MATC also says it promises to accept any of Schubert's papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.
I could buy Verizon finding some Linux geek in their midst to go and help this girl out for PR reasons - although still a stretch I think, they don't support it is all they would need to say and would be legit. Although, I do have a hard time swallowing this quote - colleges and universities of course have specific classes and such that would deal with Linux or have knowledge of it, although the *rest* of them would have instructors that would not have a clue of what Linux/OpenOffice is, let alone care - Office 101, English, etc.. I'm sure they could find someone, even on staff, although I'm relatively certain that they aren't going to go and install OpenOffice for this girls instructors, and have all this "special" software just for her. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if they assume that ALL software would create *.doc documents - it is the norm after all isn't it?
...rather than bother to find someone with half a clue to help her
I've seen this pop up numerous times on this, and that isn't an obvious as it may seem. Geeks are geeks, and likewise we hang out with geeks - I believe any sane shrink will tell you that we tend to hang out with people of like minded personalities. I'm up here in a small community and from what I can tell I'm the only "geek" with in an hours drive from here, and I'm 2hrs from Dallas. I've known many people who may use a system at the office but is clueless on doing something as simple as installing an OS, they just rely on that magic button to do everything.
Just because your not technical, does NOT mean you know someone who is - after all, normally a geek keeps to them selves and is not a social butterfly.
According to the story she somehow accidentally ordered the laptop with Ubuntu. I am not sure how she managed that because I have to *search* Dell's site to find their Linux offerings, but I digress and that is irrelevant anyway.
The Inspiron mini 9 and mini 12 - both of the "cheap" versions come with Ubuntu, the more expensive ones to the right come with XP...
If you don't know what your looking at when it comes to the "specs", I could see this happening relatively easily...
Linux is still nowhere near the point where a non-techie will consider adopting it.
Not necessarily, Linux isn't anywhere near Windoze, let alone Mac - but it has come leaps and bounds in the last decade. I've just finished installing Kubuntu and KDE4.1 for friends of my parents - they are in their 60's ~ 70's and know ZERO about technology.
The whole thing started out with him asking me to take a look at his desktop because he couldn't enable the automatic updates - looked/acted as if TrendMicro disabled that option for security or something for some reason. After a few beers, and BS'ing about things - we got to talking about Firefox, Thunderbird and Linux (FOSS). He started getting all gitty about things when I explained that Linux is mostly immune to viruses - I've been using it solely for a couple of decades now and have never had a virus problem, and routinely hit up sites that are known for malware and just chuckle when they try to run. I explained to him that if by some chance I did come across one made for Linux, all I would have to do is create a new user simply because of the basic security on a *NIX system - the core system will never get infected like it does under Windows with the typical user having administrator rights.
He asked if we could get together after the 1st, and I said of course. I pretty much blew it off, thinking it was the beer talking - but earlier this week he called asking if I could come over and look at his system. It had become infected with some kind of virus that Trend could do nothing about, it would just pull up a window saying it can't do anything about it, you close it and it comes back up with in a few minutes. I had brought over the Kubuntu install disk with me and showed him KDE, OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and Adept where he can search for practically any kind of software and simply hit install - it's all free...
I ended up resizing the partitions and installing Kubuntu on both his desktop and laptops, both had infections that Trend either missed or couldn't do anything about. The desktop was twice as fast as the laptop but with half the RAM (512mb), it was dog slow under windows (6+ hrs to zip 200 1mb images that took Linux less than a minute - he just laughed when he saw that). Linux ran the desktop just fine, even with only 512MB, the CD burner even started working again (the burning part). And when I got the laptop to see the desktop through CIFS and over wireless (which wasn't working either under Windows), he was 100% sold on Linux and told his wife they are going to get another 1G of RAM for the desktop and a new printer since the DELL was a "paperweight" according to linuxprinting.org, which he got a kick out of - the communities since of humor, like the kernel reporting "OOPS" when it hits a bug.
I was surprised to see that WINE had installed and ran his PokerStars application with out any issues what so ever (www.pokerstars.com). I kept telling them that they could boot back into windows at anytime they got tired or frustrated with Linux - and he just nodded and said that Windows was a pile of crap and never wanted to use it again. All he cared about was his PokerStars (WINE), WORD docs (OpenOffice), surfing the web (FireFox) and Email (Thunderbird) - after walking him and his wife through everything, they were 100% sold. His wife made the comment that it looks exactly the same, just a little different in how to do things...
Point being, that Linux has come 1000 miles in a short time - and as long as the given person *knows* what is up and what to expect, they will fall in love too with the hansom penguin:-)
It would be a great defence by far - all though, the problem being is that to give that said defence, you will have to still spend thousands of $$$ to do so in front of a given judge. From what I recall, the RIAA isn't to prone to dropping cases solely because of an air tight defence...
Whether your innocent or not, I really don't think is any of their concern.
You normally will report the given vehicle stolen or what not, and that likewise will give you the out. The local PD will give a rats ass if you lost your $100 IPod, I'm sure they will either hangup on you out right, or follow up with "What do you want us to about it?" - I wouldn't be surprised if they would feel the same about the $100 toy being supposedly stolen either.
Now that the RIAA/Apple has allowed this to happen, they need to also setup some kind of system where you can report a loss and or theft of the golden nugget(s). My concern is that now the RIAA lawyers don't have to contend with the IP address mysteries and all - they have your email address buried in the illegal song file, proving with out a doubt that it was yours and it has now been distributed in the wild. If you have a brain at all, your first defence will be that you lost it, or it was stolen whether legit or not...
Well, if you think about it - that would only be prudent planning on their part. From what has been said around here, TWC is actually telling their customers to use the internet to get their favourite shows - this means, as you pointed out, that VIACOMS cost will go up to support it. Since they are out for $$$ in the first place, it would only make since to prevent this.
On the note of $$$, this is making me wonder if the wall street melt down in the last few months is only the tip of the ice berg. That melt down was the result of mismanagement and greed, flat out - since they are the begining of everything (financially) it would mean a domino effect to the rest of the monopolies - the effects wouldn't be immediate although they will be there, and I'm curious if this is another start of things to come.
I'm basically getting at a communications meltdown (and any other monopolies) at the hands of the high end fat cats controlling it all - just as it happened on wall street, and for the same reason - greed and easy money.
Perhaps I missed that, but my point was that they still have their jobs with a healthy salary - there are many, many people and families out there who have lost their job(s) to no fault of their own, and facing the real possibility of loosing everything.
Google may just be bracing for the worst so they can keep everyone around through this mess - I know that I'm not alone in being envious during this time of the year.
A $400 phone and keeping the same salary would be a hell of a lot better than getting the pink slip...
Re:Missing something?
on
Sleep Mailing
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I can see some hacker out there laughing his off at this - for his new fangled virus randomly puts together jargon'ed sentences, and sends out emails (along with his virus) from the address book, and we intelligently come up with "Sleep Mailing"...
I swear... I know there is more to the story, but still - it's pretty obvious the RIAA wouldn't get their "winnings" if they managed to do so, I'm sure she was on a VERY limited income, even if there was one - so the whole point would have been fear mongering at the expense of someone who didn't need any more fear in their life.
I'm half way tempted to download (sole intent on "stealing") 10,000's of MP3's - spend a small fortune on CD's. Burn them with my own compilation and spend some dark night decorating the down town trees for XMas...
Wouldn't solve a damn thing except to "physically" redistribute their precious property, that they seem to be willing to kill for.
Mod me, flame me, what ever - the point being that if their shit is this valuable, fuck 'em... Physically give them something to go after, not this imaginary bull shit.
Agreed, although it would solve nothing that this case is about...
1) You couldn't prosecute Lori on a law that was not around when she did what she did.
2) Someone has to pay for the unnecessary suicide of a depressed teenager - considering it is apart of life.
Who's going to take the rap?
Not the loving mother who is was frustrated with an emotionally upset teenager not listening to her (go figure), regardless of the fact that the argument with her was the final straw.
You can't prosecute and entire society, that your apart of, that breed (and encourage) idiot trolls like Lori.
You can't just say "Shit happens.."
So you twist things around and "find" something to persecute the said evil - the very same society that breeds it, demands it... Especially when enough seemingly pointless facts are left out when told to the masses, that as a whole changes the story all together.
..blaming McDonald's for heart attacks caused by fatty foods.
Agreed, shit happens - unfortunately all it takes is one paranoid idiot/asshole with some degree of power and that is not necessarily as philisophical as we./'ers are, and the end result is scary as it is maddening...
The difference is the manufacturer abandoned the hardware a couple years ago for Windows, while they never bothered to support Linux at all in the first place. So the community stepped up for Linux, because that was the only way it was going to happen, while the manufacturers did a passable job long enough for the hardware to be non-mainstream enough that most people really don't care.
I'm no driver developer, although from what I understand from doing some research here and there to get devices working - Linux has the capability to practically ignore what the device actually calls it self, while instead focusing on the chip it self which is where the magic comes from anyhow - Microsoft on the other hand, for what ever reason needs to know what to do with what ever the device calls it self, and seemingly could care less about the functionality of the chip(s) them selves - which said device gets it's functionality from in the first place...
Which explains why Linux doesn't need explicit drivers for X and Y hardware, it already just works... The manufacturer of the hardware doesn't need to support Linux at all, if the specs/white paper of the chip it self is already documented and/or released - the driver for Linux probably already exists...
Note that I'm separating the chip with the hardware, it's like Microsoft needs to have the driver for the wrapper around the chip and Linux instead goes directly after the chip that controls the wrapper.
Why should someone accused of copyright infringement have it any easier (cheaper), than someone accused of running a red light, or breaking a contract, or committing a felony (tort, civil, and criminal examples mixed here deliberately)?
Screw being cheaper, if it was the same or even twice as much to defend your self this wouldn't be such an issue. IIRC, this all came about because it was costing the defendants at least $15,000 to even obtain an attorney since it is a federal issue, while the *AA's were offering settlements at a fraction of that - starting at $3,000. Your screwed from the get go, you simply can't go up against $1,000/hr attorneys with all that much hope by yourself, so you have no alternative than to take the settlement - guilty or not.
With traffic fines, you can represent yourself and half the time just showing up for court - it gets reduced, while the *IAA will just get annoyed and rams it up farther. The most expensive I've heard an attorney being for a simple traffic fine - is maybe $1,000, which is still somewhat plausible - $15,000 just to start things out isn't for 95% of the public.
Comparing this crap to a speeding ticket is ridiculous at best... I've never heard of anyone having to go bankrupt because of a traffic fine - hence the 8th amendment.
When it comes to breaking a contract - as a normal citizen there has always been a clause on what it takes to break said contract. With apartments, it was like 85% of the monthly rent, with cell phone companies (which has lately been squashed) it ranged from $150 to $500. From a few to many incidents with contracts and companies, IANAL but I think there is something somewhere that says the said company can't rape you because you decided to break the said contract - I'm not referring to the expensive contracts between businesses mind you.
When it comes felony convictions - You will have someone in your corner helping you fight the charges unless you just out right refuse the help. There is no such help for civil cases...
A private company (*IAA) doesn't have to give a rats ass about the constitution - only in that if the government that resides over them will. It's not the government that is "fining" them after all..
And the constitution, more or less, applies to the government - not the companies (read above). IIRC - it's all about what the said government can and can't do, nothing about what a private citizen (read company/corporation) can and can't do - going back to the duties of said government, keeping them/us in check and how to do it.
The whole problem being of course is that the said companies are coming or have gone past being more powerful than the government - in that they are directing it's course, not the constitution or the people that make it up.
I'm still trying to figure out how to tell if a file I want to download is one its creator wants me to have, or one that may get me sued and bankrupted.
It's the uploader's job to figure out if something they want to distribute is covered under copyright. They're the ones getting taken to court.
The only problem with that logic is that as soon as you start downloading via a torrent - YOU ARE THE UPLOADER (in a since) which is how the asshats are getting you, your now distributing the copyrighted material also...
We all know that the paper ballot is and always will be the most secure, although I really don't think anyone expects the entire process to 100% secure - take that back, the majority of people.
I think that the big stink per say, is that this stuff is no where near even being acceptable. I could live with a system that was vulnerable in with the flash ROM's, BIOS, internal microscopic workings that need a soldering iron and crowbar to modify.
What I can't live with is a system where the wrong button is pushed, and can't be corrected even though the other side of the machine says it is - BUG, and misleading bug to make it worse.
I couldn't live with these machines being easily opened with a screw driver, and the EPROM (or what ever) not even secured in place - a simple soldering iron would resolve that.
What I couldn't live with one button being pressed, and another activates - misaligned templates or what not.
IIRC, this all started because of EDIOS (?) and an access db that couldn't add correctly or something along these lines. Followed by the internal leaks from the same joint complaining about QA and the like. It has snowballed into this garbage.
*NOTHING* can be 100% secure for everyone, and I think the good old fashioned ballot is way more secure than what is being provided now. All though, I seriously don't think we are asking/expecting for something that is the elusive 100% secure - nothing can go wrong. I would venture to guess that we just want/expect that VERY SIMPLE design issues are designed correctly and efficiently...
I mean when one side of the machine says one thing, the other side says something else and the the results are anyones guess - COME ON! HOw on earth could it be to much to ask, let alone expect for crying out loud that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing? And this has ZERO to do with anything else I've heard around here about business plans (which I think is obvious considering the things are sold for thousands of dollars), logistics (we aren't even out the door yet!), and parts (regardless of whether China or the Pentagon delivers said parts - it is still dependent on the core design).
You can make this as complicated as you want, but it is all going to boil down to a fancy AND SIMPLE calculator - nothing more. You start at the bottom and work your way up - not the opposite way, if you get side tracked with the bells and whistles and the core function is no longer functioning 100% of the time - you need to go back to the drawing board.
Why can't the US do what we do in Canada? You don't have to make this complicated.
You do when your candidate/side is loosing and you just can't have it that way. This all started because that 'X' you speak of was marked up really fast and slid over into the neighboring big circle - those that didn't like the outcome threatened to sue and hold the entire thing up until the courts decided what is up.
To relieve any kind of issues like this in the future - the current fiasco was born...
Slashdot Mirror
All it takes is two clicks - "choose" and "add to cart"...
Dell Inspiron mini 12 Laptop
The cheapest of the 3 versions, comes with Ubuntu preinstalled.
MATC also says it promises to accept any of Schubert's papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.
I could buy Verizon finding some Linux geek in their midst to go and help this girl out for PR reasons - although still a stretch I think, they don't support it is all they would need to say and would be legit. Although, I do have a hard time swallowing this quote - colleges and universities of course have specific classes and such that would deal with Linux or have knowledge of it, although the *rest* of them would have instructors that would not have a clue of what Linux/OpenOffice is, let alone care - Office 101, English, etc.. I'm sure they could find someone, even on staff, although I'm relatively certain that they aren't going to go and install OpenOffice for this girls instructors, and have all this "special" software just for her. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if they assume that ALL software would create *.doc documents - it is the norm after all isn't it?
...rather than bother to find someone with half a clue to help her
I've seen this pop up numerous times on this, and that isn't an obvious as it may seem. Geeks are geeks, and likewise we hang out with geeks - I believe any sane shrink will tell you that we tend to hang out with people of like minded personalities. I'm up here in a small community and from what I can tell I'm the only "geek" with in an hours drive from here, and I'm 2hrs from Dallas. I've known many people who may use a system at the office but is clueless on doing something as simple as installing an OS, they just rely on that magic button to do everything.
Just because your not technical, does NOT mean you know someone who is - after all, normally a geek keeps to them selves and is not a social butterfly.
According to the story she somehow accidentally ordered the laptop with Ubuntu. I am not sure how she managed that because I have to *search* Dell's site to find their Linux offerings, but I digress and that is irrelevant anyway.
The Inspiron mini 9 and mini 12 - both of the "cheap" versions come with Ubuntu, the more expensive ones to the right come with XP...
If you don't know what your looking at when it comes to the "specs", I could see this happening relatively easily...
Linux is still nowhere near the point where a non-techie will consider adopting it.
Not necessarily, Linux isn't anywhere near Windoze, let alone Mac - but it has come leaps and bounds in the last decade. I've just finished installing Kubuntu and KDE4.1 for friends of my parents - they are in their 60's ~ 70's and know ZERO about technology.
The whole thing started out with him asking me to take a look at his desktop because he couldn't enable the automatic updates - looked/acted as if TrendMicro disabled that option for security or something for some reason. After a few beers, and BS'ing about things - we got to talking about Firefox, Thunderbird and Linux (FOSS). He started getting all gitty about things when I explained that Linux is mostly immune to viruses - I've been using it solely for a couple of decades now and have never had a virus problem, and routinely hit up sites that are known for malware and just chuckle when they try to run. I explained to him that if by some chance I did come across one made for Linux, all I would have to do is create a new user simply because of the basic security on a *NIX system - the core system will never get infected like it does under Windows with the typical user having administrator rights.
He asked if we could get together after the 1st, and I said of course. I pretty much blew it off, thinking it was the beer talking - but earlier this week he called asking if I could come over and look at his system. It had become infected with some kind of virus that Trend could do nothing about, it would just pull up a window saying it can't do anything about it, you close it and it comes back up with in a few minutes. I had brought over the Kubuntu install disk with me and showed him KDE, OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and Adept where he can search for practically any kind of software and simply hit install - it's all free...
I ended up resizing the partitions and installing Kubuntu on both his desktop and laptops, both had infections that Trend either missed or couldn't do anything about. The desktop was twice as fast as the laptop but with half the RAM (512mb), it was dog slow under windows (6+ hrs to zip 200 1mb images that took Linux less than a minute - he just laughed when he saw that). Linux ran the desktop just fine, even with only 512MB, the CD burner even started working again (the burning part). And when I got the laptop to see the desktop through CIFS and over wireless (which wasn't working either under Windows), he was 100% sold on Linux and told his wife they are going to get another 1G of RAM for the desktop and a new printer since the DELL was a "paperweight" according to linuxprinting.org, which he got a kick out of - the communities since of humor, like the kernel reporting "OOPS" when it hits a bug.
I was surprised to see that WINE had installed and ran his PokerStars application with out any issues what so ever (www.pokerstars.com). I kept telling them that they could boot back into windows at anytime they got tired or frustrated with Linux - and he just nodded and said that Windows was a pile of crap and never wanted to use it again. All he cared about was his PokerStars (WINE), WORD docs (OpenOffice), surfing the web (FireFox) and Email (Thunderbird) - after walking him and his wife through everything, they were 100% sold. His wife made the comment that it looks exactly the same, just a little different in how to do things...
Point being, that Linux has come 1000 miles in a short time - and as long as the given person *knows* what is up and what to expect, they will fall in love too with the hansom penguin:-)
It would be a great defence by far - all though, the problem being is that to give that said defence, you will have to still spend thousands of $$$ to do so in front of a given judge. From what I recall, the RIAA isn't to prone to dropping cases solely because of an air tight defence...
Whether your innocent or not, I really don't think is any of their concern.
You normally will report the given vehicle stolen or what not, and that likewise will give you the out. The local PD will give a rats ass if you lost your $100 IPod, I'm sure they will either hangup on you out right, or follow up with "What do you want us to about it?" - I wouldn't be surprised if they would feel the same about the $100 toy being supposedly stolen either.
Now that the RIAA/Apple has allowed this to happen, they need to also setup some kind of system where you can report a loss and or theft of the golden nugget(s). My concern is that now the RIAA lawyers don't have to contend with the IP address mysteries and all - they have your email address buried in the illegal song file, proving with out a doubt that it was yours and it has now been distributed in the wild. If you have a brain at all, your first defence will be that you lost it, or it was stolen whether legit or not...
Well, if you think about it - that would only be prudent planning on their part. From what has been said around here, TWC is actually telling their customers to use the internet to get their favourite shows - this means, as you pointed out, that VIACOMS cost will go up to support it. Since they are out for $$$ in the first place, it would only make since to prevent this.
On the note of $$$, this is making me wonder if the wall street melt down in the last few months is only the tip of the ice berg. That melt down was the result of mismanagement and greed, flat out - since they are the begining of everything (financially) it would mean a domino effect to the rest of the monopolies - the effects wouldn't be immediate although they will be there, and I'm curious if this is another start of things to come.
I'm basically getting at a communications meltdown (and any other monopolies) at the hands of the high end fat cats controlling it all - just as it happened on wall street, and for the same reason - greed and easy money.
chkopsuwm ?= "checking opposite of universal weapons of mass destruction"
"Fidelity Bravery Intergrity checking opposite of universal weapons of mass destruction"???
I have no clue...
Perhaps I missed that, but my point was that they still have their jobs with a healthy salary - there are many, many people and families out there who have lost their job(s) to no fault of their own, and facing the real possibility of loosing everything.
Google may just be bracing for the worst so they can keep everyone around through this mess - I know that I'm not alone in being envious during this time of the year.
Agreed,
A $400 phone and keeping the same salary would be a hell of a lot better than getting the pink slip...
I can see some hacker out there laughing his off at this - for his new fangled virus randomly puts together jargon'ed sentences, and sends out emails (along with his virus) from the address book, and we intelligently come up with "Sleep Mailing"...
This is not a good thing: by definition x86 code is not portable across platforms.
I think the article/download site may disagree with you, and I believe that VMWare and VirtualBox would also disagree.
FTA...
"1. Download the Native Client distribution for your development platform: Linux, Mac, or Windows."
Secure or not, it goes against the main founding principle of the web, which is portability.
How is this going against the principles? Having the same code, run on multiple platforms I would have sworn is the definition of portability...
All this is, is virtualization ported to the browsers - why wouldn't this be a good/cool thing?
I swear... I know there is more to the story, but still - it's pretty obvious the RIAA wouldn't get their "winnings" if they managed to do so, I'm sure she was on a VERY limited income, even if there was one - so the whole point would have been fear mongering at the expense of someone who didn't need any more fear in their life.
I'm half way tempted to download (sole intent on "stealing") 10,000's of MP3's - spend a small fortune on CD's. Burn them with my own compilation and spend some dark night decorating the down town trees for XMas...
Wouldn't solve a damn thing except to "physically" redistribute their precious property, that they seem to be willing to kill for.
Mod me, flame me, what ever - the point being that if their shit is this valuable, fuck 'em... Physically give them something to go after, not this imaginary bull shit.
Agreed, although it would solve nothing that this case is about...
1) You couldn't prosecute Lori on a law that was not around when she did what she did.
2) Someone has to pay for the unnecessary suicide of a depressed teenager - considering it is apart of life.
Who's going to take the rap?
Not the loving mother who is was frustrated with an emotionally upset teenager not listening to her (go figure), regardless of the fact that the argument with her was the final straw.
You can't prosecute and entire society, that your apart of, that breed (and encourage) idiot trolls like Lori.
You can't just say "Shit happens.."
So you twist things around and "find" something to persecute the said evil - the very same society that breeds it, demands it... Especially when enough seemingly pointless facts are left out when told to the masses, that as a whole changes the story all together.
..blaming McDonald's for heart attacks caused by fatty foods.
Agreed, shit happens - unfortunately all it takes is one paranoid idiot/asshole with some degree of power and that is not necessarily as philisophical as we ./'ers are, and the end result is scary as it is maddening...
A McDonald's worker in Union City, Ga., was arrested and jailed Thursday night for putting too much salt and pepper on a police officer's hamburger, MyFoxAtlanta reported Friday.
-or-
Search Google for "mcdonalds arrested salt hamburger"
The difference is the manufacturer abandoned the hardware a couple years ago for Windows, while they never bothered to support Linux at all in the first place. So the community stepped up for Linux, because that was the only way it was going to happen, while the manufacturers did a passable job long enough for the hardware to be non-mainstream enough that most people really don't care.
I'm no driver developer, although from what I understand from doing some research here and there to get devices working - Linux has the capability to practically ignore what the device actually calls it self, while instead focusing on the chip it self which is where the magic comes from anyhow - Microsoft on the other hand, for what ever reason needs to know what to do with what ever the device calls it self, and seemingly could care less about the functionality of the chip(s) them selves - which said device gets it's functionality from in the first place...
Which explains why Linux doesn't need explicit drivers for X and Y hardware, it already just works... The manufacturer of the hardware doesn't need to support Linux at all, if the specs/white paper of the chip it self is already documented and/or released - the driver for Linux probably already exists...
Note that I'm separating the chip with the hardware, it's like Microsoft needs to have the driver for the wrapper around the chip and Linux instead goes directly after the chip that controls the wrapper.
Agreed, although...
And the government enforces collection of the fine.
is a completely different action than actually doing the fining...
Mod'ed interesting???
Why should someone accused of copyright infringement have it any easier (cheaper), than someone accused of running a red light, or breaking a contract, or committing a felony (tort, civil, and criminal examples mixed here deliberately)?
Screw being cheaper, if it was the same or even twice as much to defend your self this wouldn't be such an issue. IIRC, this all came about because it was costing the defendants at least $15,000 to even obtain an attorney since it is a federal issue, while the *AA's were offering settlements at a fraction of that - starting at $3,000. Your screwed from the get go, you simply can't go up against $1,000/hr attorneys with all that much hope by yourself, so you have no alternative than to take the settlement - guilty or not.
With traffic fines, you can represent yourself and half the time just showing up for court - it gets reduced, while the *IAA will just get annoyed and rams it up farther. The most expensive I've heard an attorney being for a simple traffic fine - is maybe $1,000, which is still somewhat plausible - $15,000 just to start things out isn't for 95% of the public.
Comparing this crap to a speeding ticket is ridiculous at best... I've never heard of anyone having to go bankrupt because of a traffic fine - hence the 8th amendment.
When it comes to breaking a contract - as a normal citizen there has always been a clause on what it takes to break said contract. With apartments, it was like 85% of the monthly rent, with cell phone companies (which has lately been squashed) it ranged from $150 to $500. From a few to many incidents with contracts and companies, IANAL but I think there is something somewhere that says the said company can't rape you because you decided to break the said contract - I'm not referring to the expensive contracts between businesses mind you.
When it comes felony convictions - You will have someone in your corner helping you fight the charges unless you just out right refuse the help. There is no such help for civil cases...
A private company (*IAA) doesn't have to give a rats ass about the constitution - only in that if the government that resides over them will. It's not the government that is "fining" them after all..
And the constitution, more or less, applies to the government - not the companies (read above). IIRC - it's all about what the said government can and can't do, nothing about what a private citizen (read company/corporation) can and can't do - going back to the duties of said government, keeping them/us in check and how to do it.
The whole problem being of course is that the said companies are coming or have gone past being more powerful than the government - in that they are directing it's course, not the constitution or the people that make it up.
I'm still trying to figure out how to tell if a file I want to download is one its creator wants me to have, or one that may get me sued and bankrupted.
It's the uploader's job to figure out if something they want to distribute is covered under copyright. They're the ones getting taken to court.
The only problem with that logic is that as soon as you start downloading via a torrent - YOU ARE THE UPLOADER (in a since) which is how the asshats are getting you, your now distributing the copyrighted material also...
We all know that the paper ballot is and always will be the most secure, although I really don't think anyone expects the entire process to 100% secure - take that back, the majority of people.
I think that the big stink per say, is that this stuff is no where near even being acceptable. I could live with a system that was vulnerable in with the flash ROM's, BIOS, internal microscopic workings that need a soldering iron and crowbar to modify.
What I can't live with is a system where the wrong button is pushed, and can't be corrected even though the other side of the machine says it is - BUG, and misleading bug to make it worse.
I couldn't live with these machines being easily opened with a screw driver, and the EPROM (or what ever) not even secured in place - a simple soldering iron would resolve that.
What I couldn't live with one button being pressed, and another activates - misaligned templates or what not.
IIRC, this all started because of EDIOS (?) and an access db that couldn't add correctly or something along these lines. Followed by the internal leaks from the same joint complaining about QA and the like. It has snowballed into this garbage.
*NOTHING* can be 100% secure for everyone, and I think the good old fashioned ballot is way more secure than what is being provided now. All though, I seriously don't think we are asking/expecting for something that is the elusive 100% secure - nothing can go wrong. I would venture to guess that we just want/expect that VERY SIMPLE design issues are designed correctly and efficiently...
I mean when one side of the machine says one thing, the other side says something else and the the results are anyones guess - COME ON! HOw on earth could it be to much to ask, let alone expect for crying out loud that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing? And this has ZERO to do with anything else I've heard around here about business plans (which I think is obvious considering the things are sold for thousands of dollars), logistics (we aren't even out the door yet!), and parts (regardless of whether China or the Pentagon delivers said parts - it is still dependent on the core design).
You can make this as complicated as you want, but it is all going to boil down to a fancy AND SIMPLE calculator - nothing more. You start at the bottom and work your way up - not the opposite way, if you get side tracked with the bells and whistles and the core function is no longer functioning 100% of the time - you need to go back to the drawing board.
Why can't the US do what we do in Canada? You don't have to make this complicated.
You do when your candidate/side is loosing and you just can't have it that way. This all started because that 'X' you speak of was marked up really fast and slid over into the neighboring big circle - those that didn't like the outcome threatened to sue and hold the entire thing up until the courts decided what is up.
To relieve any kind of issues like this in the future - the current fiasco was born...
Balmer may want to reconsider his original idea, or in the very least strap a few jet packs and bazooka's on it now...
RAID is a backup - just backing up the hardware and NOT the data...