Well, since this is./ news for nerds...At the age of 10, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). I kid you not, that game has been responsible for a major increase in my interpersonal, problem solving, creativity, research, and public speaking skills, not to mention a vastly increased vocabulary. I'm not sure if anyone else experienced this phenomenon but that game contributed a lot to what I am today. With a good DM, I say D&D can aid development as much as if not more than good schooling.
I beg to differ, I would argue that at least half of the time most cars (at least mine) are being used, they are being used for some sort of illegal act. The act in reference for my car: speeding. In fact, car commercials, movies, the media in general often advertise these products as capable of speeding. How many roads do you know that require you to come to a complete stop yet have a speed limit of 60? Ever driven on I-95? If you're not speeding, you might as well be dead.
The argument on carpooling provides an interesting twist on the RIAAs argument, but I supply another. Since it is SOOO illegal for me to buy a CD and make a copy for my friend, or even an anonymous person to listen to at their whim, then why are Rental companies not illegal?
Consider your average rent-all:
Owner purchases 1(one) item for retail price
Owner then allows anyone to use said item
Owner even PROFITS off of transaction
Owner pays nothing to the manufacturer of the item over retail
Renter pays nothing to the manufacturer at all
If you believe the RIAAs argument, all of the rental stores in your area are STEALING from the manufacturers of the equipment they rent. The RIAA's argument doesn't hold up, they will soon be as obselete as the horse and buggy. No one is stopping the artists from PERFORMING. Heaven forbid the average artist might have to play his/her music more than once in order to make a profit.
1 out of 100 non-smokers will die from lung cancer.
8 out of 100 smokers will die from lung cancer.
So, you're saying that smoking multiplies your risk of dying from cancer by EIGHT? Obviously it makes sense to willingly participate in an activity which increases your chance of a slow, painful death by such a factor. Oh yeah, there's also the slight downsides of mouth and throat cancer, or if you prefer to ignore cancer all-out, you can consider emphysema, stroke, or heart-attack.
Since SARS may be one of the most difficult diseases to conquer that human kind has ever encountered, off course you'd be better off without it YOU IDIOT! But smoking doesn't decrease the risk of acquiring SARS, in fact, since it's PROVEN that smoking generally weakens your immune system, it would therefore increase the risk of catching the disease. Twisting words and statistics like you have done may lead to some unfortunate young./ reader trying smoking for the first time. So I suggest you watch your tar-covered, brown-toothed, disgusting mouth.
My nokia 3650 has a nice quality camera, and removable multimedia card (up to 256 mb), not only that it runs symbian and J2ME so hypothetically one could write a program to automate the process of book scanning. BTW, I am a poor college student (AT&T has boingo discounts for Penn State students) and I could afford the technology to do this.
Really this is the source of most of the discussions about "piracy" or "copyright infringement". Society as a whole just needs to adapt to these new methods of information transmission and reception. Got a problem with people "digitally pirating" your magazine, make a nice high-quality digital version, put it for download on a fast server, and charge a decent amount for it. At least that way, a few people will pay for the convenience of the original. And now you've saved the price of printing it.
Governments should realize, no matter HOW much effort they put into trying to control information, the billions of people interested in subverting those methods will always triumph over the thousands that attempt to rule them. It's a simple matter of the inginuity and power of masses. Democracies especially take note, those people are supposedly your constituants.
Wow man, what a convincing argument, with GO in all caps too. You really demonstrate the validity of your argument with your tact and extensive vocabulary.
Oh, btw, there are a lot of people who aren't "leftist"s who hate Bush, take for example, nearly everyone outside of the US.
Have a nice day, and remember, the only true way to show your loyalty to Mr. Bush is to sterilize yourself so you don't accidentally breed with a "dirty a-rab".
"only thing he is guilty of is not being a left-wing wacko"
That, defying the UN, breaking the geneva convention, creating one of the most ludicrous tax plans ever (and subsequently heavily damaging the economy), and oh yeah lying to the American people...
Remember how pissed off everyone got when Clinton lied about his PERSONAL BUSINESS? Bush should be impeached, the hundreds dead because of his actions would thank whoever called for such action.
Real men have huge tangled and matted nests of wires...
Horseshit, REAL MEN mod the crap out of anything they can get a computer and/or accessory into, including the house, and they know how to run cable. Real men run the cable in an organized fashion with EL wire for cable management and UV reactive paint or insulation for added decoration.
Some plexi and a 4' x 6' hole in the wall to reveal amazingly cool wiring job is a must. Top off with cold-cathodes (since you're in the wall you can run them directly from AC) and you're sure to have the coolest freakin wall decoration ever. Talk about increasing resale value! Any uber-geek or pothead would kill for the borg or trippy look respectively. If you really wanna go cool, mount your router in the window too, but only after you've replaced all the ugly yellow LEDs with blue ones and added UV-reactive fans instead of any factory ones.
Mod the World!... Am I the only one who believes that any thing with a case can/should be modded?
What exactly are they covering for? It's fair to say... This entire post, through to the letting the wrong people define is perhaps the most insightful and best put argument I've heard in a long time.
You hit the nail on the head, I download a buttload of music, but I also buy a buttload of CDs. The difference between what I buy and what I download is simple, I buy things from artists (mostly independent) that I think deserve the money and that I would listen to often. I download things that I might listen to once or twice a year, and often delete after a few plays. If all p2p trading systems were to be eliminated, no one would make a dime more off of me.
And your statement about criminalizing "a vast swath" of society is absolutely correct. With as many people chanting "land of the free" these days, it's amazing that they seem to have forgotten what a free democracy is about. A free democracy should be reactive to the PEOPLE, not one small section, the actions of the court system and government officials now only reinforce the existence of an aristocracy in the United States today. TONS of people, I'd be willing to bet at least 50% of your 18-24 year olds, use p2p networks. Has society degraded to the point where 50% of young adults are outright criminals, NO. What has changed? The opinion of the "worth" of a song has changed. It is no longer necessary to purchase a physical medium distributed by a well connected company, which is what the RIAA relies on. This elimination of what was formerly a necessity has caused a paradigm shift, and as governments and corporations are notoriously popular for, they have failed to adapt with it. What does the RIAA do for an artist? They provide exposure, connections, and information, and oh yeah, make CDs.
The RIAA's greatest problem is that they see the elimination of the need for themselves and are trying (with much futility) to fight it. Imagine how many blacksmiths and stables went out of business with the coming of the automobile. Now imagine if the Blacksmith and Stable Association of America (BSAA) had sued individual drivers of automobiles because they weren't purchasing horses or shoes. The truth is CDs and the RIAA will soon be outdated, and the attempt to stifle this is an attempt to stifle progress. Lets remember that most artists who "are the hardest working members of society" are also some of the richest member of society. What do you value more, your health, or N*Sync's newest hit, so why does N*Sync get paid much more than your doctor? For years the RIAA has perverted the values of millions because they COULD, and now that people have another option, they manipulate words and situations to inflate their own importance. It's amazing that musical artists must have starved to death before the days of recorded media, how else would they have made their money?, oh yeah, by performing on a day to day basis, just like you, I, and everyone else is expected to do. Don't be fooled, artists have been overpaid for FAR too long, I don't see anyone using p2p to deny an artist the right to tour, or play regularly at a venue. For all of you p2p users, you are doing the right thing, anyone complaining about the price of a CD (which btw costs about $.43 for the EXPENSIVE media, and if you assume recording costs (reasonable) of $15,000, and sales of 100,000 or more, $.15 for productoin, for a grand total of $.58) should not complain about p2p users, but, the grand ole' RIAA.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, since this is ./ news for nerds...At the age of 10, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). I kid you not, that game has been responsible for a major increase in my interpersonal, problem solving, creativity, research, and public speaking skills, not to mention a vastly increased vocabulary. I'm not sure if anyone else experienced this phenomenon but that game contributed a lot to what I am today. With a good DM, I say D&D can aid development as much as if not more than good schooling.
The argument on carpooling provides an interesting twist on the RIAAs argument, but I supply another. Since it is SOOO illegal for me to buy a CD and make a copy for my friend, or even an anonymous person to listen to at their whim, then why are Rental companies not illegal?
Consider your average rent-all:
If you believe the RIAAs argument, all of the rental stores in your area are STEALING from the manufacturers of the equipment they rent. The RIAA's argument doesn't hold up, they will soon be as obselete as the horse and buggy. No one is stopping the artists from PERFORMING. Heaven forbid the average artist might have to play his/her music more than once in order to make a profit.
1 out of 100 non-smokers will die from lung cancer. 8 out of 100 smokers will die from lung cancer.
So, you're saying that smoking multiplies your risk of dying from cancer by EIGHT? Obviously it makes sense to willingly participate in an activity which increases your chance of a slow, painful death by such a factor. Oh yeah, there's also the slight downsides of mouth and throat cancer, or if you prefer to ignore cancer all-out, you can consider emphysema, stroke, or heart-attack.
Since SARS may be one of the most difficult diseases to conquer that human kind has ever encountered, off course you'd be better off without it YOU IDIOT! But smoking doesn't decrease the risk of acquiring SARS, in fact, since it's PROVEN that smoking generally weakens your immune system, it would therefore increase the risk of catching the disease. Twisting words and statistics like you have done may lead to some unfortunate young ./ reader trying smoking for the first time. So I suggest you watch your tar-covered, brown-toothed, disgusting mouth.
My nokia 3650 has a nice quality camera, and removable multimedia card (up to 256 mb), not only that it runs symbian and J2ME so hypothetically one could write a program to automate the process of book scanning. BTW, I am a poor college student (AT&T has boingo discounts for Penn State students) and I could afford the technology to do this.
Really this is the source of most of the discussions about "piracy" or "copyright infringement". Society as a whole just needs to adapt to these new methods of information transmission and reception. Got a problem with people "digitally pirating" your magazine, make a nice high-quality digital version, put it for download on a fast server, and charge a decent amount for it. At least that way, a few people will pay for the convenience of the original. And now you've saved the price of printing it.
Governments should realize, no matter HOW much effort they put into trying to control information, the billions of people interested in subverting those methods will always triumph over the thousands that attempt to rule them. It's a simple matter of the inginuity and power of masses. Democracies especially take note, those people are supposedly your constituants.
Wow man, what a convincing argument, with GO in all caps too. You really demonstrate the validity of your argument with your tact and extensive vocabulary.
Oh, btw, there are a lot of people who aren't "leftist"s who hate Bush, take for example, nearly everyone outside of the US.
Have a nice day, and remember, the only true way to show your loyalty to Mr. Bush is to sterilize yourself so you don't accidentally breed with a "dirty a-rab".
That, defying the UN, breaking the geneva convention, creating one of the most ludicrous tax plans ever (and subsequently heavily damaging the economy), and oh yeah lying to the American people...
Remember how pissed off everyone got when Clinton lied about his PERSONAL BUSINESS? Bush should be impeached, the hundreds dead because of his actions would thank whoever called for such action.
Real men have huge tangled and matted nests of wires...
Horseshit, REAL MEN mod the crap out of anything they can get a computer and/or accessory into, including the house, and they know how to run cable. Real men run the cable in an organized fashion with EL wire for cable management and UV reactive paint or insulation for added decoration.
Some plexi and a 4' x 6' hole in the wall to reveal amazingly cool wiring job is a must. Top off with cold-cathodes (since you're in the wall you can run them directly from AC) and you're sure to have the coolest freakin wall decoration ever. Talk about increasing resale value! Any uber-geek or pothead would kill for the borg or trippy look respectively. If you really wanna go cool, mount your router in the window too, but only after you've replaced all the ugly yellow LEDs with blue ones and added UV-reactive fans instead of any factory ones.
Mod the World!... Am I the only one who believes that any thing with a case can/should be modded?
What exactly are they covering for? It's fair to say ... This entire post, through to the letting the wrong people define is perhaps the most insightful and best put argument I've heard in a long time.
You hit the nail on the head, I download a buttload of music, but I also buy a buttload of CDs. The difference between what I buy and what I download is simple, I buy things from artists (mostly independent) that I think deserve the money and that I would listen to often. I download things that I might listen to once or twice a year, and often delete after a few plays. If all p2p trading systems were to be eliminated, no one would make a dime more off of me.
And your statement about criminalizing "a vast swath" of society is absolutely correct. With as many people chanting "land of the free" these days, it's amazing that they seem to have forgotten what a free democracy is about. A free democracy should be reactive to the PEOPLE, not one small section, the actions of the court system and government officials now only reinforce the existence of an aristocracy in the United States today. TONS of people, I'd be willing to bet at least 50% of your 18-24 year olds, use p2p networks. Has society degraded to the point where 50% of young adults are outright criminals, NO. What has changed? The opinion of the "worth" of a song has changed. It is no longer necessary to purchase a physical medium distributed by a well connected company, which is what the RIAA relies on. This elimination of what was formerly a necessity has caused a paradigm shift, and as governments and corporations are notoriously popular for, they have failed to adapt with it. What does the RIAA do for an artist? They provide exposure, connections, and information, and oh yeah, make CDs.
The RIAA's greatest problem is that they see the elimination of the need for themselves and are trying (with much futility) to fight it. Imagine how many blacksmiths and stables went out of business with the coming of the automobile. Now imagine if the Blacksmith and Stable Association of America (BSAA) had sued individual drivers of automobiles because they weren't purchasing horses or shoes. The truth is CDs and the RIAA will soon be outdated, and the attempt to stifle this is an attempt to stifle progress. Lets remember that most artists who "are the hardest working members of society" are also some of the richest member of society. What do you value more, your health, or N*Sync's newest hit, so why does N*Sync get paid much more than your doctor? For years the RIAA has perverted the values of millions because they COULD, and now that people have another option, they manipulate words and situations to inflate their own importance. It's amazing that musical artists must have starved to death before the days of recorded media, how else would they have made their money?, oh yeah, by performing on a day to day basis, just like you, I, and everyone else is expected to do. Don't be fooled, artists have been overpaid for FAR too long, I don't see anyone using p2p to deny an artist the right to tour, or play regularly at a venue. For all of you p2p users, you are doing the right thing, anyone complaining about the price of a CD (which btw costs about $.43 for the EXPENSIVE media, and if you assume recording costs (reasonable) of $15,000, and sales of 100,000 or more, $.15 for productoin, for a grand total of $.58) should not complain about p2p users, but, the grand ole' RIAA.