The MPAA and RIAA are claiming that they're losing billions of dollars on copyright infringement.
here's my response. Bollux.
Why do I say that?
This is just a guesstimate, but I would venture to say that 75-90% of the people who download files are downloading them for personal use. This is akin to taping a movie from television on your VCR, borrowing a record from a friend and taping it, (you guys *do* know what records are right?)...borrowing a book from a library...(and there are some libraries that lend software while we're on the subject.)
The point is, generally the people that download these things, (movies, music, software, etc. etc.) Weren't going to buy the media ANYWAY. The recording/movie/software industry are basing their figures on a fictition figure based on revenue that they would've gained had all those people that downloaded the media illegally actually purchased the product. In this case $19.99(X)(NOT=)Y for the reason I mentioned above.
Second, it's rediculous to expect Joe Blow to pay $259 for a software title he's going to use once or twice for personal use. Say Adobe Photoshop. (yes there are alternatives out there that are freely available, that's a dead horse, let's not beat it.) Generally these are people that wouldn't be exposed to this kind of software if they didn't download it for free and play with it. Then Joe Blow might discover, "Hey I'm pretty good at this stuff."...and buys a few books to learn about it. Next thing you know, Joe Blow has a graphic design company, and he actually BUYS his copies for the business.
Movies: This is a touchy subject. Fred buy most of his movies on DVD. However, there is one particular movie he *thinks* might be good, but as is popular with most movie advertising they only show you the highpoints in the trailers, and the rest of the movie might blow dog. Fred downloads the movie to see if it's worth owning, or even if it's worth experiencing the film in the theatre for the full effect. (some people are purists and would do that.)
Music: Jane likes a particular band's song on the radio. Is it fair to ask Jane to buy an entire album for one song? The rest of the songs might suck. Conversely, she might like all the songs and decide to go out and buy the album.I know, I've done it.
Look at Microsoft. Microsoft wouldn't be the OS powerhouse that it is today if it weren't for software piracy. Think back in the early 90's. Who actually went out and purchased a copy of DOS 3.2? Not many. Windows 3.1 same deal. Even 95, a lot of people just borrowed the CD from work, or from the IT guy in the office. This allowed Microsoft to become the defacto standard in the home and office desktop market. That's not to say they wouldn't have without piracy, but it sure as hell didn't hurt them one bit.
All I'm not saying that piracy isn't wrong. However what I am saying is that not all piracy is bad, and by organizations and companies tightning their grip, the more people will resist and slip thru their fingers if only to spite them.
discuss
Re:Parent is flamebait and trollish. Mod down.
on
LokiTorrent Shut Down
·
· Score: 1
looks like it's time for everyone to break out their recipies for thermite and keep a brick sitting on top of their harddrives when they get raided...lol.
I mean honestly. It's sad that people have to safeguard their sensitive data against organizations that have unilateral power. For example, say I happen to own a certain title, abondon ware or something. Say Mechwarrior Mercs (from Activision). I break the media or scratch it beyond use, I can't get it replaced. I find a torrent, download it. It's rediculous that someone from one these organizations, (if I'm caught), can file a court case EVEN IF I'm not truely breaking any laws and simply downloaded a copy under the fair-use clauses.
We're moving to an age where everyone's guilty until proven innocent, and the measure of your innocence is based on the size of your wallet.
I think rather than attacking Team Ninja, a countersuit should be filed against the publisher. It was the publisher who released a "sexist" game, thus inspiring Team Ninja to mod the game more to their liking, and later release the mods so others could do the same.
Besides, who really cares? Boobs are boobs, even if they're cartoon, computer generated, boobs. Guys will do anything they can to see real boobs in the real world, what makes this any different? Are we going to start filing DCMA lawsuits against guys that unbutton a girl's blowse now? "But your honor, the buttons were made to hold the shirt together to keep my client's breasts from being exposted, and this young man has circumvented the purpose of the buttons." Come on...
Thanks for responding. Glad you confirmed what I had suspected, that I would indeed need 2 routers.
Will this go thru walls, or do I need to mount something on a mast for LOS between the two antennae?
Surely that's not just paper is it? I would think i'd need some sort of metal? (then again, like I mentioned, I'm new to this wireless voodoo).
I have a wired network on one side of the street with broadband.
Across the street I have a workshop. I would like it to have internet connectivity. (500' at the most).
Buring a cable underneath the street is not an option. (would have to get the county to cut the road, the other option would be to rent a streetsaw, and ninja cut it, bury it and patch it by morning....highly illegal and not an option).
Therefore my only option is wireless.
I'm not exactly sure what I need to do. Whether I need to have two routers. (1 on each side of the street.) 1 router (at my broadband location), and a PCI wireless card (at the location across the street).
Secondly. I have no idea what the range on these things is. Are we talking a few hundred feet? 50'?
Third. Will a PCI wireless card be able to have an extension cable? (e.g. can I run a cable from the card to a cantenna on a pole outside one location and point it at the location across the street and get a good signal? or do I need to have two cantennas?)
I'm an old hand at wired networks, but this wireless thing is all smoke and mirrors for me. I understand how it works, I just don't know what will work in my case.
however, that does bring up an interesting dilema.
Are they human? or are they animal?
If they're human, then they deserve all the rights and protections that other people enjoy.
If they're animal, they're property. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to see a brothel of "cat women" who looked "human" enough, and there would be people lined up around the block.
gives a new meaning to the term "cat house" wouldn't you say?)
Brain > NIMH.
The rats of NIMH only wanted their little slice of heaven. They fought their own little internal battles.
Brain had much bigger ambitions......"To try to take over THE WORLD!!!":-)
hehe, just coat the inside with latex paint...problem solved. *smirk*
Re:Question
on
Hacking Vodka
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The only time vodka was made with potatos was when there was a shortage of grain, or someone had used all of their vodka ration during the days of the Soviet Union. Potatos were pretty plentiful, so some people made their own homebrew out of potatos. (that's the *real* rotgut vodka you hear about). It was of very poor quality, due to impurities from the person's water supply and equipment. (I mean seriously, how many people in the Soviet Union had enough parts to make a proper still?)
"Official" vodka is grain alcohol.
Just go to your local laboratory supply, (and if you can still order it), order a 5 gallon container of "Food Grade Ethanol".
Cut it by volume 50% with water.
Take one of the halves you just made and cut that again with Orange Juice 50%.
Instant Screwdriver party...(we used to do that all the time in college, and it's CHEAP!!!)
Re:Speaking of filters...
on
Hacking Vodka
·
· Score: 1
LOL
That's the most clever "dumb question" I've ever heard.
...it still sucks.
It's just the ground game in space. Go from A to B, kill C.
There's a great deal of potential, and the game COULD be truely great. Is it now? Let's just say I get more excited picking out socks.
Business unit A offers a product to Niche Market B. Business Unit A pisses off all (or most) of their customers. Business Unit A, come to the point where they can not maintain their current level of service without either reducing the quality of service, or increasing the price..(this is basic economic theory, and you should know this, you little Troll.)
As a result, Business Unit A must take care of the customers in Niche Market B, as all things being equal, the sample of new customers from the Niche Market B is finite. Business Unit A operates a "service" business producing no tangable goods, therefore the previous statement,about customer being the source of Business Unit A's revenue is completely true, especially when compared over units of time.
All things being equal at the current level of "service"; 2 things are fixed variables. Static Expenses, (servers, internet connectivity, etc.), and Labor, (developers, CSR's, management). The changable variable is the number of customers. So let's assume Profit over Time = (months)*(Income - Expenses). As in come decreases, PoT decreases. So in order to maintain a level of profit, either the number of units of time needs to increase, (which is usually undesirable in the business world), or the expenses need to be reduced in order to reduce the factor for Units of Time in order to maintain the same level of profitabilty, as no tangible goods are produce, the assets are dependent on "Income" i.e. the Cusomter.....so yes, the customer DOES pay the salary of Labor in the "expenses" group.
By maintaining a substandard product, it's all but a given that "Income" will decrease, as people don't like spending their money on a substandard product. However, as most people's level of patience is not fixed, that's an unsigned and unknown variable as you cannot put a quantitative value on someone's level of patience, only that it's a given that eventually as the level of service remains at the same "crappy" rate, the Income level will slowly decrease. Therefore, some of PoT must be funneled back into expenses, which SoE has been unwilling to do.
As a result the game is doomed, unless some other entity is willing to invest the amount of PoT necessary to keep the declining variable of Income stable. Profit of a corporate entity is COMPLETELY reliant on the customer, so I'll say it again, the customer pays for the salary or the Developers and Support Staff, even if the customer doesn't sign the checks.
Horrible customer service. We're the subscriber, *we* pay their salaries. It seems as though the devs, csrs, and SOE fail to grasp this concept.
People quitting as a result of their less than promised gaming experience and service.
As a result of so many people cancelling their accounts, SOE has outsourced a good portion of their CSR staff to India in order to make their margin...(No joke)
A complete lack of understanding of RPG gaming. Game designs have been implimented in this POS with no comprehension of the "give and take" method of RPG gaming, thus leaving a completely unbalanced end result.
A dev team that is completely out of touch with the Star Wars universe, and as such create situations in-game ad-hoc and in some cases contradict the current published works based on G. Lucas' creation.
I've played this game since Beta. I've beta tested many titles, including some SOE titles...(Evercrack comes to mind)...the game was released at bare minimum, 6 months too soon. 45% of content that was present in Beta was removed at launch. We (the Beta testers) told the dev team that the game wasn't ready, what still needed to be done to make it ready, and what needed to change to make it ready with the current code base. All of this was ignored by SOE. I've seen very few positive changes in the game. Many of the changes that have occured in the game were done to appease a vocal minority, and upset the majority of the community.
combat classes were given lipservice. Any class that *should've* been "uber leet" as the kids call it, were nerfed. Unpopular classes were given enough attention to keep them barely playable. Popular classes were either left somewhat untouched, or changed so that the *most* popular classes could defeat them easily.
Finally, anyone who criticized SOE, the Devs, or the CSR's for their haphazard design, unprofessional behavior, or lack of vision and direction, were summarily banned either from the forums, game, or both. (I myself have been banned numerous occasions for pointing out the shortcomings of SOE's support staff.) I also don't have to remind the Slashdot community that for a very long time, the SWG Forums were closed to the general public because there was such a huge sense of anger and dissatifaction that was conveyed by the player community. (for fear of a potential new customer seeing exactly how bad the game actually was.
Personally I think LucasArts taking the reigns from SOE will be the best thing that ever happened to the game. Even if they do a poor job, SOE hasn't lived up to the expectation the players had.
That brings up a very valid point.
Why do corporations even bother with lawsuits, because by the time the lawyers get their cut and everything's all said and done, the technology they were arguing about in the first place will be obsolete....(okay maybe not at this point....but you see where I'm going with this.) I suppose the goal will be to have our tech advancing faster than the lawyers can keep up with litigation.
....and how do you draw a line when a country's citizens aren't able to speak up to ask for help for fear of execution?
Furthermore, 3 of the countries that voted no on the measure presented to the UN to invade Iraq, (Russia, Germany, and France)...all get their oil from where? That's right...Iraq. OF course they're going to vote no, if there's a war, they can't guarantee they'll get their petrol supplies. Did the US have intrests in Iraq? No...ours lie in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Hitler murdered Jews. Saddam murdered kurds...they both condoned, and or participated in the decision making involved in exterminating large numbers of people. The only difference is the scale of the operation. I'm sure if Sadam had access to Hitler's resources there'd be a Kurdish Bake Sale faster than you can say Pirogi.
In regards to "international support". If the rest of the world doesn't have the balls to step up to the plate when a nation's peoples are being murdered and oppressed, who's responsibility is it? How can a country GET national support, when those who would support it, won't because they have a vested interest in the current regime?
There's a big difference between removing a dictator who's responsible for the deaths of many people, and an election in which a pivotal state may or may not been tampered with. The United States will continue to fuction regardless of who is in power, thanks to checks and balances.
I don't remember Europe complaining that much when the US took care of Hitler for you guys, the capture of Sadam is not that much different. So in essence what you're saying is that it's only okay if the US butts in the affairs of other nations, when it benefits the "industrialized" word, it's not okay when the US does it in a 3rd world country. I got it.
well case in point...
I was playing TFC today and I've played engineer since Quakeworld, I can chuck a EMP grenade up against a wall, and bank it around a corner and 9/10 times hit whatever I'm throwing at.
Some olympic class yo-yo of a 16yo...(rought estimate, judging by his incredible command of "1337sp33k"), swore up and down that I was incredibly lucky or just a grenade spamming whore....
Then he proceedes to talk about his "uber-leet" system, and all the money he's put into neon lights and gold trimmed accessories...and I just had to laugh. The case I have is 8 years old, has gone thru 3 power supplies, a full tower...has seen 6 different motherboards, 11 different CPU's, up to 11 hard drives ranging from SCSI to Firewire...(that's 11 inside the case at one time)...it's as ugly as homemade soap, so for all those fancy little "pretty things" that kid on his machine, he's still gibbed and I'm laughing my ass off.
Just give us some pictures and "Howto" drawings so we can build one ourselves....muhahahaha
(It's nice to live close to a reproductive services company that caters to farmers....they sell LN2 by the bucket...lol)...
Slashdot Mirror
The MPAA and RIAA are claiming that they're losing billions of dollars on copyright infringement.
here's my response. Bollux.
Why do I say that?
This is just a guesstimate, but I would venture to say that 75-90% of the people who download files are downloading them for personal use. This is akin to taping a movie from television on your VCR, borrowing a record from a friend and taping it, (you guys *do* know what records are right?)...borrowing a book from a library...(and there are some libraries that lend software while we're on the subject.)
The point is, generally the people that download these things, (movies, music, software, etc. etc.) Weren't going to buy the media ANYWAY. The recording/movie/software industry are basing their figures on a fictition figure based on revenue that they would've gained had all those people that downloaded the media illegally actually purchased the product. In this case $19.99(X)(NOT=)Y for the reason I mentioned above.
Second, it's rediculous to expect Joe Blow to pay $259 for a software title he's going to use once or twice for personal use. Say Adobe Photoshop. (yes there are alternatives out there that are freely available, that's a dead horse, let's not beat it.) Generally these are people that wouldn't be exposed to this kind of software if they didn't download it for free and play with it. Then Joe Blow might discover, "Hey I'm pretty good at this stuff."...and buys a few books to learn about it. Next thing you know, Joe Blow has a graphic design company, and he actually BUYS his copies for the business.
Movies: This is a touchy subject. Fred buy most of his movies on DVD. However, there is one particular movie he *thinks* might be good, but as is popular with most movie advertising they only show you the highpoints in the trailers, and the rest of the movie might blow dog. Fred downloads the movie to see if it's worth owning, or even if it's worth experiencing the film in the theatre for the full effect. (some people are purists and would do that.)
Music: Jane likes a particular band's song on the radio. Is it fair to ask Jane to buy an entire album for one song? The rest of the songs might suck. Conversely, she might like all the songs and decide to go out and buy the album.I know, I've done it.
Look at Microsoft. Microsoft wouldn't be the OS powerhouse that it is today if it weren't for software piracy. Think back in the early 90's. Who actually went out and purchased a copy of DOS 3.2? Not many. Windows 3.1 same deal. Even 95, a lot of people just borrowed the CD from work, or from the IT guy in the office. This allowed Microsoft to become the defacto standard in the home and office desktop market. That's not to say they wouldn't have without piracy, but it sure as hell didn't hurt them one bit.
All I'm not saying that piracy isn't wrong. However what I am saying is that not all piracy is bad, and by organizations and companies tightning their grip, the more people will resist and slip thru their fingers if only to spite them.
discuss
looks like it's time for everyone to break out their recipies for thermite and keep a brick sitting on top of their harddrives when they get raided...lol.
I mean honestly. It's sad that people have to safeguard their sensitive data against organizations that have unilateral power. For example, say I happen to own a certain title, abondon ware or something. Say Mechwarrior Mercs (from Activision). I break the media or scratch it beyond use, I can't get it replaced. I find a torrent, download it. It's rediculous that someone from one these organizations, (if I'm caught), can file a court case EVEN IF I'm not truely breaking any laws and simply downloaded a copy under the fair-use clauses.
We're moving to an age where everyone's guilty until proven innocent, and the measure of your innocence is based on the size of your wallet.
I think rather than attacking Team Ninja, a countersuit should be filed against the publisher. It was the publisher who released a "sexist" game, thus inspiring Team Ninja to mod the game more to their liking, and later release the mods so others could do the same. Besides, who really cares? Boobs are boobs, even if they're cartoon, computer generated, boobs. Guys will do anything they can to see real boobs in the real world, what makes this any different? Are we going to start filing DCMA lawsuits against guys that unbutton a girl's blowse now? "But your honor, the buttons were made to hold the shirt together to keep my client's breasts from being exposted, and this young man has circumvented the purpose of the buttons." Come on...
okay for clarification.
You're talking about something like this.
you're across town, you've got a hot date this weekend with the girl next door.
You decide to call her from the office to make plans.
Call your PBX machine.
Hang up.
It calls you back.
(incomming call minutes kick in)
Dial-tone.
You call the girl next door from your phone, with the PBX machine acting as a proxy.
(like so?)
the only thing a mac-in-trash is good for, is to run linux. (or a doorstop)
Thanks for responding. Glad you confirmed what I had suspected, that I would indeed need 2 routers. Will this go thru walls, or do I need to mount something on a mast for LOS between the two antennae? Surely that's not just paper is it? I would think i'd need some sort of metal? (then again, like I mentioned, I'm new to this wireless voodoo).
I have a wired network on one side of the street with broadband.
Across the street I have a workshop. I would like it to have internet connectivity. (500' at the most).
Buring a cable underneath the street is not an option. (would have to get the county to cut the road, the other option would be to rent a streetsaw, and ninja cut it, bury it and patch it by morning....highly illegal and not an option).
Therefore my only option is wireless.
I'm not exactly sure what I need to do. Whether I need to have two routers. (1 on each side of the street.) 1 router (at my broadband location), and a PCI wireless card (at the location across the street).
Secondly. I have no idea what the range on these things is. Are we talking a few hundred feet? 50'?
Third. Will a PCI wireless card be able to have an extension cable? (e.g. can I run a cable from the card to a cantenna on a pole outside one location and point it at the location across the street and get a good signal? or do I need to have two cantennas?)
I'm an old hand at wired networks, but this wireless thing is all smoke and mirrors for me. I understand how it works, I just don't know what will work in my case.
now *THAT* is comedy!
of course it's self-absorbed. ...it *IS* all about U.S. after all. :-P
however, that does bring up an interesting dilema.
Are they human? or are they animal?
If they're human, then they deserve all the rights and protections that other people enjoy.
If they're animal, they're property. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to see a brothel of "cat women" who looked "human" enough, and there would be people lined up around the block.
gives a new meaning to the term "cat house" wouldn't you say?)
Brain > NIMH. The rats of NIMH only wanted their little slice of heaven. They fought their own little internal battles. Brain had much bigger ambitions.... .."To try to take over THE WORLD!!!" :-)
hehe, just coat the inside with latex paint...problem solved. *smirk*
The only time vodka was made with potatos was when there was a shortage of grain, or someone had used all of their vodka ration during the days of the Soviet Union. Potatos were pretty plentiful, so some people made their own homebrew out of potatos. (that's the *real* rotgut vodka you hear about). It was of very poor quality, due to impurities from the person's water supply and equipment. (I mean seriously, how many people in the Soviet Union had enough parts to make a proper still?) "Official" vodka is grain alcohol.
Just go to your local laboratory supply, (and if you can still order it), order a 5 gallon container of "Food Grade Ethanol". Cut it by volume 50% with water. Take one of the halves you just made and cut that again with Orange Juice 50%. Instant Screwdriver party...(we used to do that all the time in college, and it's CHEAP!!!)
LOL That's the most clever "dumb question" I've ever heard.
...it still sucks. It's just the ground game in space. Go from A to B, kill C. There's a great deal of potential, and the game COULD be truely great. Is it now? Let's just say I get more excited picking out socks.
...head over to Lucasart's website and look at their job postings. Doesn't sound like much of a rumor if you ask me.
Allow me to explain the concept to you.
Business unit A offers a product to Niche Market B. Business Unit A pisses off all (or most) of their customers. Business Unit A, come to the point where they can not maintain their current level of service without either reducing the quality of service, or increasing the price..(this is basic economic theory, and you should know this, you little Troll.) As a result, Business Unit A must take care of the customers in Niche Market B, as all things being equal, the sample of new customers from the Niche Market B is finite. Business Unit A operates a "service" business producing no tangable goods, therefore the previous statement,about customer being the source of Business Unit A's revenue is completely true, especially when compared over units of time. All things being equal at the current level of "service"; 2 things are fixed variables. Static Expenses, (servers, internet connectivity, etc.), and Labor, (developers, CSR's, management). The changable variable is the number of customers. So let's assume Profit over Time = (months)*(Income - Expenses). As in come decreases, PoT decreases. So in order to maintain a level of profit, either the number of units of time needs to increase, (which is usually undesirable in the business world), or the expenses need to be reduced in order to reduce the factor for Units of Time in order to maintain the same level of profitabilty, as no tangible goods are produce, the assets are dependent on "Income" i.e. the Cusomter.....so yes, the customer DOES pay the salary of Labor in the "expenses" group. By maintaining a substandard product, it's all but a given that "Income" will decrease, as people don't like spending their money on a substandard product. However, as most people's level of patience is not fixed, that's an unsigned and unknown variable as you cannot put a quantitative value on someone's level of patience, only that it's a given that eventually as the level of service remains at the same "crappy" rate, the Income level will slowly decrease. Therefore, some of PoT must be funneled back into expenses, which SoE has been unwilling to do. As a result the game is doomed, unless some other entity is willing to invest the amount of PoT necessary to keep the declining variable of Income stable. Profit of a corporate entity is COMPLETELY reliant on the customer, so I'll say it again, the customer pays for the salary or the Developers and Support Staff, even if the customer doesn't sign the checks.
People quitting as a result of their less than promised gaming experience and service.
As a result of so many people cancelling their accounts, SOE has outsourced a good portion of their CSR staff to India in order to make their margin...(No joke)
A complete lack of understanding of RPG gaming. Game designs have been implimented in this POS with no comprehension of the "give and take" method of RPG gaming, thus leaving a completely unbalanced end result.
A dev team that is completely out of touch with the Star Wars universe, and as such create situations in-game ad-hoc and in some cases contradict the current published works based on G. Lucas' creation.
I've played this game since Beta. I've beta tested many titles, including some SOE titles...(Evercrack comes to mind)...the game was released at bare minimum, 6 months too soon. 45% of content that was present in Beta was removed at launch. We (the Beta testers) told the dev team that the game wasn't ready, what still needed to be done to make it ready, and what needed to change to make it ready with the current code base. All of this was ignored by SOE. I've seen very few positive changes in the game. Many of the changes that have occured in the game were done to appease a vocal minority, and upset the majority of the community.
combat classes were given lipservice. Any class that *should've* been "uber leet" as the kids call it, were nerfed. Unpopular classes were given enough attention to keep them barely playable. Popular classes were either left somewhat untouched, or changed so that the *most* popular classes could defeat them easily.
Finally, anyone who criticized SOE, the Devs, or the CSR's for their haphazard design, unprofessional behavior, or lack of vision and direction, were summarily banned either from the forums, game, or both. (I myself have been banned numerous occasions for pointing out the shortcomings of SOE's support staff.) I also don't have to remind the Slashdot community that for a very long time, the SWG Forums were closed to the general public because there was such a huge sense of anger and dissatifaction that was conveyed by the player community. (for fear of a potential new customer seeing exactly how bad the game actually was.
Personally I think LucasArts taking the reigns from SOE will be the best thing that ever happened to the game. Even if they do a poor job, SOE hasn't lived up to the expectation the players had.
That brings up a very valid point. Why do corporations even bother with lawsuits, because by the time the lawyers get their cut and everything's all said and done, the technology they were arguing about in the first place will be obsolete....(okay maybe not at this point....but you see where I'm going with this.) I suppose the goal will be to have our tech advancing faster than the lawyers can keep up with litigation.
....and how do you draw a line when a country's citizens aren't able to speak up to ask for help for fear of execution? Furthermore, 3 of the countries that voted no on the measure presented to the UN to invade Iraq, (Russia, Germany, and France)...all get their oil from where? That's right...Iraq. OF course they're going to vote no, if there's a war, they can't guarantee they'll get their petrol supplies. Did the US have intrests in Iraq? No...ours lie in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Hitler murdered Jews. Saddam murdered kurds...they both condoned, and or participated in the decision making involved in exterminating large numbers of people. The only difference is the scale of the operation. I'm sure if Sadam had access to Hitler's resources there'd be a Kurdish Bake Sale faster than you can say Pirogi. In regards to "international support". If the rest of the world doesn't have the balls to step up to the plate when a nation's peoples are being murdered and oppressed, who's responsibility is it? How can a country GET national support, when those who would support it, won't because they have a vested interest in the current regime?
There's a big difference between removing a dictator who's responsible for the deaths of many people, and an election in which a pivotal state may or may not been tampered with. The United States will continue to fuction regardless of who is in power, thanks to checks and balances. I don't remember Europe complaining that much when the US took care of Hitler for you guys, the capture of Sadam is not that much different. So in essence what you're saying is that it's only okay if the US butts in the affairs of other nations, when it benefits the "industrialized" word, it's not okay when the US does it in a 3rd world country. I got it.
well case in point... I was playing TFC today and I've played engineer since Quakeworld, I can chuck a EMP grenade up against a wall, and bank it around a corner and 9/10 times hit whatever I'm throwing at. Some olympic class yo-yo of a 16yo...(rought estimate, judging by his incredible command of "1337sp33k"), swore up and down that I was incredibly lucky or just a grenade spamming whore.... Then he proceedes to talk about his "uber-leet" system, and all the money he's put into neon lights and gold trimmed accessories...and I just had to laugh. The case I have is 8 years old, has gone thru 3 power supplies, a full tower...has seen 6 different motherboards, 11 different CPU's, up to 11 hard drives ranging from SCSI to Firewire...(that's 11 inside the case at one time)...it's as ugly as homemade soap, so for all those fancy little "pretty things" that kid on his machine, he's still gibbed and I'm laughing my ass off.
That's be a good experiment to send up on the next space shuttle mission....
Just give us some pictures and "Howto" drawings so we can build one ourselves....muhahahaha (It's nice to live close to a reproductive services company that caters to farmers....they sell LN2 by the bucket...lol)...