New York State is home to New York City, which contains how many telecommunication giants, exactly? Verizon alone wields enough clout in New York politics to influence decisions like this. This state (or entire region) is not exactly the place for emerging players.
It has been my experience, from my limited discourse with Jesuits, Christian brothers, and Jewish scholars, that it is indeed possible for highly intelligent people to be highly religious. Or perhaps the proper word for such people is spiritual?
When questioned about their beliefs, the scholars I mentioned describe ideas and concepts that are distinctly unorothodox. I suspect these people may have reached a personal understanding of the divine that would not be accepted by their respective communities. The ignorance of the lay community is a good thing, in this case, because the exact nature of their belief is not relevant to anything. The fact is they believe, and it provides a framework in which they can act in and upon the world.
I also suspect that the higher levels of theological scholars, pantheistically speaking, are far more tolerant of objective truth than most believe they are...
But when a pirate does it, gets sued, and settles, somehow it's evil that the RIAA sued in the first place and the pirate is the good guy martyr.
Does the pirate in your analogy steal music, put it on a public share, and then launch facetious and expensive lawsuits against the neighbors that download it? Is the pirate cooking a scheme that will turn stolen mp3s into a lifetime of profit? That might be a better comparison.
What makes the experience "religious?" Is it a feeling -- awe, terror, or joy? Is it a special knowledge, like Enlightenment or the Holy Spirit? It is certainly a matter of definition, because I would opine that any visitation by something out of normal reality (real or imagined) would be an unforgettable eperience, any way you look at it.
Here's a similarity that will interest you. When Mary appears, there is usually a point in the vision in which she describes problems of the world and how they might be solved. In alien abduction cases, there is often a point in which the aliens discuss problems of the world and how they might be solved. The aliens often discuss modern problems, like global warming, overpopulation, nuclear weapons, and the like, while the religious visitations deal more with the simpler aspects of human interactions (war, hatred, death, misery).
That is just off the top of my head; Jung actually wrote a whole book on the subject. I would look through his titles to find it.
There's already a lot of people who believe in Grey Aliens, but I haven't heard of people interpreting these Greys to be Christian angels or demons
Carl Jung theorized that aliens are the modern incarnation of angels and daemons. Both are psychic entities that take (or the mind gives?) the form in which they will make the most sense. Yugoslavian peasants witness the Virgin Mary; suburban Americans see UFOs.
Whether these entites are an internal, or external construct is purely a matter of conjecture; real or imaginary they affect the world, if only through the actions of believers.
A better extrapolation might be "Chinese in massively-populated cities [like Shanghai] tend to be aggressive, especially when poor." Similarly, a New Yorker is going to be much more aggressive than an Oregonian. Ethnicity has nothing to do with it.
They may get less. Electronic distribution is not in standard recording contracts: such 'miscellaneous' profits typically belong to the record label. So it depends on the individual artist -- but something tells me that most see next to nothing.
Thank you for explaining that point so succinctly. Al Queada is continuing in the tradition of the Hashishin (assassin) -- desert fanatics reacting against the machinations of Christian invaders. "Dont piss them off" is right, and this translates into: "Refrain from capitalizing/exploiting the Islamic world." They will simply not relent until they are left alone. But that is 'appeasement' and as such will only happen after horrific casualities pile up.
On another note, I find our Star Wars analogy to be particularly apt. Having personally witnessed the 911 attacks, I can say that I was struck by the similarity between what I was seeing, and the destruction of the Death Star. The towers were a symbol, like the death star, and both were removed from the world with, as you say, a plan of simple elegance. The Force might not be with these Rebels, but the US has Supercarrier fleets, after all...
How can you possibly defend such a position? How can the moderator possibly defend a "Funny" rating?? This not funny; this my mortality you're joking about.
Dude, chill out. Go read Robert Anton Wilson's bit about the "INTERNATIONAL COCAINE IMPORTERS, LTD. (Slogan: Everything Goes Better With Coke)" and then come back to this discussion. Your righteous indignation is blinding you to a very important principle of human behavior.
This really worries me because if blatant fraud and deceit become accepted business practices that are allowed to succeed, what does that say about the state of our civilization?
You mean the state of one arrogant country (America) out of an entire planet? Why, that country is degenerating to pre-1950 levels of prosperity. Other countries in our "civilization" will not have this problem, or not to the extent that we do, because they do not believe in Man's Right to Make Money Above All Else (But Jesus).
Yes, plan for the future. But also cross your fingers and hope that you avoid the sudden accidents and fatal illnesses that will make all investing moot. Just be warned: putting your life (money=time) in the bank "for retirement" is not an FDIC-insured transaction.
What's the big deal with this, everything "free" today is laced with ads of some type.
Ads are everywhere, so do not complain about the appearance of even more ads. Would you feel the same way if movies (in theater and on DVD) started breaking up the way television is broken up? You can always protest by removing yourself from popular culture altogether.
That said, I think people have more of a problem with a middleware company inserting itself into the meager wifi profit stream, than with providers recouping their costs.
Price is a valid point, but I think we're beyond the late-1999 era of OSS being the golden child for free things. It's 2004 now and the mentality is, "Okay it's cool that it's free, but I need results. What can I actually DO with this software?"
Didn't you hear the story about exploiting the goose that lays golden eggs? Here's a refresher.
Let things develop on their own time, or be prepared to help nuture its growth in some fashion.
Come to think of it, law enforcement's best tool to prevent crime is to lock everybody in their homes
Every unlucky accident and hideous crime (but especially the catastrophes) in the region and world are reported, and avidly digested, on a daily basis. Monitored alarm systems, gated communities, SUVs, hell even the suburbs in general: I would say that the society encourages self imprisionment naturally, making coercive authority unnecessary.
So nanofactories will replace corporate factories and this is _bad_ to the current power structure so government won't let it happen so we're doomed to be slaves to the heartless System.
We managed to escape from Feudalism, didn't we? Western civilizations also emerged from under the yoke of an opressive Church. More recently, slave-owning agriculturalists were replaced with immigrant-employing industrialists. World War I marked the collapse of old Imperial powers.
It might take a long time, many people mayl die, but eventually things will change again. Advocating regression is no better a vision for the world than what today's fundamentalists offer. Pandora's box cannot be closed.
"Unless the budgeting increases, the review process for a patent could double to 5 years."
Five years is plenty of time for others to come up with the same idea, take it to market, build a business, and then have it utterly destroyed when the patent is granted. So overloading the patent system results in more profit for the unscrupulous.
At the rate things are going, the best bet for innovators will be to leave the country. That will not bode well for American technical superiority in the long run.
So if you and I were to have a debate on the potential benefits of medical marijuana, and I ceasely retort every point with "There cannot be any benefits in using marijuana because it is Federally classed as an illegal substance with no positive benefits," then you call that straightfoward? Have I demonstrated understanding of the points you try to make? Or have I avoided all responsibility by sticking to the party line?
But then again, women enjoyed watching the show (opinion based upon informal survey). My girlfriend would slit her wrists rather than watch X-Men, or even Star Trek or Star Wars, but Mutant X was somehow acceptable and different.
As I tend to view any science fiction that pulls in outside viewers to be an encouraging, rather than discouraging, thing, I will actually regret that show going off.
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Re:Slashdotted? How about Cachedotted?
on
HDD Assault Cannon
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· Score: 1
It may be the FAQ's stated policy, but "Not My Responsibility" is not really the neighborly response. The policy is quite inconsiderate, though, and it has been personally stated by editors with an attitude that I classify as "bordering on arrogant." IMHO.
If enough Moderators made the parent post Insightful, maybe then its actually a Valid Point, regardless of any Official Decrees from Authority Figures?
This procedure you're talking about, where a bad law gets passed because a worse one was proposed is in my opinion simply called "compromise" and hence something very important in politics. The fact, that there could be a "worse" DRM comes from the music industry. The users (me too!) don't want any DRM. In this situation, there would be no legal digital music available.
The parent poster is actually correct, and is not being cynical. Case in Point: The transit authority of New York City pushed for an unwarranted fare hike. They proposed raising the fare 100%. The blacklash was furious; shortly thereafter, they proposed a "mere" 50% increase instead. The public was so releaved that the increase was allowed without further complaint. Commuters were interviewed as actually saying "At least the price isn't being doubled. What a relief."
If you do not think modern governments are clever enough to exploit people this fashion then you really are too naive to live in a democracy.
What is the "very fixed path" to which you refer? I'm from a large family. My parents were pretty poor (think foodstamps and handouts from the neighbors). Each of my siblings and I chose totally different paths for our lives.
But how different can the paths be, if they began in the same place? It is as if your entire family was thrown into the deep, unpleasant end the economic pool, and each of you decided on their willingness to reach shallower waters. Metaphor aside, it is telling that you give a doctor and a banker as examples; both indicate a rather serious work ethic. But our society prizes the 'professional' work ethic above all else, and this is not a question of social mobility for the self-realized. Instead consider the siblings that lack the certain traits society favors, or who fail (or refuse) to follow instruction, and who end up in professions not worthy of mentioning. Did each of your siblings sit down with a guidance counselor and plan their path? If not, then did they ever really choose? Even more importantly, out of your entire sib-ship, are the doctor and the banker the 'noblest' human beings? (You would have to define noble, also a value judgement, first.)
All options have negative consequences attached. All opportunities cost you in some way. Even if the cost is simply the lost opportunity to do something else.
A transactional perspective. Many people do not operate this way....are they to be scorned? How does the stock market treat a "misguided" corporation on the Big Board? Viewing human beings from a marketplace perspective is useful for certain metasocial goals, and counterproductive for others. This constrains everyone -- most certainly the staggering populations in our jails.
I will even go so far as to say that a few of the direful problems in the world today will be solved through social evolution, and not through direct application of will and accrued capital. But that is another story.
For those who don't want all of Apple's sugary-sweet spot, I humbly suggest a nutra-sweet spot:
The iRiver iGP-100. Major Disadvantages: 1.5 gb drive. No firewire. Major Advantages: It's slighty larger than a stopwatch. Costs $200, not $250 (before accessories). No Software Interface on either Mac, Windows, or Linux*. FM tuner. Flywheel navigation (just like a Blackberry), excellent GUI. Backlight. Firmware upgradable. Passes the Girlfriend Aesthetics Exam with flying colors.
For the size and craftsmanship of the device, I firmly believe that this player is the better deal, especially if you already have a full-sized iPod (or equivalent). It is easy to operate within a pocket -- just orient the flywheel, and you can navigate the filesystem with ease. The other buttons fit naturally beneath your fingers when you hold it in your hand. The player does not require any accessories to use fully; my girlfriend can exercise with it clipped on. It also comes with a case. I find the 1.5 gb drive is perfect for a trip's worth of music, or a few weeks of commuting. This is useful if you have a lot of music that is overlooked in your normal music listening, or if you aquire music quickly.
4 gb for $250 is clearly the better deal. But the....philosophy of design is an invisible modifier to that price, at least in my eyes.
* There is absolutely no need to mention it's ogg support. None whatsoever.
If a company puts GPL'd code in their (closed) product, they save the money they otherwise would have had to spend to pay programmers to write equivalent code. If you copy music, you save the money you otherwise would have had to spend to buy it at a store. These are more similar than you seem to be willing to acknowledge.
That is not similiar. If I downloaded copyrighted music, and then incorporated that music into my own music for resale, then I would be committing an equivalent violation. Using downloaded music as an 'enterainment tool' is comparable to a company downloading GPL software for internal company use.
Slashdot Mirror
===---===
When questioned about their beliefs, the scholars I mentioned describe ideas and concepts that are distinctly unorothodox. I suspect these people may have reached a personal understanding of the divine that would not be accepted by their respective communities. The ignorance of the lay community is a good thing, in this case, because the exact nature of their belief is not relevant to anything. The fact is they believe, and it provides a framework in which they can act in and upon the world.
I also suspect that the higher levels of theological scholars, pantheistically speaking, are far more tolerant of objective truth than most believe they are...
===---===
Does the pirate in your analogy steal music, put it on a public share, and then launch facetious and expensive lawsuits against the neighbors that download it? Is the pirate cooking a scheme that will turn stolen mp3s into a lifetime of profit? That might be a better comparison.
===---===
Here's a similarity that will interest you. When Mary appears, there is usually a point in the vision in which she describes problems of the world and how they might be solved. In alien abduction cases, there is often a point in which the aliens discuss problems of the world and how they might be solved. The aliens often discuss modern problems, like global warming, overpopulation, nuclear weapons, and the like, while the religious visitations deal more with the simpler aspects of human interactions (war, hatred, death, misery).
That is just off the top of my head; Jung actually wrote a whole book on the subject. I would look through his titles to find it.
Carl Jung theorized that aliens are the modern incarnation of angels and daemons. Both are psychic entities that take (or the mind gives?) the form in which they will make the most sense. Yugoslavian peasants witness the Virgin Mary; suburban Americans see UFOs.
Whether these entites are an internal, or external construct is purely a matter of conjecture; real or imaginary they affect the world, if only through the actions of believers.
They may get less. Electronic distribution is not in standard recording contracts: such 'miscellaneous' profits typically belong to the record label. So it depends on the individual artist -- but something tells me that most see next to nothing.
====---====
On another note, I find our Star Wars analogy to be particularly apt. Having personally witnessed the 911 attacks, I can say that I was struck by the similarity between what I was seeing, and the destruction of the Death Star. The towers were a symbol, like the death star, and both were removed from the world with, as you say, a plan of simple elegance. The Force might not be with these Rebels, but the US has Supercarrier fleets, after all...
===---===
Dude, chill out.
Go read Robert Anton Wilson's bit about the "INTERNATIONAL COCAINE IMPORTERS, LTD. (Slogan: Everything Goes Better With Coke)" and then come back to this discussion. Your righteous indignation is blinding you to a very important principle of human behavior.
====---====
You mean the state of one arrogant country (America) out of an entire planet? Why, that country is degenerating to pre-1950 levels of prosperity. Other countries in our "civilization" will not have this problem, or not to the extent that we do, because they do not believe in Man's Right to Make Money Above All Else (But Jesus).
====---====
Yes, plan for the future. But also cross your fingers and hope that you avoid the sudden accidents and fatal illnesses that will make all investing moot. Just be warned: putting your life (money=time) in the bank "for retirement" is not an FDIC-insured transaction.
===--===
Ads are everywhere, so do not complain about the appearance of even more ads. Would you feel the same way if movies (in theater and on DVD) started breaking up the way television is broken up? You can always protest by removing yourself from popular culture altogether.
That said, I think people have more of a problem with a middleware company inserting itself into the meager wifi profit stream, than with providers recouping their costs.
===---===
Didn't you hear the story about exploiting the goose that lays golden eggs? Here's a refresher.
Let things develop on their own time, or be prepared to help nuture its growth in some fashion.
====---====
Every unlucky accident and hideous crime (but especially the catastrophes) in the region and world are reported, and avidly digested, on a daily basis. Monitored alarm systems, gated communities, SUVs, hell even the suburbs in general: I would say that the society encourages self imprisionment naturally, making coercive authority unnecessary.
====---===
We managed to escape from Feudalism, didn't we? Western civilizations also emerged from under the yoke of an opressive Church. More recently, slave-owning agriculturalists were replaced with immigrant-employing industrialists. World War I marked the collapse of old Imperial powers.
It might take a long time, many people mayl die, but eventually things will change again. Advocating regression is no better a vision for the world than what today's fundamentalists offer. Pandora's box cannot be closed.
===---===
Five years is plenty of time for others to come up with the same idea, take it to market, build a business, and then have it utterly destroyed when the patent is granted. So overloading the patent system results in more profit for the unscrupulous.
At the rate things are going, the best bet for innovators will be to leave the country. That will not bode well for American technical superiority in the long run.
====---====
===--===
As I tend to view any science fiction that pulls in outside viewers to be an encouraging, rather than discouraging, thing, I will actually regret that show going off.
===--===
If enough Moderators made the parent post Insightful, maybe then its actually a Valid Point, regardless of any Official Decrees from Authority Figures?
===---===
The parent poster is actually correct, and is not being cynical. Case in Point: The transit authority of New York City pushed for an unwarranted fare hike. They proposed raising the fare 100%. The blacklash was furious; shortly thereafter, they proposed a "mere" 50% increase instead. The public was so releaved that the increase was allowed without further complaint. Commuters were interviewed as actually saying "At least the price isn't being doubled. What a relief."
If you do not think modern governments are clever enough to exploit people this fashion then you really are too naive to live in a democracy.
===--===
But how different can the paths be, if they began in the same place? It is as if your entire family was thrown into the deep, unpleasant end the economic pool, and each of you decided on their willingness to reach shallower waters.
Metaphor aside, it is telling that you give a doctor and a banker as examples; both indicate a rather serious work ethic. But our society prizes the 'professional' work ethic above all else, and this is not a question of social mobility for the self-realized. Instead consider the siblings that lack the certain traits society favors, or who fail (or refuse) to follow instruction, and who end up in professions not worthy of mentioning. Did each of your siblings sit down with a guidance counselor and plan their path? If not, then did they ever really choose? Even more importantly, out of your entire sib-ship, are the doctor and the banker the 'noblest' human beings? (You would have to define noble, also a value judgement, first.)
All options have negative consequences attached. All opportunities cost you in some way. Even if the cost is simply the lost opportunity to do something else.
A transactional perspective. Many people do not operate this way....are they to be scorned? How does the stock market treat a "misguided" corporation on the Big Board? Viewing human beings from a marketplace perspective is useful for certain metasocial goals, and counterproductive for others. This constrains everyone -- most certainly the staggering populations in our jails.
I will even go so far as to say that a few of the direful problems in the world today will be solved through social evolution, and not through direct application of will and accrued capital. But that is another story.
===--===
The iRiver iGP-100.
Major Disadvantages: 1.5 gb drive. No firewire.
Major Advantages: It's slighty larger than a stopwatch. Costs $200, not $250 (before accessories). No Software Interface on either Mac, Windows, or Linux*. FM tuner. Flywheel navigation (just like a Blackberry), excellent GUI. Backlight. Firmware upgradable. Passes the Girlfriend Aesthetics Exam with flying colors.
For the size and craftsmanship of the device, I firmly believe that this player is the better deal, especially if you already have a full-sized iPod (or equivalent). It is easy to operate within a pocket -- just orient the flywheel, and you can navigate the filesystem with ease. The other buttons fit naturally beneath your fingers when you hold it in your hand. The player does not require any accessories to use fully; my girlfriend can exercise with it clipped on. It also comes with a case. I find the 1.5 gb drive is perfect for a trip's worth of music, or a few weeks of commuting. This is useful if you have a lot of music that is overlooked in your normal music listening, or if you aquire music quickly.
4 gb for $250 is clearly the better deal. But the....philosophy of design is an invisible modifier to that price, at least in my eyes.
===---===
That is not similiar. If I downloaded copyrighted music, and then incorporated that music into my own music for resale, then I would be committing an equivalent violation. Using downloaded music as an 'enterainment tool' is comparable to a company downloading GPL software for internal company use.
It's just a bad analogy, either way.
===---===