Que a million replies how none of those OS's were functional (especiallty that horrid cash grab called ME.)
of great... now our gangs are on the internet. I wonder how much longer till our crime is outsourced to india like our jobs are.
You forgot one fact: America's apathy is at an all time high. Even if you educate people about their rights being taken away, must will say "oh well, nothing I can do." Its much easier to convince politicians (through polling, media coverage, ect.) that the public cares about something. But sometimes that doesn't even help -for example the majority of Americans believe in term limits for congressmen but you will never see that law on the books.
So, again, because it's a difficult task, we shouldn't try to make a dent in it, right?
Yep, that's the consensus for one generation after another.
Explain how making copies of your DVDs in the privacy of your own home constitutes "massive public disobedience". Guys, quit comparing yourselves to Gandhi and Rosa Parks. Once you get out there and start risking your ass like they did, then I'll start to listen.
Its not just about copying DVDs. Its about all copyright law. Considering the fact that over 50 million Americans use P2P services, I would consider that to be "massive public disobedience." Millions of college kids are risking their necks. We just have less to gain (instead of equal rights, we just want to copy stuff we buy and be able to share it with our friends.
Dude, not enough people give a damn about techie issues like copyright to get the law changed. If you want a law changed, you have to form a PAC that gives money to congressmen to support you. Or challenge the laws in court and have an expensive lawyer convince the judge that what you want is in "every bodies best interest."
I mean, hell, what group of citizens got together to put the DMCA on the books anyway?
Oh yeah companies that give hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in campaign contributions yet represent almost no citizens!
By "go away" I assume you mean that they remain on the books but cops don't bother to enforce them most of the time. The problem is that then you have selectively-enforced laws which is obviously not good. It is better to "clean house" and get those laws off the book. Otherwise, if we end up with lots of laws that are clearly ridiculous and never enforced it makes our system of law look like a damn joke.
What America do you live in... the law books are already a joke. Hell, here in Texas it is still illegal to carry wire cutters because of 19th century cattle theft. Every year, tons of new laws are put on the books to appease certain factions, but many of these are dead laws from the get go. It would take centuries to clean centuries of crudded books.
What I was implying is that when too many people defy the law, the courts (the only branch of the government that still pretends to serve the people) will strike the law down because enforcement is impossible.
As Gandhi showed, massive public disobedience is the only way for the (more numerous) little guys to beat out the big dogs!
Too bad the media companies figured this out 30 years ago!
We are in this situation because some Americans, such as yourself, allow companies to use the laws of the land to push us around and take what is ours. They own the politicians, but if enough of us are breaking the law, then bad laws go away anyway because they are impossible to enforce. Damn son, grow some nuts and learn that you are either a pawn or a criminal in today's society- there is no in between!
Oh well. At least they are just dealing with Napster; my student fees go to Microsoft.
A Compaq with standard, off-the-shelf components? Wow, it will be like before the company was ruined by HP's love of crappy part integration !!
Aww. I thought it was a group of people. The No Karma Club (TM).
The whole point of graphic cards is that they have a dedicated purpose. Using the cards for anything that is general purpose is like using a motorcycle to tow a pop-up camper.
I've seen a lot of people in this thread ask why anitvirus companies don't go after spyware. What I wonder is why don't computer makers go after spyware. Tech support at Dell and HP must have tons of problems with spyware, but since they don't want to tell them to download another company's product like Spybot it is impossible for them to solve their customer's problems. They should ship PCs with their own spyware removing software just so that their tech support doesn't have to look worthless.
I can do it too.
Wow what a neat way to get mod points.
My opinions on freewill and evil do not come from strictly a perspective of philosophy or theology, but instead a combination of both. In theology freewill can be broken down into either choosing God's way in a decision or choosing Satan's. Satan is a fallen angel that was banished to Earth when he tried to go against God's will. In theology, Satan is seen to tempt people to choose actions that serve anything except God's will. In this framework God is all good while Satan is all evil. For me personally the problem of evil and freewill rely on other question, why did God create human beings at all? I think that the purpose of human existence is to create a challenge for humans which we must overcome to be worthy of the afterlife. A philosopher named John Hick calls this process of earned worth "the vale of soul-making". Many philosophers, including the great Confucian scholar Xunzi, believe that humankind is inherently evil. In life it seems easier to do "evil" than "good." It is easier to destroy something (today it takes just one bomb!) than create it. It is easier to be selfish than selfless. It is easier to take than to give. I would argue that humanity is not inherently evil based on this empirical evidence. We are just, speaking in the terms of theology, in the cage of God's enemy and we are therefore more inclined/oriented to do evil. In this reasoning, evil is maintained to challenge us as humans to overcome the easier existence of evil. The purpose is best explained by Plato and the allegory of the cave. We are born within a cave (or cage) where shadows of what is real (the shadows are evil) are easy to see and accept as truth. For Plato and myself, the purpose of life is to crawl out of the cave (or cage), an option created by free choice, and find the real truth (as in good or God). Freewill allows humanity to reject God and his path, while God used his/her omnipotence to prevent limits his/her power to over come this choice.
Many philosophers who work on the problem of evil seek to prove that there is a better possible world, one where we are all perfectly good and one where goodness comes naturally. In theology, this reality already occurred in heaven, a place that is all good and a place that has perfectly good beings called angles. Many consider this to be the logically best existence. Yet, it was philosophically perfect world that lead to the creation of the greatest evil, Satan. Satan was allowed to continue to exist on the Earth, yet was never to be let back in heaven. Humans are imperfect creatures in a world of all evil, controlled by the devil. If the same rules apply as in the case with Satan (i.e. the perfect good created the greatest evil) than our existence is to become the greatest good and ascend to heaven in the opposite way that Satan descended. Many philosophers such as JL Mackie who analyze the existence
And don't tell me they will be fine because they are in a private school because if the majority of children your kid's age don't have the same skill set then there is not enough good employees for companies to bother investing money in a region to create you kid's future job.
Wow! A Tivo that only hunts down porn and cartoons. I bet you that thing would make a mint on ebay!
So, either you are bullshitting, or you are admitting to everyone here that you are from a family that is very very rich. Either way, your opinion is clearly from teh point of view of a very very small minority.
Geese, not every student has beer and pot in their budget. Some buy, well, CD's. And hookers. Damn I feel sorry for those kids (duh, you can download CD's).
Ok, but most savings in VIOP will be in long distance calls, which are still relatively expense, and not local service which is provided with a DSL modem. VIOP services can charge 30% percent less just because they lack the many taxes which add to the price of regular long distance service.
I believe that TV/Movies will be comming over IP in a short time, but I'm not as optimistic about telephone service. Delay is a big deal, as is packet loss, not to mention the complete lack of security (and the additional delay security would require).
I promise you, TV shows and movies have been coming over IP everyday already for years, its just not legal in some places (yet it is easy to do!) As far as telephone service goes, many of the current major VIOP companies initially bought dark fiber back when the phone companies were putting it down in the 90's. They route there traffic over their own network which ensures quality service. I use VIOP everyday and it is like using any old phone.
Besides, we've got a long time before this happens, since they only way to get broadband right now requires either your phone service, or cable service. Until we have some other dedicated lines comming to our homes, don't expect this to become a reality.
Well, I have a cable modem right now (with small fee nor not having regular cable) that currently is used for downloading data, TV, and is also used for long distance service. Since 2 out of 5 web users already have broadband, these sorts of essentially data services can all be shifted to one line or the other (where in the past you had to have a different line for every service).
They know exactly why people are downloading shows of the internet. Its because they are dirty pirates (ARR) that go against What Makes This Country Great (TM).
Now they are having a problem finding out why the Congresspeople want to get into their business.
He wan't censored. He was able to say what he wanted and he was then fired for what he said. Many people can and do get fired for saying the wrong things on the job. Especially if it is against guy like Donovan McNabb who plays a lot of good football which gets people to watch your highlight/fake news show. And in the end the sports journalists loved the whole event because they had something to talk about for a week. Plus he has his own radio show to vent on.
2) Trent Lott, US Senate/US mainstream media;
Again, he was able to say what he wanted. Boo-F-ing Hoo that America does not value his words like John Stewart's
3) Dr. Laura Schlessinger, gay-right groups;
This was not censorship. This was people using economic pressure to remove someone from the air that was not liked enough to produce such a sentiment. If you believe that removal of a product (even media) by boycott is censorship, I would hate to hear what you think about labor unions.
4) Conservative faulty & speakers, every college campus;
Um, come to Texas bub!
5) Bernard Goldberg, banned from network interviews while promoting NYT bestseller. 6) Ann Coulter, banned from network interviews while promoting NYT bestseller. 7) Sean Hannity, banned from network interviews while promoting NYT bestseller.
Hmmm. I think they all got plenty of air time on Fox News. That's why the network exists. And cry me a river for these people who lack media exposure but are on the bestseller list!
Um...most of the current P2P users. For instance non-nerds, older wage earners, most young women (my girlfriend likes kazaa because "its icons are pretty.") The list goes on and on. Hell, some people are still just learning about Kazaa everyday. It's really not that bad with Kazaa lite.
I personally like to steal all my data via Bit Torrent (nothing like downloading multi CD playstation games at once), but for many people Kazaa is the program that made their computer be worth their time and money. Also you are assuming that Kazaa's tainted music files should stop use of the software. For most of the people I know (albeit they all have broadband), being able to download Shriek or the latest episode of the Chappelle Show (I'm Rick James BITCH!) is more useful than downloading music that you can easily hear on the radio.
Sigur Rós and the post-rock movement has become the savior of the album format.
Unless you are a male and the talker is a women. Then you can turn on the feature built into your brain that blocks female voices. You know, the one that comes on when you mom/wife/girlfriend nags you during your favorite TV show. I once went to Victoria's Secret to buy panties for a girl I didn't like and I didn't hear one thing.
Ooops. Got to go. My girlfriend's brother told me that she has been calling for ten minutes.
"Oh Charles! Because of the taxes I have to drive a Lexus instead of a Bentley this year. "
(Charles) "Don't worry honey. There will hopefully be another Republican president soon. Then we can fly to the mall in a jet!"
It should be used as a way for people with no or little knowledge of games to discover which ones are in a genre they like. Experienced gamers will either just get it off the internet at any old online store, or will want to feel that box in their hands at the checkout. The only way it would be cool for real gamers is if they can come back with the receipt and a damaged game and pay $5 dollars of so to get a new copy of the game. I would use anything like which extends fair use. Especially cause crappy cd drives eat games.