These issues could be taken care of by not allowing any sort of 'corporate' funding of political candidates. Also, kill all lobbyist.
Great idea. Too bad it'll never work. Roughly translated, the phrase "Who will guard the guardians?" comes to mind. The problem isn't new, it goes all the way back to and past Rome. How do you regulate a ruling class that intends on 'policing' itself? You can't. A solution is known, but again, it'll never be implemented, for obvious reasons.
And for what it's worth, I kinda LIKE Piper's solution.
The difference here is that the Congress controls the FCC's budget, whereas it has essentially no control over Microsoft or the oil industry. Only the FTC can really do anything to Microsoft/Big Oil directly, so there is a dilution of congressional oversight. Yes, congress having a hearing with oil execs or with microsoft is more for show. If they wanted to achieve anything in those two arenas, they would haul FTC folks in and say, "Why are you letting oil/microsoft fleece the public?"
So, Congress cuts their budget, which makes them even more ameniable to bribes than usual, including implementing regulations for hire, just like they've always been. I'm thinking we're looking at yet another case of business as usual, in all senses of the word. We're turning ourselves into yet another Third World country. Pretty soon, all government bureaus will depend on bribes.
Some day, I hope that democracy starts working again...let's see if this is a start?
The problem is that building and fueling an atomic power station takes a considerable amount of energy. The argument seems to hinge on how much fuel can be created by breeder reactors and how much must be mined and refined.
Building anything takes power and fuel. The only way to not use up fuel and energy is to sit on a rock someplace until you starve to death.
Of course it will. Anything other than using the Web to read your mail and shop at eBay/Amazon/etc and updating your Windows is likely to be a violation of the ToS and thus eligible for an instant cancellation of your contract along with an instant summons to small claims court to let them 'reclaim' the balance of your contract AND the disconnect fee for 'breaking' the contract.
Looks like a ring of mirrors 5.3 meters in radius, according to my calculator. That's a lotta mirrors for 2.5 gallons of gas a day, once they perfect the process.
I'm wondering how much energy will be used to manufacture these things.
Of course that's how they really feel. CD sales are at an all-time low, and their revenue model is swimming like a rock. The reason all these suits are going on is because if they get enough 'wins' as precedent in court, they can then bother their paid-for shills, er, Congressmen, to pass legislation necessary for their share of corporate welfare funded by the tax payer.
Of course, they'd also love to use the same idea the telecoms use for the internet: collect from both ends for the same byte. In this scenario, they collect from the radio station for playing their overblown crap^F^Flatest hits, and force all new radios made to 'feature' a credit card slot as part of the device. The radio won't work until you plug in the credit card, and by the terms of service of the radio, you cannot dispute the charges on your credit card bill. Scared yet?
More like, the 12 year old kid with his pocket videogame accidently hacking the network while playing a flight sim game and doing some stunt flying with the plane. Can you say ''ooppss!'?
Personally, I'm wondering when RIAA is going to force the manufacturers to make car radios that require you to plug in a credit card before you can turn it on.
... the less likely I am to buy one of these turkeys. If Apple is so intent on creating strict boundaries around their products, they can leave me out. iLife is sounding more like iDeath the more I hear about it...
TiVoToGo can easily fill a video iPod with perfectly legal recordings transfered from a TiVo for no additional cost beyond the TiVo setup and a copy of the TiVo Desktop Plus package. You can save a little money by not buying the Plus package if you already have software that can do the transcoding for you.
Strange, I thought that watching TiVo was only legal on your TiVo.
PERSUES: Ah, roger that, Houston. Standing by...
(10 minutes later)
PERSUES: Houston, we have a problem. Our guidance system says we're now heading for Disneyland...
["bubble-headed total agreement mode" on] ...because, you know, everyone and their dog can get hold of the requisite titanium, rocket fuel, high-precision valves, thermal shielding, Internal Nav Units, and electronics required... You know, all the stuff that makes a delicate and complex-all-to-hell vehicle like, you know, a rocket... fly just fine without exploding in mid-air, or, like, simply catching fire on the launch pad. All we need are, like, you know, these here plans and some duct tape, you know?
[BHTAM off]
Slashdot Mirror
Great idea. Too bad it'll never work. Roughly translated, the phrase "Who will guard the guardians?" comes to mind. The problem isn't new, it goes all the way back to and past Rome. How do you regulate a ruling class that intends on 'policing' itself? You can't. A solution is known, but again, it'll never be implemented, for obvious reasons.
And for what it's worth, I kinda LIKE Piper's solution.
So, Congress cuts their budget, which makes them even more ameniable to bribes than usual, including implementing regulations for hire, just like they've always been. I'm thinking we're looking at yet another case of business as usual, in all senses of the word. We're turning ourselves into yet another Third World country. Pretty soon, all government bureaus will depend on bribes.
More like, the beginning of the end of democracy.
It's running Vista?????????????
Building anything takes power and fuel. The only way to not use up fuel and energy is to sit on a rock someplace until you starve to death.
Of course it will. Anything other than using the Web to read your mail and shop at eBay/Amazon/etc and updating your Windows is likely to be a violation of the ToS and thus eligible for an instant cancellation of your contract along with an instant summons to small claims court to let them 'reclaim' the balance of your contract AND the disconnect fee for 'breaking' the contract.
It looks good in the ads, of course. This is the United States, it's all about spin here.
Must be nice to have big hard drives...
So how hard is it to exploit a flaw that gives a program elevated admin permissions?
Yeah, I miss Bloom County, too.
You're right. I forgot.
Sucks to get old...
I'm wondering how much energy will be used to manufacture these things.
I'm still wondering why biologists continue to use lab rats to experiment on when there's so damned many lawyers about...
Fixed that for ya. That'll be $5 plus $0.05 per view. Cash only, please.
Of course, they'd also love to use the same idea the telecoms use for the internet: collect from both ends for the same byte. In this scenario, they collect from the radio station for playing their overblown crap^F^Flatest hits, and force all new radios made to 'feature' a credit card slot as part of the device. The radio won't work until you plug in the credit card, and by the terms of service of the radio, you cannot dispute the charges on your credit card bill. Scared yet?
More like, the 12 year old kid with his pocket videogame accidently hacking the network while playing a flight sim game and doing some stunt flying with the plane. Can you say ''ooppss!'?
Will it run Linux on a Beowulf cluster in Soviet Russia?
It's the next logical step.
... the less likely I am to buy one of these turkeys. If Apple is so intent on creating strict boundaries around their products, they can leave me out. iLife is sounding more like iDeath the more I hear about it...
Strange, I thought that watching TiVo was only legal on your TiVo.
On the other tentacle, wonder if I could get $40K for a preloaded iPod...
Cool.
I'll be standing in line with my checkbook in hand.
PERSUES: Ah, roger that, Houston. Standing by...
(10 minutes later)
PERSUES: Houston, we have a problem. Our guidance system says we're now heading for Disneyland...
Um, prior art anyone?
No kidding