"...but voting third party is just going to help the guy I don't want to get (re-)elected"
A friend of mine said the same thing. He of course wants Kerry to win. I then reminded him that in California, there is no chance at all that Bush will take the electoral votes. Since I normally vote Republican or Libertarian, I would actually be taking away a vote for the Elephants by voting Libertarian.
If you live in California, you too can vote your conscience, whatever it may be, and not worry about Kerry not winning the State. On the other hand, if you vote Republican, and you want to vote different, you can since Bush wasn't going to win in California anyways.
The Terminator (1,2,3) is a great example of what could happen if our machines become smart and feel threatened without clear limitations on their capabilities.
Even Skynet realized that it did not want the machines under its control thinking too much.
Since it has been done before, it can easily be done again.
Phase I - Introduce new technology. Market it as superior. Include DRM with better images, features, etc. This will be too expensive for most people. But it will be touted as the next thing you wish you could have.
Phase II - Cut prices. Offer deals with the new hardware. When CDs came out, you could often get deals for 6-10 CDs with purchase of a CD player. Taking that into account, CD players seemed reasonable.
Phase III - Force old media out of the market. No longer agree to buy back unsold media from retailers (except with the new format). Most retailers will not take the chance on unsold merchandise, and will start cutting back their catalog in the old format.
This is how CDs were brought to the market in such a short time and why LPs lost favor. Once that critical market mass is reached, the old technology will be obsolete (in retail). Video casettes are dead - not in the sense that you cannot find them anywhere - but in the sense that they are becoming much harder to find since retailers are dropping it as a format.
that reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Bart and Homer became grifters. They ended up grifting a bunch of money from retired seniors, only to have it all confiscated by a cop (who was a fake).
And when I am browsing the internet with internet explorer, I have, at times, come across pop-ups and advertising for products, including browsers, that compete with Microsoft.
When I read slashdot, cnn.com, and other websites, I see discussions about alternatives.
It is not the job of Microsoft to provide piggyback service to the competition.
If their software was to block alternative installations or advertising for the competition, that would be another thing.
P2P is just a tool. While it can be used for copyright infringement, it also has a greater public use for freeing information. Not all information, news, and media should be controlled by corporations.
I see a potential use, where important news, like the videotape of the Rodney King beating, could be distributed in its entirety, not just the few seconds the major sensationalism based media shows. There are plenty of examples where the media reports matters of public concern in small, biased bits and pieces, where the public really wants to see more. P2P can be used for distributing pictures, audio, video clips, custom maps from a favorite game, recipes for cooking, etc.
Cars, crowbars, guns, knives, xerox machines, and VCRs all have legitimate uses, even though they can be used to commit crime or break the law. P2P is not the problem here. P2P is just starting to grow to its potential and there are those who wish to cut its head off and squash technology which has many other benefits.
Outlawing P2P will only serve to benefit the profits of a corrupt industry that has shown they care about 1 thing at the expense of our rights and freedoms. The music industry has shown they can break laws (price fixing/collusion), bend them (not paying royalties to artists, market manipulation, deceptive contract practices), or get the laws changed to benefit them (copyright extension, $150,000 per infraction).
I watched about 10 minutes of it. When I saw the scene with the earthquake fault running exactly along the train tracks and chasing the train, I turned it off and watched a Law and Order rerun.
The acting was awful. The storyline was predictable. And the science was imaginary (not just creative licensing that you normally expect).
I'm sure the viewer ratings were pretty good for at least the first half hour with all that hype.
When they added MTBE to our fuel, not only did the cost go up, but the power and fuel economy went down.
Now that MTBE is being removed, my fuel economy is back up again, better than I ever remember it, and my car is more responsive.
I wonder if politicians ever considered the additional pollution caused by lowering gas mileage with an additive designed to lower pollution and is disaterous to the environment.
My SUV is not being subsidized by your insurance premiums. I own 3 vehicles. Most famililes with SUVs have more than one vehicle. With multiple vehicles come multiple discounts.
But regardless, there are plenty of insurers out there. What they charge per vehicle is part of their marketing and economics. If they were losing money on SUVs, they would charge more and they could. If my insurance company did, they would loose my business.
If your're not happy with your rate, shop around. When you go to buy a car, check on the insurance rates before you buy. Stop blaming other people.
>>And yes, we are a wealthy country, but because we work hard.
I wish more people would realize this. So many Americans work 40-60 hour weeks, and only get 2 weeks vacation a year. So many families have two income earners.
The U.S. is a highly productive society. Sure, we consume a lot, but we also produce a lot.
None of the phone companies are really all that great.
Verizon seems to have better coverage in my area (California Central Coast) than Cingular.
But I really don't care for some of the Verizon business practices.
First off, they don't use phones that take Sim Cards. Even though you can now take your phone number from one carrier to another, you often cannot take your phone. Cingular and T-Mobil phones will work on eachothers networks by just changing the sim card. You can also use the same phone on networks in Europe or buy prepaid wireless and insert the chip and it works. You could take a friends phone and swap cards and your phones will be swapped. Sim cards offer a lot of options for comsumers.
Second, they use phones that by design can only use their pay services. Want ringtones? Fork over the $. Want games and other services, gimme $$$. Want to download them from any other non-affiliated provider? Sorry charlie.
These are just a few things to consider when buying into a phone contract.
Does it matter if posting a reward and catching someone is a deterrent?
If someone does a "prank" releasing a virus that costs people time, grief, and damages their system, it should not be taken lightly.
The person should be caught and punished. Sure, it would be nice if Windows did not have holes. It would also be nice if my car could not be broken into.
It's sad that so many people want to blame the government, schools, teachers, corporations, the man, the system, etc., rather than blame the individual or those that should be instilling decent values into the children, the parents.
The cost for nuclear fuel relative to the output is very small. The labor costs, support systems, transmission, and regulation are what makes nuclear power cost money.
They installed red light cameras in several intersections on the premise that it would make things safer.
Many of the tickets issued ended up being thrown out because there was a financial incentive to cheat. The company that was contracted to put the cameras in and calibrate them got a fixed amount per ticket, actually much more than the cut the city would get. Some of the timings on the lights were questionable.
The cameras generated millions of dollars. Do you really want to trust a system like this? I would have more confidence if there was no fine attached to the infraction.
Do you really think this will make things safer? It doesn't help when the ticket arrives weeks later.
Also, California laws have been changed to ticket the owner of the car, regardless of who was really driving. In other words, you can be financially responsible for someone elses infraction.
It seems like the interview only touched on one aspect of fair use, ability to play media with software of our choosing.
And the topic discussed was about Linux, which really does not impact many people (small market share) for consumer goods.
It would have been nice to see the other fair use topics discussed, like the right to time shift, to make a backup copy, to convert formats, to play on devices which have not been invented.
The DMCA locks up the future and slows down innovation. The general public would be more interested in these things...and that may be a better way to start open discussion...by talking about things Valenti and the rest of the public might understand.
It might have something to do with the people running the polls, and the media that reports the results.
In California, Cruz Bustamante wasn't doing so bad in the polls, but he lost by a considerable margin to Arnold. This was predicted prior to the election, with specific reference to the bias of the polls/media.
It does very little to write your congressperson to have the DMCA changed. You need to write their real constituents, the ones that donate lots of $$ and let them know you will no longer purchase their products unless they support your cause. If Pepsi, MacDonalds, the Energy Companies, GE, Ford, etc supported repeal of the DMCA, it would be gone. You make little difference in them getting elected.
When your hardware start listening to the Megalocorps and won't permit you to record, pause, skip, change channels, volume, turn off your TV...
Will that make a difference then?
We already can not fast forward through the commercials on several DVDs, even though we purchased the DVD or legitimately rented it, and own the DVD player. This is due to agreements forced upon the hardware manufacturers. It is the law that makes it a crime for you to try and fix this unwanted feature, and that part is entirely wrong.
Also, I don't see how placing additional non-flexible restrictions advances the sciences and useful arts, when your equipment refuses to record clips of various media for debate, parody, discussion, etc.
Sure, pretty boxes with manuals are nice. But often enough, stores run out of the game, program, or whatever you want. This is especially true if a game is popular.
Also, stores often don't have enough shelf space to stock every software program out there.
A machine like this could fill that void. As long as it does not run out of CDs, it won't run out of software. With inkjets that print directly to CDs, it could print a custom label as well.
With enough security/protection, the store could even put one of these machines outside, to cover those times at 2am when you just have to buy a new game.
I used a similar self service machine when I bought tags for my dogs...no waiting, no dealing with someone to engrave the tags, paid with credit card, no hassle.
The whole cable box thing is how they get their rates to go up.
I remember back when the cable companies could charge based on how many TVs you had hooked up in the house.
But then that got dropped (lawsuits?). So now, you pay the same rate for service to the house, and you can run it to any number of TV sets that the signal will support.
With cable boxes, they bring back a way to charge you per TV again. That is by choice. With digital TV and standards, the basic channels don't need to be scrambled and you wouldn't need separate boxes for each TV. The only ones that would need a box are the ones that get premium channels. But even technology could take care of this.
There are ways to deliver ala carte, that would not require a separate box per TV with a per box fee, but that is not what the cable/sat providers would want.
I never had a problem with the digital cable channels. It was the analog channels on cable that looked bad to me.
But then, they all kinda looked bad compared to Dish Network.
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"...but voting third party is just going to help the guy I don't want to get (re-)elected"
A friend of mine said the same thing. He of course wants Kerry to win. I then reminded him that in California, there is no chance at all that Bush will take the electoral votes. Since I normally vote Republican or Libertarian, I would actually be taking away a vote for the Elephants by voting Libertarian.
If you live in California, you too can vote your conscience, whatever it may be, and not worry about Kerry not winning the State. On the other hand, if you vote Republican, and you want to vote different, you can since Bush wasn't going to win in California anyways.
The Terminator (1,2,3) is a great example of what could happen if our machines become smart and feel threatened without clear limitations on their capabilities. Even Skynet realized that it did not want the machines under its control thinking too much.
Since it has been done before, it can easily be done again.
Phase I - Introduce new technology. Market it as superior. Include DRM with better images, features, etc. This will be too expensive for most people. But it will be touted as the next thing you wish you could have.
Phase II - Cut prices. Offer deals with the new hardware. When CDs came out, you could often get deals for 6-10 CDs with purchase of a CD player. Taking that into account, CD players seemed reasonable.
Phase III - Force old media out of the market. No longer agree to buy back unsold media from retailers (except with the new format). Most retailers will not take the chance on unsold merchandise, and will start cutting back their catalog in the old format.
This is how CDs were brought to the market in such a short time and why LPs lost favor. Once that critical market mass is reached, the old technology will be obsolete (in retail). Video casettes are dead - not in the sense that you cannot find them anywhere - but in the sense that they are becoming much harder to find since retailers are dropping it as a format.
that reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Bart and Homer became grifters. They ended up grifting a bunch of money from retired seniors, only to have it all confiscated by a cop (who was a fake).
And when I am browsing the internet with internet explorer, I have, at times, come across pop-ups and advertising for products, including browsers, that compete with Microsoft.
When I read slashdot, cnn.com, and other websites, I see discussions about alternatives.
It is not the job of Microsoft to provide piggyback service to the competition.
If their software was to block alternative installations or advertising for the competition, that would be another thing.
P2P is just a tool. While it can be used for copyright infringement, it also has a greater public use for freeing information. Not all information, news, and media should be controlled by corporations.
I see a potential use, where important news, like the videotape of the Rodney King beating, could be distributed in its entirety, not just the few seconds the major sensationalism based media shows. There are plenty of examples where the media reports matters of public concern in small, biased bits and pieces, where the public really wants to see more. P2P can be used for distributing pictures, audio, video clips, custom maps from a favorite game, recipes for cooking, etc.
Cars, crowbars, guns, knives, xerox machines, and VCRs all have legitimate uses, even though they can be used to commit crime or break the law. P2P is not the problem here. P2P is just starting to grow to its potential and there are those who wish to cut its head off and squash technology which has many other benefits.
Outlawing P2P will only serve to benefit the profits of a corrupt industry that has shown they care about 1 thing at the expense of our rights and freedoms. The music industry has shown they can break laws (price fixing/collusion), bend them (not paying royalties to artists, market manipulation, deceptive contract practices), or get the laws changed to benefit them (copyright extension, $150,000 per infraction).
I watched about 10 minutes of it. When I saw the scene with the earthquake fault running exactly along the train tracks and chasing the train, I turned it off and watched a Law and Order rerun.
The acting was awful. The storyline was predictable. And the science was imaginary (not just creative licensing that you normally expect).
I'm sure the viewer ratings were pretty good for at least the first half hour with all that hype.
I live in California.
When they added MTBE to our fuel, not only did the cost go up, but the power and fuel economy went down.
Now that MTBE is being removed, my fuel economy is back up again, better than I ever remember it, and my car is more responsive.
I wonder if politicians ever considered the additional pollution caused by lowering gas mileage with an additive designed to lower pollution and is disaterous to the environment.
My SUV is not being subsidized by your insurance premiums. I own 3 vehicles. Most famililes with SUVs have more than one vehicle. With multiple vehicles come multiple discounts.
But regardless, there are plenty of insurers out there. What they charge per vehicle is part of their marketing and economics. If they were losing money on SUVs, they would charge more and they could. If my insurance company did, they would loose my business.
If your're not happy with your rate, shop around. When you go to buy a car, check on the insurance rates before you buy. Stop blaming other people.
>>And yes, we are a wealthy country, but because we work hard.
I wish more people would realize this. So many Americans work 40-60 hour weeks, and only get 2 weeks vacation a year. So many families have two income earners.
The U.S. is a highly productive society. Sure, we consume a lot, but we also produce a lot.
None of the phone companies are really all that great.
Verizon seems to have better coverage in my area (California Central Coast) than Cingular.
But I really don't care for some of the Verizon business practices.
First off, they don't use phones that take Sim Cards. Even though you can now take your phone number from one carrier to another, you often cannot take your phone. Cingular and T-Mobil phones will work on eachothers networks by just changing the sim card. You can also use the same phone on networks in Europe or buy prepaid wireless and insert the chip and it works. You could take a friends phone and swap cards and your phones will be swapped. Sim cards offer a lot of options for comsumers.
Second, they use phones that by design can only use their pay services. Want ringtones? Fork over the $. Want games and other services, gimme $$$. Want to download them from any other non-affiliated provider? Sorry charlie.
These are just a few things to consider when buying into a phone contract.
Does it matter if posting a reward and catching someone is a deterrent?
If someone does a "prank" releasing a virus that costs people time, grief, and damages their system, it should not be taken lightly.
The person should be caught and punished. Sure, it would be nice if Windows did not have holes. It would also be nice if my car could not be broken into.
It's sad that so many people want to blame the government, schools, teachers, corporations, the man, the system, etc., rather than blame the individual or those that should be instilling decent values into the children, the parents.
I fried one too, then I used thermal compound. It will allow the heat to transfer from the chip to the heatsink.
Without it, being just a tiny bit off, your chip will fry.
Intel chips have built in thermal protection. Even if the heatsink fall off, they are supposed to keep running by scaling the speed down.
I have heard the newer AMD chips do not have the same problem as the XP line.
The cost for nuclear fuel relative to the output is very small. The labor costs, support systems, transmission, and regulation are what makes nuclear power cost money.
Now the burglars will have to steal a car before they rob your house.
They installed red light cameras in several intersections on the premise that it would make things safer.
Many of the tickets issued ended up being thrown out because there was a financial incentive to cheat. The company that was contracted to put the cameras in and calibrate them got a fixed amount per ticket, actually much more than the cut the city would get. Some of the timings on the lights were questionable.
The cameras generated millions of dollars. Do you really want to trust a system like this? I would have more confidence if there was no fine attached to the infraction.
Do you really think this will make things safer? It doesn't help when the ticket arrives weeks later.
Also, California laws have been changed to ticket the owner of the car, regardless of who was really driving. In other words, you can be financially responsible for someone elses infraction.
Automated justice systems cannot be trusted.
It seems like the interview only touched on one aspect of fair use, ability to play media with software of our choosing. And the topic discussed was about Linux, which really does not impact many people (small market share) for consumer goods. It would have been nice to see the other fair use topics discussed, like the right to time shift, to make a backup copy, to convert formats, to play on devices which have not been invented. The DMCA locks up the future and slows down innovation. The general public would be more interested in these things...and that may be a better way to start open discussion...by talking about things Valenti and the rest of the public might understand.
It might have something to do with the people running the polls, and the media that reports the results. In California, Cruz Bustamante wasn't doing so bad in the polls, but he lost by a considerable margin to Arnold. This was predicted prior to the election, with specific reference to the bias of the polls/media.
It does very little to write your congressperson to have the DMCA changed. You need to write their real constituents, the ones that donate lots of $$ and let them know you will no longer purchase their products unless they support your cause. If Pepsi, MacDonalds, the Energy Companies, GE, Ford, etc supported repeal of the DMCA, it would be gone. You make little difference in them getting elected.
When the $$ speaks, congress will listen.
Because the Supreme Court ruled that copying is a "fair use" and the VCR has significant non-infringing capabilities.
So should the PVR, DVD recorder, and any other new technology that comes up (mp3 player).
When your hardware start listening to the Megalocorps and won't permit you to record, pause, skip, change channels, volume, turn off your TV...
Will that make a difference then?
We already can not fast forward through the commercials on several DVDs, even though we purchased the DVD or legitimately rented it, and own the DVD player. This is due to agreements forced upon the hardware manufacturers. It is the law that makes it a crime for you to try and fix this unwanted feature, and that part is entirely wrong.
Also, I don't see how placing additional non-flexible restrictions advances the sciences and useful arts, when your equipment refuses to record clips of various media for debate, parody, discussion, etc.
Sure, pretty boxes with manuals are nice. But often enough, stores run out of the game, program, or whatever you want. This is especially true if a game is popular.
Also, stores often don't have enough shelf space to stock every software program out there.
A machine like this could fill that void. As long as it does not run out of CDs, it won't run out of software. With inkjets that print directly to CDs, it could print a custom label as well.
With enough security/protection, the store could even put one of these machines outside, to cover those times at 2am when you just have to buy a new game.
I used a similar self service machine when I bought tags for my dogs...no waiting, no dealing with someone to engrave the tags, paid with credit card, no hassle.
I wonder if a diode (to allow quick charging in one direction) and a resistor (to limit the discharge - increasing internal resistance) would work.
If these were built in as part of the battery, it would make it safe.
The whole cable box thing is how they get their rates to go up.
I remember back when the cable companies could charge based on how many TVs you had hooked up in the house.
But then that got dropped (lawsuits?). So now, you pay the same rate for service to the house, and you can run it to any number of TV sets that the signal will support.
With cable boxes, they bring back a way to charge you per TV again. That is by choice. With digital TV and standards, the basic channels don't need to be scrambled and you wouldn't need separate boxes for each TV. The only ones that would need a box are the ones that get premium channels. But even technology could take care of this.
There are ways to deliver ala carte, that would not require a separate box per TV with a per box fee, but that is not what the cable/sat providers would want.
I never had a problem with the digital cable channels. It was the analog channels on cable that looked bad to me. But then, they all kinda looked bad compared to Dish Network.