Everything goes in cycles - Yeah, I was out of work and had no insurance... like a few Million of my fellow Americans. But I also live in a country where it's harder to fall through those cracks unless you're just trying to find them.
And don't think I haven't paid my share of taxes.
But who said anything about "the US auto industry?" Others might, so perhaps you're responding to them - I simply mentioned the auto industry. And in what world are Chevvy and Ford "US Auto companies?" Ford may have its headquarters in Dearborn and its earliest roots in Detroit, but it's an international corporation every bit as much as Wal-Mart, Nike, NEC and Nissan: there are ford and chevvy plants all overthe world, and have been for decades. You haven't been able to buy a Falcon in the US since the 60's, but new ones are running all over Australia. Where are those Falcons made? They damn sure aren't made in the US.
There are auto plants in Mississippi and Alabama and Tennessee and Ohio and more locales are looking to bring them in. No, they're not all "US names" - so what? They're good paying jobs. Ford closed a plant in Flat Rock, Mi (just around the corner from my home town) when I was a kid and by the time I was old enough to work there was a shiny new Mazda (er, Ford/Mazda) plant there.
And BTW, those aren't Japanese cars I was talking about with the 400hp, either. 400hp is the oft touted number for the new Ford Mustang... that is, unless you get the Cobra. Buzz is that one will come with a 24 valve, 500HP, supercharged SOHC V8. (Yeesh, what a sickly american car!)
Apparently you haven't seen ANY of the big budget flicks (action and otherwise) coming out of Hong Kong and Korea. they can spin the forumla just like we do - the only obstacle is language. Stick jackie Chan and a couple other big time Hollywood stars on a plane, send'em to Hong Kong, and there's no reason at all you couldn't get back a mainstream US hit.
Check out "Natural City" some time and see just how well this part of the world can compete right now.
I understand your reluctance to be a hero about this... but I'm saddened by your enthusiasm about mnaking yourself a victim.
Why did you switch careers to one that pays so poorly? If you are going to switch careers, one would think the logical movement would either be upward or toward greater personal happiness. Anything else is just a personal downward spiral, and (as much as I would also like to) you can't blame George Bush's economy for that.
it seems clear you don't understand something about my statements. Aside from yourself I have to ask "whaddyou mean we, white man?" or are you speaking of "the royal we?"
If you actually care, read my other comments to someone who cared to make a rational argument rather than deliver a torch.
and your "summary" is absurdly simplistic. It's as if you read only half the words I wrote.
So far as Detroit being "disastrous" - well, being from that area I can speak rather definitively on the subject: the people of the area, by and large, cared nothing of diversifying until it was far too late. I knew a LOT of auto workers - most every family I knew had at least one UAW worker in the family. And, by and large, they all shared certain traits: a sense of entitlement, a sense of demanding without compromise, and most of all a sense of absolute laziness when the bell rang.
I worked in auto plants all over the state. I've seen it myself: the workers who would deliberately fuck up the line so it would stall out, giving a third of the plant a three hour coffee break while maintenance scrambles to undo the damage. I worked for a company that designed some of the equipment that was being vanadlized like this, so I do have some experience on the matter. I also worked side by side with plant managers whose entire specialty was closing plants - when Cyd walked in the door, you knew you had three years... and yet, most of the workers just bitched and moaned and walked the ledge until the unemployment ran out.
In short: Detroit got what it deserved. The people within the industry (and I am NOT just speaking of UAW line workers) refused to evolve, and they killed the industry for an entire generation.
But look at it now: You have 400HP sports cars that get 20+ MPG and incredble body designs; the US auto industry is not limited to one midwestern city. In short: the organism evolved, and it's stronger as a result. The near universal sense of entitlemnent is gone, and more people are striving to be competetive.
Good comments, but still a bit lacking in historic (long term) outlook...
What you fail to contemplate is the benefits--in particular, who is benefitting from this? Indian workers, for instance, do not benefit in the long term. What is to stop the jobs from being outsourced to another lower-cost country?
Of all your responses, this one I think is the most failed. What you are overlooking is the fact that MANY jobs are being created. In the process a "tax base" can be built and a massive infrastructure can be constructed as well. Not an infrastructure of steel mills and coal plants (ukraine, for example, is rich on coal and has dozens of steel plants that now sit idle while people scrape to get by).
This new infrastructure is an asset that ultimately benefits everyone. Even those who don't work in the call centers - they have families, who in turn are better off. The people begging in the street have a more affluent community from which to beg. Communities get together and build communal resources.
This DOES happen. Migrant mexican laborers living in NYC pool what they can from their paychecks each week and then use the money to buy an ambulance for their town - a wide spot of dust in the road 1000 miles inside Mexico. Another group builds a baseball stadium - a handfull of blue collar laborers bring MONEY AND JOBS into their community, and build a symbol of hope in the process. Who's to say this very same process isn't going on right now in India?
If the outsourced workers don't benefit overall in the long-term, who does? Well, it is pretty simple. It is the capitalists. When I say capitalists I am talking about shareholders of corporations.
Ummm... but anyone can be a "shareholder." I know many companies where employees are also shareholders (AOL, for one, used to give so many shares to its employees each year. So did K-Mart). How many Microsofties became Millionaires off the shares they were offered while employees of the corporation?
You can't expect everything to change in an instant. Evolution takes time.
Another serious problem with "free trade" is that one of the major reasons corporations carry it out is to circumvent environmental regulations and working conditions.
Ayup. But then what happens? As the political structure of the community becomes more affluent, their expectations also rise. Someone who used to "get away" with dumping raw sewage into the community drain now has to face the prospect of moving (an expensive proposition no matter what some may argue) or spending more money on infrastructure to clean things up. Someone who used to "get away" with stacking containers of half used paint cans in the back yard of his small auto paint shop may no longer be allowed to do so - thanks to environmental regulations enacted by the more affluent society (that has given him business and a safe community to allow him to succeed), now he has to buy a low pressure paint gun and clean up the eyesore his neighbors have been enduring for years.
Again, it's evolution.
What passes for "free trade" is coming at the expense of workers. Most leftists would not want to see all the benefits accrued by worker movements in the past to be destroyed.
Ayup. and this country has failed miserably in such a context. In the last twenty years we've seen countless unions "busted," Millions displaced from their jobs... and giant corporations like Wal-Mart rise to near global domination.
What's wrong with this picture? If people truly cared would they still shop at Wal-Mart? I'm definitely not rich and I'll be damned if I'm going to shop there. I buy hardware goods from the community hardware store (that closed for a time when the original owner decided he had enough), I buy most groceries from the local grocery store where it's not uncommon to find the old lady in front of me at the checkout expecting (and, most importantly, getting) a ride home from one of the stock boys who will, no doubt
I work in a call center. I went back there about five months ago and I went back simply because I enjoy the job. I do my best to meet the metrics expected of me, but I don't let it burden me - if my call time is a little high I have no problem taking the heat. If this ends up with me being fired (although I doubt it will) it really doesn't matter to me - I do what I do because I enjoy it, and if I weren't doing what I do here I'd be doing something else I enjoy somewhere else (and, because I'm able to work a four day weekend schedule with three open days in the middle of the week, I do just that).
I'm 41. I grew up in a small town about 30 miles outside Detroit, and I remember well the fuel crisis of the 70's, and the Detroit response to the growing stream of imports that followed. I also vividly remember the Polish coal miner's strike and proudly wearing my red "Solidarnosc" t-shirt. I was - and am - a punk. I come from a blue collar home, and I share many of my father's ideals - a man who worked thirty years as a union pipe fitter. I am definitely no corporate apologist.
Yet I'm saddened to see the same nonsense being repeated in this field that happened nearly three decades ago in the auto industry. Only this time it's doubly embarassing to me, because Japan in the 70's was already a very developed, affluent nation (remember when they were taking all that heat for buying up US properties?). This time, however, it's India - a nation brutally overpopulated where people regularly die needless deaths from ailments like burst appendices and dysentary.
I had an appendicitis attack a few years ago. I didn't have a job and I had no money in the bank. Yet I showed up at the hospital and they asked zero questions when it came time to resolve the issue. Total cost was several thousand dollars and the fact I couldn't pay for any of it at the time meant essentially nothing: I got my treatment. If I hadn't, I likely would have died a slow, painful death from paretenitis.
We live in a nation where no one HAS to starve. Where no one HAS to sleep on the street. Where no one HAS to die from common little ailments simply because they can't get basic medical attention or clean drinking water.
Isolationism is cowardice. Isn't this that same community of folks who routinely chant "evolve or die" when it comes to issues like RIAA protectionism, proprietary software protectionism, and absurdly overblown patent laws? Yet I've not seen ONE comment from anyone here of that sort.
check out the releases on this site. Siouxsie and Budgie have been doing things their own way for years, and they seem to be doing quite OK. They do regular international tours (in the US even now) and you'll be hard pressed to find a release on their site that is NOT SOLD OUT.
Go on... see for yourself.
You'll also be hard pressed to find their music being traded on usenet or other p2p services. Not because no one likes it (obviously many of us do, lest it not sell out) but because they have created a "brand" of intimacy and respect. Even years ago, when my buddy brian was selling their unofficial "Janet and the Icebergs" compilation (a DIY CD box set of every single Siouxsie and the Banshees track he could collect, all perfectly processed in Cool Edit), most of the members seemed perfectly fine with it. Reason being, it wasn't done "for profit" and it never escaped the bounds of "the community" (this was years before Napster was even a Hershey bar in young Mr. Fanning's back pocket).
On the other hand, if I really want a release that's sold out, it's not too hard for me to find someone "in the community" with an extra copy to sell. Will I pay more than "retail?" Quite likely; such is the price of exclusivity.
So... do some quick math. Each of those releases is limited to 1000 (very exclusive, usually limited to fan club members) to 30,000 copies (for a really hyped, popular release). At $20 a pop and 6 releases a year, what's that? Maybe $200,000.00 or so a year? Plus the money (and lifestyle perks) from touring? And I wonder: just how much do they still get from the "Batman" and "Lost In Space" soundtracks?
Rather vulgar to talk of money like this in LaSioux's absence, but the point needs to be made: artists don't need to sell a 100,000 copies of a CD in order to make good money - only record companies need to sell 100,000 copies in order to make money. Strip la machine out of the venue, and talented artists can do quite well on just a few percent of the volume demanded by the men in the shark skin suits.
Will get you 6GB of downloads from easynews. that's WITH a giant clickable web interface that supports whatever download manager you want to use (they'll even help you configure it) because these people are smart enough to realize download managers SAVE them money on bandwidth.
Take the weekly poll (how's our service?) and you'll get another 500MB a week - that's at least three CDs of high quality MP3 tracks in addition to the 50 or so CDs worth of bandwidth you get with the basic $9.98 subscription fee.
emusic is just more of the same. That "downhill battle" webpage needs to add another about emusic, since it, like napster and itunes, is just more of the same. No DRM? So what? It's still an overpriced slushbox funneling money into the RIAA "sue da bastards" fund.
So when I see stuff like Audio Lunchbox or MagnaTunes, well, I like the idea but I'm inclined not to part with my money, for fear of buying bad music.
Then don't buy it. You can listen to any CD on MagnaTunes for free. You can even choose low bandwidth (as I, being on a modem, must do) or you can have the entire thing streamed through your winamp player at a "glorious" 128kbps. In fact, you can download every single track for free at that bitrate and listen to them as many times as you like. You can also just let their "radio stations" stream to your desktop and pick up the stuff you like as it plays.
In other words: the new way is just like the old way - except you get to choose who gets your money, and you know how much of it they get.
You listen to what they offer, you buy what you like. And you don't have to listen to idiotic jocks screaming at you to shop at crazy eddie's. So where is the "risk" in all that?
When I went to that page the first thing that caught my eye was the Stereolab Radio 1 sessions. "Cool" I thought - "they have Stereolab!" So I clicked - only to find out it's really only HALF the album (cd1 of 2) and it's $9.99 to buy a collection of 192kbps mp3 files or some Q6 ogg files. Given that I MIGHT download 192kbps or Q7 files if they were given to me in newsgroups, I don't consider that much of a choice. And, while that CD set might cost 30 bucks if you live in the UK, right at the top of that page it says "this is only for sale to people in the US and Canada."
No way will I pay a buck a track to download music from an RIAA org or one of their offshore, affiliated orgs. No matter how many times I listen to Pink or Alicia Keyes or Outkast, my feeling is they have enough money and I'll miss it a hell of a lot more than they will.
That said, if Outkast were not on a major label, and if they had a place where I could buy merchandise - whether it be cds or other "stuff" - I probably would throw some bucks their way. Maybe so with Pink as well, although probably not with Alicia unless they offered a $3.95 hat pin or something.
I feel obliged to share - period. If that means sharing "intangible" assets because I'm broke, so be it. If it means sharing my income with the lady who does my laundry for $30 a week when I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, that'll work too. I have a whole stack of Linda's CDs here I bought for $6 each from a Russian retail outlet. Do I think Linda got ANY money from my purchase? No - but I really wanted the music and $6 a pop is cheap enough it doesn't hurt my bottom line so if I should find a LEGITIMATE contact where I can make sure Linda gets paid, she'll be getting some cash from me - and it definitely will be more than $6 for each of the 8 discs I have.
Meanwhile, because I'm all but certain the CDs I purchased were pirated, I have no reservations about ripping them to 320kbps mp3 and plastering them all over usenet (in fact, many of them are probably still on your favorite nntp server).
I really think price is irrelevant when it comes to such things. I downloaded a CD of MP3s from usenet a couple of weeks back that quickly became some of my favorite new tracks. When I went online to search for the artist, I was pleasantly surprised when the trail led me right back to the GPL community. So now I can choose how much I wish to reward the artistand download essentially perfect copies (FLAC, WAV, etc) of every track. I can even license the work for my own commercial use with a few mouse clicks.
Linda... and Pink... and Neil (as in Young) are you listening? That $18 selection has your names on it - just give us the chance.
Yeesh. I can't believe how many folks here can't think of "solar" as anything except pv panels and batteries!
Try this. Direct refrigeration from the sun - and it doesn't even use salt water and ammonia.
If you just want cooling (er, you can also get heating with this) and you have the property, it's even easier. Dig a buncha ditches and lay some pipe. You combine these inlets with a decent solar chimney and you have a completely "passive" (ie no machine moving parts, no electricity needed) means of circulating 60 degree air throughout the house.
Oh, and here's a DIY solar ice maker - just for the heck of it.
Feel free to message me about this. Solar energy is something of an avocation of mine.
Mkay, so in order for your doomsday scenario to come to pass you are ALSO saying "when the EU embraces MS technology on grand fashion; when China and the rest of the eastern nations - AND those "other" Americas that lie closer to the equator and below it - all abandon their ideals and their government backed plans to usurp the US as the technological leader of this "new, free world" - THEN we will no longer have the luxury of using gnome, and linux, and mySQL on our public network desktops and purchasing nominally priced offshore web hosting.
That "ghetto" you're talking about is basically 90% of the world. In this case I affirm with all my heart that the only "ghetto" is the one already being built right here in the US - a ghetto that I rarely find need to visit. CNN, MSNBC, AOL - I don't buy CDs, I don't buy cable TV, I don't even receive dead tree magazines. The only DVDs I've purchased recently came form Hong Kong and the only CDs I've bought recently (that weren't part of a creative commons project) are from Russia and Turkey. So your assertion is that all these countries will just bend over and wait for us to deliver "the big package" of culture and commerce? That the creative commons project will fail even when it has available to it hosts like those operating in Norway and Russia?
Not to mention Microsoft already indirectly controls most of its dumb consumers simply because it controls the software that runs their machines.
funny... I routinely have to patch up machines infected by sub-seven or some other trojan, but I very much doubt these are being delivered by anyone in Redmond...
"Trusted Computing" will only let Microsoft and other large corporations control the few users who still do control their computers
Really? I use windows 2000 along with IPCop and Mandrake, and I don't see how MS is going to change any of this - "trusted computing" or not. You really need to get out more and realize the world doesn't end at the US border.
...and combined with the vastly successful Document Format lock-in, we will all be stuck with computers that Microsoft controls, or without the ability to communicate with mostly anyone.
Ahem. I "print" pdf documents right from my open office word processor. I create HTML using a text editor which I then "publish" at my wiki. Again, I fail to see how "trusted computing" will put an end to either of these practices - especially considering there's virtually NO MS software involved in the process from my desktop all the way to the server.
"Trusted Computing" (more accurately described "Treacherous computing") is horrible, and all the myths about it solving any security problems are just a propoganda attempt to get users to "upgrade" their computers into total Microsoft control.
But... you just said they're already under MS control. Remember? It's right up there where I reply with mention of sub-seven variants.
The problem is MS is not in control of those machines - nor are the owners of those machines. No one is in control of those machines except maybe the people who find the backdoors on them through regular port scans on certain well known IP ranges. The vast majority of folks out there are NOT system admins, and they end up with machines trashed and data lost because of their ignorance. I'm one of those people who ends up cleaning up the mess; I'll be sorry to lose the business to MS and HP and the other companies who will sell "trusted" platforms, but the fact is this industry is never going to mature so long as we're all part of "the wild, wild west."
but then PG 2 has another 48K books that aren't on Gutenberg, and might just be worth paying $8.95 a year to access, something the article doesn't make clear.
And so one would think these titles, since they are part of "PG2," are also of expired copyright?
So what's then to stop someone from payng the 8.95, downloading those 48k typeset and proofed texts, and then contributing them to the real PG?
That just ain't so. Because when it comes to "ease of use" we're not talking about being able to install stuff - we're only talking about using stuff that's installed. A "terminal" that would run AOL and MSN access and allow people to watch DVDs and other for-pay content could be contructed so as to be completely unhackable unless one had physical access to the machine - all it takes is a bootable CDROM.
Which brings me back to the question "why doesn't AOL just tell MS to go to hell and deliver all those DVDs as bootable linux based machines? It would sure save their users some headaches, not to mention the poor techs who have to clean up the piles of shit their product leaves behind.
Oh, wait - dumb question, ain't it? If they did that then they'd have no one to blame when their overblown, poorly kludged together product blew up someone's account.
The problem is "trusting the user" MOST often means "trusting" someone to download any shit that pops in front of them in a pretty package, "trusting" them to NEVER update their system to clear up known security problems, and "trusting" them to leave their system online, no matter how badly corrupted it is, until it is so sick it no longer functions at all.
Remember "eXistenZ?" It's like that - half the world's computers are under the control of anyone willing to run regular nessus scans and a few backdoor control panels. So.. yeah, maybe some in the linux crowd resent this because the boon won't last more than a few more years. But honestly, something HAS to be done. If that means creating software and system that then set the precedent of forcing corporations to become responsibe administrators of the systems they market on wide scale, so much the better.
This doesn't mean I have to buy one, or that there won't always exist other mechanisms for connecting to the public internet. But most people don't know a fucking thing about free specch - hell, many of them believe "free software" is illegal in any form. All they want is a terminal in their home that feeds them the latest buzz from aol and msn and ebay - and the internet is a fucking mess today because of these users and their five year old Windows 98 and ME security siphons.
The internet exists well outside the US, and many countries are making a giant leap in the direction of OSS. Combine that with a giant push toward obsoleting those fucked up "legacy" systems and we all move closer to a more secure AND more usable internet for everyone.
Sorry... I'll go put my chicken little costume back on now and join you all back at the shack...
The reality is those old cars handled like shit, were fairly light but rattled like soup cans, and often had really crap parts like heating vents made from cardboard and seats stuffed with straw that would eventually just rot away. Not that plastic is the most durable good, but it at least keeps its shape if protected from UV rays.
And those engines sucked gas like battle tanks and could "smoke the tires" for a block because a "fat" tire back then was about like an M70 truck tire. Stick a set of 70 series tires on a "modern" mustang or corvette and you'd be able to boil the back hides bare in a single afternoon of playing.
That's the problem with nostalgia: it's never an accurate reflection of reality. WELL DESIGNED modern cars can outrun between lights, outhandle on the twisties, and outdistance those old cars between pit stops. ANd they'll do it all with so much more comfort it ain't even funny.
Yeah, it'd be great if you got an old GT40 or Cobra. But for the other 99.995% of the "old" cars out there it's all about the looks. If only you could get a 2/3 size replica of a '67 Mustang with that menacing front end and a decent suspension - and an interior that wasn't made from cardboard and tin - it'd be great. Barring that, I think I'll stick with a later model and dig on the 300hp engine that gets 20MPG and turns the car across the finish line in 13 seconds or so.
Not all of us use this stuff for DOWNLOADING MOVIES. I haven't downloaded a movie in ages - I don't have the bandwidth. However I have several on my hdd and use xvid not only for archiving music videos and shows I enjoy, but also to get around the general DVD suckiness (movies that degrade over time, stutter, and require me to go back to the disc every time I want to watch one).
I like having all my movies and music and shows just a mouse click away. No fondling media, no DVD drives whooshing and movies stuttering halfway throgh because some tiny piece of schmutz got on the precious disc. In order to do this, I don't care at all what 500kbs or 1mbps files look like - The Twins effect alone occupies about 2GB on one of my drives, and I still haven't been able to produce a rip of Natural City that satisfies me even when the last one I tried was nearly 4GB (lots of film grain in that one and I don't care to lose it).
Yes... many of us care about quality. In fact, this is the very reason I rip DVDs - so the programs I enjoy play (more smoothly) from my hard drive.
As a green geek I can't resist pointing out this merit: with only a 200W power dissipation this would be "home friendly" even in a non air conditioned house during the hot Mississippi summers. And with only a 200W PEAK draw, the entire system could be powered by a single PV panel and one or two storage batteries. Trade the "high quality UPS" for a couple of batteries and a PV panel (or cheaper still if you're in the midwest or near a coastline, a windmill) and you have a cluster that could run without any "store bought" AC at all.
So now windows users basicly use a web browser to navigate their files on their own hard drives.
So do redhat users.
So do Apple users.
the problem is not that people use the web browser to navigate their hard drives. The problem is that every goddamn desktop widget has hooks right into the innermost parts of the OS and has full priviledges to use them. So you end up with great "features" like being able to install backdoors on anyone's system just by getting them to click on the WMA file you renamed as an MP3, or infecting their entire system by getting them to look at the folder where you planted your virus with the hidden filename.
XP came with all kinds of great security features out of the box. Too bad they all come disabled out of the box and MS doesn't have the guts to put a "user security wizard" right on the default desktop for fear of creating some sort of mass exodus. Better for all those users to go on believing windows is a brittle piece of shit that they "break" by pressing the wrong key than to have them learn the reason their systems become senile over time is because it's so full of security holes it's available resources are being swamped by one browser exploit after another...
neither of you are reading what I said. You can put in a damn part number and you'll STILL just get links to sales sites. You may get a link to the manufacturer's page as well, but it's still damn near impossible to find an actual REVIEW even when using the words REVIEW PART MANUFACTURER)
Don't be telling me I need to learn to use google... how 'bout you learn to read a post before replying.
Because google really needs the competition. While I find the search engine useful for many specific tasks (like the way it provides a better search of the ms tech support site than MS does) and it's still my first choice for searches, it ain't AT ALL what it used to be. Try looking for "motherboard reviews" for example (even if you have a specific part number) and you'll be lucky to find an ACTUAL "review" on the first two pages of results.
Google was great, but "advertisers" figured out how to game it long ago and I don't think the folks at google are interested in evolving the concept much further. I have serious reservations about MS being able to actually compete with their technology (they can't even figure out what's on their own damn tech support site) but I really wish SOMEONE would do some "duplication and evolution;" maybe THAT would light a fire under some asses at google.
What's to stop me now form posting the location of someone's children? More importantly, what's it matter? Do you think no one knows where your children are? Do you think no one sees them go to school each day? Do you think posting a picture of one of your kids and your home address is going to make your kid a target of some anonymous, lecherous attacker just sitting at home lazily waiting for someoone to point him toward his next victim?
If someone had access to, and revealed, nuclear access codes... would you know what to do with them? Who of us would have the ability to even make use of such information? You don't think there are safety mechanisms in place? Like, if someone had a "nuclear launch code" all they would need to do to start WWIII is go to www.bombtheshitoutofsomeone.gov, pick a target, and enter the "secret code" on an insecure webform?
The only "real world consequence" of "bad speech" is MORE SPEECH. If you let child molestors trade their wares in public you give us all more opportunity to identify the victims (fact: few of the children in these pictures ever are identified, and of those few it is well documented that information sent to law enforcement by recipients of these materials has led investigators directly to he culprit). Assuming everyone who hangs about in child molestor trophy trading groups - again - assumes the worse about us all.
The problem here is you're really just making up excuses. There is ALREADY an "anonymous accountability system" in place on freenet - it's been there all along. It's called a pgp key, and there's no reason at all I cannot "mark" each and every one of my posts to freenet using my pgp key to generate a tagfile. There is nothing to stop me from having a dozen such keys, either, which means you still don't know who I am unless you know who I am. You think the people who post kiddie porn don't hang out in other forums, too? I mean, it's not like someone in real life can be both a child molestor AND a priest... right?
Making the argument "free speech only empowers bad things" is assuming the absolute worse about all people. Don't you think anyone will post rebuttals? Don't you see how allowing someone to spew hatred into the world only provides the rest of us an opportunity to more clearly define the boundaries of civility by rebuking it in a very public (and NON-anonymous) fashion?
Your first post also makes another really silly assumption: that people who spread bad stuff are just waiting for the chance to send it to you - to make it sneak up on you; to "indoctrinate" you somehow. Like the people who trade child pornography are just waiting for the chance to "trick" you into viewing it so as to instantly "pervert" your senses of right and wrong.
If you need someone else to take that bullet for you - if your sense of right and wrong is so feeble that "accidentally" seeing something might turn your around - then you should not only avoid freenet, you'd do well to avoid tv and radio and the internet altogether. Not just for yourself, but to help keep those around you safe as well. And by all means, avert your eyes from the cover of ANY "women's" magazine (where 12-15yr old girls are known to appear looking uncannily glamorous and, dare I say, sexual).
Understand? The only accountability is to yourself. There ARE no excuses: either you believe in free speech, or you don't. So what if someone shouts "fire" in a theatre? I've actually been in a theatre when the fire alarm went off, and there certainly was no mad rush: most of us sat there for a minute or more hoping the damn thing would shut off so we could hear the movie; as we stood around the parking lot waiting for the "all clear" we were simply annoyed that our evening had been interrupted by such nonsense. Ever see those videos of the Whitesnake show? The one where all the people died? Even when the fire started there was no panic - the panic only came when it became obvious the danger was real.
No excuses, not imaginary dangers. What killed those people was lack of an alarm system - lack of information. and I'll spare us all, at this point, any further metaphors about society and burning buildings and people wandering around blissfully ignorant to the dangers hidden in the smoky haze...
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And don't think I haven't paid my share of taxes.
But who said anything about "the US auto industry?" Others might, so perhaps you're responding to them - I simply mentioned the auto industry. And in what world are Chevvy and Ford "US Auto companies?" Ford may have its headquarters in Dearborn and its earliest roots in Detroit, but it's an international corporation every bit as much as Wal-Mart, Nike, NEC and Nissan: there are ford and chevvy plants all over the world, and have been for decades. You haven't been able to buy a Falcon in the US since the 60's, but new ones are running all over Australia. Where are those Falcons made? They damn sure aren't made in the US.
There are auto plants in Mississippi and Alabama and Tennessee and Ohio and more locales are looking to bring them in. No, they're not all "US names" - so what? They're good paying jobs. Ford closed a plant in Flat Rock, Mi (just around the corner from my home town) when I was a kid and by the time I was old enough to work there was a shiny new Mazda (er, Ford/Mazda) plant there.
And BTW, those aren't Japanese cars I was talking about with the 400hp, either. 400hp is the oft touted number for the new Ford Mustang... that is, unless you get the Cobra. Buzz is that one will come with a 24 valve, 500HP, supercharged SOHC V8. (Yeesh, what a sickly american car!)
So, is that car American or Australian? Or is it British? Or German? Oh, wait, they're being assembled by 1,400 UAW workers in Flat Rock, Michigan... so I guess it must be a Japanese car after all.
Yeah, dat's da ticket.
Apparently you haven't seen ANY of the big budget flicks (action and otherwise) coming out of Hong Kong and Korea. they can spin the forumla just like we do - the only obstacle is language. Stick jackie Chan and a couple other big time Hollywood stars on a plane, send'em to Hong Kong, and there's no reason at all you couldn't get back a mainstream US hit.
Check out "Natural City" some time and see just how well this part of the world can compete right now.
Here's some examples of why Hollywood's "lead" is far from certain.
Why did you switch careers to one that pays so poorly? If you are going to switch careers, one would think the logical movement would either be upward or toward greater personal happiness. Anything else is just a personal downward spiral, and (as much as I would also like to) you can't blame George Bush's economy for that.
If you actually care, read my other comments to someone who cared to make a rational argument rather than deliver a torch.
and your "summary" is absurdly simplistic. It's as if you read only half the words I wrote.
So far as Detroit being "disastrous" - well, being from that area I can speak rather definitively on the subject: the people of the area, by and large, cared nothing of diversifying until it was far too late. I knew a LOT of auto workers - most every family I knew had at least one UAW worker in the family. And, by and large, they all shared certain traits: a sense of entitlement, a sense of demanding without compromise, and most of all a sense of absolute laziness when the bell rang.
I worked in auto plants all over the state. I've seen it myself: the workers who would deliberately fuck up the line so it would stall out, giving a third of the plant a three hour coffee break while maintenance scrambles to undo the damage. I worked for a company that designed some of the equipment that was being vanadlized like this, so I do have some experience on the matter. I also worked side by side with plant managers whose entire specialty was closing plants - when Cyd walked in the door, you knew you had three years... and yet, most of the workers just bitched and moaned and walked the ledge until the unemployment ran out.
In short: Detroit got what it deserved. The people within the industry (and I am NOT just speaking of UAW line workers) refused to evolve, and they killed the industry for an entire generation.
But look at it now: You have 400HP sports cars that get 20+ MPG and incredble body designs; the US auto industry is not limited to one midwestern city. In short: the organism evolved, and it's stronger as a result. The near universal sense of entitlemnent is gone, and more people are striving to be competetive.
Your ignorant rant made my point quite well, thanks.
What you fail to contemplate is the benefits--in particular, who is benefitting from this? Indian workers, for instance, do not benefit in the long term. What is to stop the jobs from being outsourced to another lower-cost country?
Of all your responses, this one I think is the most failed. What you are overlooking is the fact that MANY jobs are being created. In the process a "tax base" can be built and a massive infrastructure can be constructed as well. Not an infrastructure of steel mills and coal plants (ukraine, for example, is rich on coal and has dozens of steel plants that now sit idle while people scrape to get by).
This new infrastructure is an asset that ultimately benefits everyone. Even those who don't work in the call centers - they have families, who in turn are better off. The people begging in the street have a more affluent community from which to beg. Communities get together and build communal resources.
This DOES happen. Migrant mexican laborers living in NYC pool what they can from their paychecks each week and then use the money to buy an ambulance for their town - a wide spot of dust in the road 1000 miles inside Mexico. Another group builds a baseball stadium - a handfull of blue collar laborers bring MONEY AND JOBS into their community, and build a symbol of hope in the process. Who's to say this very same process isn't going on right now in India?
If the outsourced workers don't benefit overall in the long-term, who does? Well, it is pretty simple. It is the capitalists. When I say capitalists I am talking about shareholders of corporations.
Ummm... but anyone can be a "shareholder." I know many companies where employees are also shareholders (AOL, for one, used to give so many shares to its employees each year. So did K-Mart). How many Microsofties became Millionaires off the shares they were offered while employees of the corporation?
You can't expect everything to change in an instant. Evolution takes time.
Another serious problem with "free trade" is that one of the major reasons corporations carry it out is to circumvent environmental regulations and working conditions.
Ayup. But then what happens? As the political structure of the community becomes more affluent, their expectations also rise. Someone who used to "get away" with dumping raw sewage into the community drain now has to face the prospect of moving (an expensive proposition no matter what some may argue) or spending more money on infrastructure to clean things up. Someone who used to "get away" with stacking containers of half used paint cans in the back yard of his small auto paint shop may no longer be allowed to do so - thanks to environmental regulations enacted by the more affluent society (that has given him business and a safe community to allow him to succeed), now he has to buy a low pressure paint gun and clean up the eyesore his neighbors have been enduring for years.
Again, it's evolution.
What passes for "free trade" is coming at the expense of workers. Most leftists would not want to see all the benefits accrued by worker movements in the past to be destroyed.
Ayup. and this country has failed miserably in such a context. In the last twenty years we've seen countless unions "busted," Millions displaced from their jobs... and giant corporations like Wal-Mart rise to near global domination.
What's wrong with this picture? If people truly cared would they still shop at Wal-Mart? I'm definitely not rich and I'll be damned if I'm going to shop there. I buy hardware goods from the community hardware store (that closed for a time when the original owner decided he had enough), I buy most groceries from the local grocery store where it's not uncommon to find the old lady in front of me at the checkout expecting (and, most importantly, getting) a ride home from one of the stock boys who will, no doubt
I'm 41. I grew up in a small town about 30 miles outside Detroit, and I remember well the fuel crisis of the 70's, and the Detroit response to the growing stream of imports that followed. I also vividly remember the Polish coal miner's strike and proudly wearing my red "Solidarnosc" t-shirt. I was - and am - a punk. I come from a blue collar home, and I share many of my father's ideals - a man who worked thirty years as a union pipe fitter. I am definitely no corporate apologist.
Yet I'm saddened to see the same nonsense being repeated in this field that happened nearly three decades ago in the auto industry. Only this time it's doubly embarassing to me, because Japan in the 70's was already a very developed, affluent nation (remember when they were taking all that heat for buying up US properties?). This time, however, it's India - a nation brutally overpopulated where people regularly die needless deaths from ailments like burst appendices and dysentary.
I had an appendicitis attack a few years ago. I didn't have a job and I had no money in the bank. Yet I showed up at the hospital and they asked zero questions when it came time to resolve the issue. Total cost was several thousand dollars and the fact I couldn't pay for any of it at the time meant essentially nothing: I got my treatment. If I hadn't, I likely would have died a slow, painful death from paretenitis.
We live in a nation where no one HAS to starve. Where no one HAS to sleep on the street. Where no one HAS to die from common little ailments simply because they can't get basic medical attention or clean drinking water.
Isolationism is cowardice. Isn't this that same community of folks who routinely chant "evolve or die" when it comes to issues like RIAA protectionism, proprietary software protectionism, and absurdly overblown patent laws? Yet I've not seen ONE comment from anyone here of that sort.
I'm ashamed for the lot of you.
Go on... see for yourself.
You'll also be hard pressed to find their music being traded on usenet or other p2p services. Not because no one likes it (obviously many of us do, lest it not sell out) but because they have created a "brand" of intimacy and respect. Even years ago, when my buddy brian was selling their unofficial "Janet and the Icebergs" compilation (a DIY CD box set of every single Siouxsie and the Banshees track he could collect, all perfectly processed in Cool Edit), most of the members seemed perfectly fine with it. Reason being, it wasn't done "for profit" and it never escaped the bounds of "the community" (this was years before Napster was even a Hershey bar in young Mr. Fanning's back pocket).
On the other hand, if I really want a release that's sold out, it's not too hard for me to find someone "in the community" with an extra copy to sell. Will I pay more than "retail?" Quite likely; such is the price of exclusivity.
So... do some quick math. Each of those releases is limited to 1000 (very exclusive, usually limited to fan club members) to 30,000 copies (for a really hyped, popular release). At $20 a pop and 6 releases a year, what's that? Maybe $200,000.00 or so a year? Plus the money (and lifestyle perks) from touring? And I wonder: just how much do they still get from the "Batman" and "Lost In Space" soundtracks?
Rather vulgar to talk of money like this in LaSioux's absence, but the point needs to be made: artists don't need to sell a 100,000 copies of a CD in order to make good money - only record companies need to sell 100,000 copies in order to make money. Strip la machine out of the venue, and talented artists can do quite well on just a few percent of the volume demanded by the men in the shark skin suits.
Take the weekly poll (how's our service?) and you'll get another 500MB a week - that's at least three CDs of high quality MP3 tracks in addition to the 50 or so CDs worth of bandwidth you get with the basic $9.98 subscription fee.
emusic is just more of the same. That "downhill battle" webpage needs to add another about emusic, since it, like napster and itunes, is just more of the same. No DRM? So what? It's still an overpriced slushbox funneling money into the RIAA "sue da bastards" fund.
So when I see stuff like Audio Lunchbox or MagnaTunes, well, I like the idea but I'm inclined not to part with my money, for fear of buying bad music.
Then don't buy it. You can listen to any CD on MagnaTunes for free. You can even choose low bandwidth (as I, being on a modem, must do) or you can have the entire thing streamed through your winamp player at a "glorious" 128kbps. In fact, you can download every single track for free at that bitrate and listen to them as many times as you like. You can also just let their "radio stations" stream to your desktop and pick up the stuff you like as it plays.
In other words: the new way is just like the old way - except you get to choose who gets your money, and you know how much of it they get.
You listen to what they offer, you buy what you like. And you don't have to listen to idiotic jocks screaming at you to shop at crazy eddie's. So where is the "risk" in all that?
So how is that cheaper than CDs?
That said, if Outkast were not on a major label, and if they had a place where I could buy merchandise - whether it be cds or other "stuff" - I probably would throw some bucks their way. Maybe so with Pink as well, although probably not with Alicia unless they offered a $3.95 hat pin or something.
I feel obliged to share - period. If that means sharing "intangible" assets because I'm broke, so be it. If it means sharing my income with the lady who does my laundry for $30 a week when I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, that'll work too. I have a whole stack of Linda's CDs here I bought for $6 each from a Russian retail outlet. Do I think Linda got ANY money from my purchase? No - but I really wanted the music and $6 a pop is cheap enough it doesn't hurt my bottom line so if I should find a LEGITIMATE contact where I can make sure Linda gets paid, she'll be getting some cash from me - and it definitely will be more than $6 for each of the 8 discs I have.
Meanwhile, because I'm all but certain the CDs I purchased were pirated, I have no reservations about ripping them to 320kbps mp3 and plastering them all over usenet (in fact, many of them are probably still on your favorite nntp server).
I really think price is irrelevant when it comes to such things. I downloaded a CD of MP3s from usenet a couple of weeks back that quickly became some of my favorite new tracks. When I went online to search for the artist, I was pleasantly surprised when the trail led me right back to the GPL community. So now I can choose how much I wish to reward the artist and download essentially perfect copies (FLAC, WAV, etc) of every track. I can even license the work for my own commercial use with a few mouse clicks.
Linda... and Pink... and Neil (as in Young) are you listening? That $18 selection has your names on it - just give us the chance.
Try this. Direct refrigeration from the sun - and it doesn't even use salt water and ammonia.
If you just want cooling (er, you can also get heating with this) and you have the property, it's even easier. Dig a buncha ditches and lay some pipe. You combine these inlets with a decent solar chimney and you have a completely "passive" (ie no machine moving parts, no electricity needed) means of circulating 60 degree air throughout the house.
Oh, and here's a DIY solar ice maker - just for the heck of it.
Feel free to message me about this. Solar energy is something of an avocation of mine.
That "ghetto" you're talking about is basically 90% of the world. In this case I affirm with all my heart that the only "ghetto" is the one already being built right here in the US - a ghetto that I rarely find need to visit. CNN, MSNBC, AOL - I don't buy CDs, I don't buy cable TV, I don't even receive dead tree magazines. The only DVDs I've purchased recently came form Hong Kong and the only CDs I've bought recently (that weren't part of a creative commons project) are from Russia and Turkey. So your assertion is that all these countries will just bend over and wait for us to deliver "the big package" of culture and commerce? That the creative commons project will fail even when it has available to it hosts like those operating in Norway and Russia?
Ooookay. Sure. Aaaaaaaanything you say....
funny... I routinely have to patch up machines infected by sub-seven or some other trojan, but I very much doubt these are being delivered by anyone in Redmond...
"Trusted Computing" will only let Microsoft and other large corporations control the few users who still do control their computers
Really? I use windows 2000 along with IPCop and Mandrake, and I don't see how MS is going to change any of this - "trusted computing" or not. You really need to get out more and realize the world doesn't end at the US border.
Ahem. I "print" pdf documents right from my open office word processor. I create HTML using a text editor which I then "publish" at my wiki. Again, I fail to see how "trusted computing" will put an end to either of these practices - especially considering there's virtually NO MS software involved in the process from my desktop all the way to the server.
"Trusted Computing" (more accurately described "Treacherous computing") is horrible, and all the myths about it solving any security problems are just a propoganda attempt to get users to "upgrade" their computers into total Microsoft control.
But... you just said they're already under MS control. Remember? It's right up there where I reply with mention of sub-seven variants.
The problem is MS is not in control of those machines - nor are the owners of those machines. No one is in control of those machines except maybe the people who find the backdoors on them through regular port scans on certain well known IP ranges. The vast majority of folks out there are NOT system admins, and they end up with machines trashed and data lost because of their ignorance. I'm one of those people who ends up cleaning up the mess; I'll be sorry to lose the business to MS and HP and the other companies who will sell "trusted" platforms, but the fact is this industry is never going to mature so long as we're all part of "the wild, wild west."
And so one would think these titles, since they are part of "PG2," are also of expired copyright?
So what's then to stop someone from payng the 8.95, downloading those 48k typeset and proofed texts, and then contributing them to the real PG?
Which brings me back to the question "why doesn't AOL just tell MS to go to hell and deliver all those DVDs as bootable linux based machines? It would sure save their users some headaches, not to mention the poor techs who have to clean up the piles of shit their product leaves behind.
Oh, wait - dumb question, ain't it? If they did that then they'd have no one to blame when their overblown, poorly kludged together product blew up someone's account.
Never mind...
Remember "eXistenZ?" It's like that - half the world's computers are under the control of anyone willing to run regular nessus scans and a few backdoor control panels. So.. yeah, maybe some in the linux crowd resent this because the boon won't last more than a few more years. But honestly, something HAS to be done. If that means creating software and system that then set the precedent of forcing corporations to become responsibe administrators of the systems they market on wide scale, so much the better.
This doesn't mean I have to buy one, or that there won't always exist other mechanisms for connecting to the public internet. But most people don't know a fucking thing about free specch - hell, many of them believe "free software" is illegal in any form. All they want is a terminal in their home that feeds them the latest buzz from aol and msn and ebay - and the internet is a fucking mess today because of these users and their five year old Windows 98 and ME security siphons.
The internet exists well outside the US, and many countries are making a giant leap in the direction of OSS. Combine that with a giant push toward obsoleting those fucked up "legacy" systems and we all move closer to a more secure AND more usable internet for everyone.
Sorry... I'll go put my chicken little costume back on now and join you all back at the shack...
And those engines sucked gas like battle tanks and could "smoke the tires" for a block because a "fat" tire back then was about like an M70 truck tire. Stick a set of 70 series tires on a "modern" mustang or corvette and you'd be able to boil the back hides bare in a single afternoon of playing.
That's the problem with nostalgia: it's never an accurate reflection of reality. WELL DESIGNED modern cars can outrun between lights, outhandle on the twisties, and outdistance those old cars between pit stops. ANd they'll do it all with so much more comfort it ain't even funny.
Yeah, it'd be great if you got an old GT40 or Cobra. But for the other 99.995% of the "old" cars out there it's all about the looks. If only you could get a 2/3 size replica of a '67 Mustang with that menacing front end and a decent suspension - and an interior that wasn't made from cardboard and tin - it'd be great. Barring that, I think I'll stick with a later model and dig on the 300hp engine that gets 20MPG and turns the car across the finish line in 13 seconds or so.
http://www.peak.org/~deatech/cobcottage/pics/yoga. jpg
1 -1 2-1.low.jpg
http://www.peak.org/~deatech/cobcottage/pics/cb
I like having all my movies and music and shows just a mouse click away. No fondling media, no DVD drives whooshing and movies stuttering halfway throgh because some tiny piece of schmutz got on the precious disc. In order to do this, I don't care at all what 500kbs or 1mbps files look like - The Twins effect alone occupies about 2GB on one of my drives, and I still haven't been able to produce a rip of Natural City that satisfies me even when the last one I tried was nearly 4GB (lots of film grain in that one and I don't care to lose it).
Yes... many of us care about quality. In fact, this is the very reason I rip DVDs - so the programs I enjoy play (more smoothly) from my hard drive.
As a green geek I can't resist pointing out this merit: with only a 200W power dissipation this would be "home friendly" even in a non air conditioned house during the hot Mississippi summers. And with only a 200W PEAK draw, the entire system could be powered by a single PV panel and one or two storage batteries. Trade the "high quality UPS" for a couple of batteries and a PV panel (or cheaper still if you're in the midwest or near a coastline, a windmill) and you have a cluster that could run without any "store bought" AC at all.
So do redhat users.
So do Apple users.
the problem is not that people use the web browser to navigate their hard drives. The problem is that every goddamn desktop widget has hooks right into the innermost parts of the OS and has full priviledges to use them. So you end up with great "features" like being able to install backdoors on anyone's system just by getting them to click on the WMA file you renamed as an MP3, or infecting their entire system by getting them to look at the folder where you planted your virus with the hidden filename.
XP came with all kinds of great security features out of the box. Too bad they all come disabled out of the box and MS doesn't have the guts to put a "user security wizard" right on the default desktop for fear of creating some sort of mass exodus. Better for all those users to go on believing windows is a brittle piece of shit that they "break" by pressing the wrong key than to have them learn the reason their systems become senile over time is because it's so full of security holes it's available resources are being swamped by one browser exploit after another...
Don't be telling me I need to learn to use google... how 'bout you learn to read a post before replying.
Google was great, but "advertisers" figured out how to game it long ago and I don't think the folks at google are interested in evolving the concept much further. I have serious reservations about MS being able to actually compete with their technology (they can't even figure out what's on their own damn tech support site) but I really wish SOMEONE would do some "duplication and evolution;" maybe THAT would light a fire under some asses at google.
If someone had access to, and revealed, nuclear access codes... would you know what to do with them? Who of us would have the ability to even make use of such information? You don't think there are safety mechanisms in place? Like, if someone had a "nuclear launch code" all they would need to do to start WWIII is go to www.bombtheshitoutofsomeone.gov, pick a target, and enter the "secret code" on an insecure webform?
The only "real world consequence" of "bad speech" is MORE SPEECH. If you let child molestors trade their wares in public you give us all more opportunity to identify the victims (fact: few of the children in these pictures ever are identified, and of those few it is well documented that information sent to law enforcement by recipients of these materials has led investigators directly to he culprit). Assuming everyone who hangs about in child molestor trophy trading groups - again - assumes the worse about us all.
The problem here is you're really just making up excuses. There is ALREADY an "anonymous accountability system" in place on freenet - it's been there all along. It's called a pgp key, and there's no reason at all I cannot "mark" each and every one of my posts to freenet using my pgp key to generate a tagfile. There is nothing to stop me from having a dozen such keys, either, which means you still don't know who I am unless you know who I am. You think the people who post kiddie porn don't hang out in other forums, too? I mean, it's not like someone in real life can be both a child molestor AND a priest... right?
Making the argument "free speech only empowers bad things" is assuming the absolute worse about all people. Don't you think anyone will post rebuttals? Don't you see how allowing someone to spew hatred into the world only provides the rest of us an opportunity to more clearly define the boundaries of civility by rebuking it in a very public (and NON-anonymous) fashion?
Your first post also makes another really silly assumption: that people who spread bad stuff are just waiting for the chance to send it to you - to make it sneak up on you; to "indoctrinate" you somehow. Like the people who trade child pornography are just waiting for the chance to "trick" you into viewing it so as to instantly "pervert" your senses of right and wrong.
If you need someone else to take that bullet for you - if your sense of right and wrong is so feeble that "accidentally" seeing something might turn your around - then you should not only avoid freenet, you'd do well to avoid tv and radio and the internet altogether. Not just for yourself, but to help keep those around you safe as well. And by all means, avert your eyes from the cover of ANY "women's" magazine (where 12-15yr old girls are known to appear looking uncannily glamorous and, dare I say, sexual).
Understand? The only accountability is to yourself. There ARE no excuses: either you believe in free speech, or you don't. So what if someone shouts "fire" in a theatre? I've actually been in a theatre when the fire alarm went off, and there certainly was no mad rush: most of us sat there for a minute or more hoping the damn thing would shut off so we could hear the movie; as we stood around the parking lot waiting for the "all clear" we were simply annoyed that our evening had been interrupted by such nonsense. Ever see those videos of the Whitesnake show? The one where all the people died? Even when the fire started there was no panic - the panic only came when it became obvious the danger was real.
No excuses, not imaginary dangers. What killed those people was lack of an alarm system - lack of information. and I'll spare us all, at this point, any further metaphors about society and burning buildings and people wandering around blissfully ignorant to the dangers hidden in the smoky haze...