WHY would the US be allowed to have WMD (they admit it and they threaten people with them), but Iraq wouldn't? Only the biggest bullies have the right to bear arms?
As much as I dislike the current 'government' of the US, I would still rather have them have nuclear weapons, than some terrorist organization. The US is still a democracy and the government always has to bear responsibility towards the voters. And I think the American people are generally speaking good and peace-loving.
If you ask me, GWB knew he wouldn't be re-elected, so he only had 4 years to get his name in the history books. All he needed was someone to fight, and Iraq was a very convenient target.
I don't think his main concern was to get his name in the history books. Remember, Bush, Cheney and their gang represent American Big Business and nothing else. Apparently, the invasion of Iraq has proven to be very profitable for the American Oil/Contruction/Weapon industries. Now let's hope the American people have enough sense not to re-elect that Goofball, as you said.
PS: Not only Iraq was a nice target. Has everybody already forgotten Afghanistan?
At the other extreme, arguing that if we embraced nuclear power then we would be living in paradise is also well, I mean, hello?, look at France. They have totally bought into nuclear power and they still can't come up with a good pop song or a decent car.
On the other hand, we have the US, who totally bought into nuclear weaponry, and what have they shown us? Two explosions in Japan about 50 years ago, which nobody remembers anymore. If you're gonna spend that much money to oppress the rest of the world, at least show us some fireworks,...
Oh yes, AND I still have to see a decent car made in America.
In theory, if they owe those who give them money, then they should owe the American public. In reality, the more they can get campaign financing from this fund, the less favors they need to owe to special interests, which is good for the public.
True, but why stop there? If politicians owe nothing at all to special interests, it would be even better for the public. So let everyone pay a little more taxes to fund election campaigns and drastically limit the amount of cash a politician can receive from other places.
That's the system in Europe. Why it failed in this particular case, I don't know.
Are you kidding?
That's exactly what they want to stop people from doing in their crusade against p2p; discovering there are unassigned artists out there who will distribute good music for (almost) free.
Just think of what would happen if this distribution method would catch on, they (the RIAA) would lose their position of the middle-man and thereby every possibility to squeeze any money out of their slav^A^A^A^A^A^artists.
However, with their own cheap download services being set up at the moment, they are safely betting on two horses. In the meantime, the TCPA marches on, to make sure that in the future, you can only play your purchased 99-cent-song a few times...
Don't underestimate your enemy.
They have every loophole covered.
The strategy is not to make everybody who ever downloaded a song pay up. That would be completely impossible, because of the millions of people active on p2p networks.
The strategy is to sue a few people, make a lot of noise about it (That's the only sound the music industry seems to be capable of making btw), in order to scare existing and possible p2p users from using p2p and returning to being the good christian corporate citizens they're supposed to be.
If you're not going to make any money off of it, what the hell do you need a copyright for?
Maybe you should ask the people releasing software under the GPL...
If they're not gonna make any money off of it, why should they need any copyright? Maybe to prevent somebody else from claiming it and selling it?
In a free market, this would never happen, because people are willing to pay a little extra for a non-crippled computer.
Computers with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) will be marketed to be better, not crippled, because they will supposedly make an end to virusses and spam. Somehow I think the companies selling computers will be reluctant to say it will also make an end to your personal freedom.
All Congress has to do is pass a law requiring "compliance" chips in all new computers. For a while you can probably get around this by importing stuff from other countries, but eventually they may simply ban possession of such equipment.
They might just do that. I even think it was Congress itself asking the industry to develop a DRM system that can't be circumvented that lead to the development of TPM's.
and the correct name of THAT song is Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch.
It's not because 'discovery channel' are the only words you understood of the lyrics, that that is really the title.
If someone tried to sell you a new type of car which had to have the oil replaced every day ("to protect you against problems caused by old oil, the car won't start till you replace it"), would you buy one of those?
Strange, isn't that what HP's printers are like these days? Every once in a while, the printer checks the ink cartridges on the expiration date and if they're expired... *BAM* No more prints for you untill you buy new cartridges... HP's own of course, cheap alternative brands are unacceptable... Everything to protect your expensive printer from the perils of old ink... I even think the HP driver program includes a nice link to buy HP ink online. Isn't it wonderful how the customer is being looked after?
You forgot an important competitor for Belgacom. ADSL2FIT has competitive offers for adsl. They allow you to run servers and don't enforce a traffic limitation.
Yes, you have the right to slander and libel other people, and that right should be maintained...
Yes, you have the right to shout "fire" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire, and that right should be maintained.
Yes, you have the right to incite riots through spoken and written word, and that right should be maintained...
Never should a person be punished for what he said, just because he said it. In some cases however, this person should prepare to be held responsable for the consequences of his speech.
The theory goes that these drugs would never have been invented anyhow without patents.
Interesting theory, could you elaborate on that a little ?
Personally, I think a limited patent model should be acceptable for very specific inventions, as an incent for the creator to be even more creative. But these kinds of patents should only be valuable for 10 years max.
The current situation is clearly impossible, allowing anyone to patent an invention with an extremely vague and broad description, to gain money of it for the next 180 years. Why should patents still be valuable after the death of the author? Dead authors aren't very creative, so the argument of stimulating them to more creation doesn't really hold.
Or... could it be maybe because *certain* large companies hold the copyright for these invention? No, that's not the kind of world we live in...
Slashdot Mirror
PS: Not only Iraq was a nice target. Has everybody already forgotten Afghanistan?
Retail salesman are not a fictional lifeform, I have come in contact with them on several occasions and I can assure you they ARE existent.
At the other extreme, arguing that if we embraced nuclear power then we would be living in paradise is also well, I mean, hello?, look at France. They have totally bought into nuclear power and they still can't come up with a good pop song or a decent car.
...
On the other hand, we have the US, who totally bought into nuclear weaponry, and what have they shown us? Two explosions in Japan about 50 years ago, which nobody remembers anymore. If you're gonna spend that much money to oppress the rest of the world, at least show us some fireworks,
Oh yes, AND I still have to see a decent car made in America.
Depends on who you call Dave McNobody of course.
Personally, I wouldn't call George Michael or Colplay nobodies, but opinions differ, of course.
Another thing you would know if you had just RTFA, is that the RIAA gets it's share of all the music sold.
In theory, if they owe those who give them money, then they should owe the American public. In reality, the more they can get campaign financing from this fund, the less favors they need to owe to special interests, which is good for the public.
True, but why stop there? If politicians owe nothing at all to special interests, it would be even better for the public. So let everyone pay a little more taxes to fund election campaigns and drastically limit the amount of cash a politician can receive from other places.
That's the system in Europe. Why it failed in this particular case, I don't know.
Sommige mensen noemen het liever BE(NL) hoor ;)
;)
Some people prefer to call it BE(NL)
Oh, you mean, exactly as they do now ?
Are you kidding?
That's exactly what they want to stop people from doing in their crusade against p2p;
discovering there are unassigned artists out there who will distribute good music for (almost) free.
Just think of what would happen if this distribution method would catch on, they (the RIAA) would lose their position of the middle-man and thereby every possibility to squeeze any money out of their slav^A^A^A^A^A^artists.
However, with their own cheap download services being set up at the moment, they are safely betting on two horses. In the meantime, the TCPA marches on, to make sure that in the future, you can only play your purchased 99-cent-song a few times...
Don't underestimate your enemy.
They have every loophole covered.
The strategy is not to make everybody who ever downloaded a song pay up. That would be completely impossible, because of the millions of people active on p2p networks.
The strategy is to sue a few people, make a lot of noise about it (That's the only sound the music industry seems to be capable of making btw), in order to scare existing and possible p2p users from using p2p and returning to being the good christian corporate citizens they're supposed to be.
If you have an Amazon account you deserve to be robbed in every possible way.
Talking about KazaaLite, could anyone give some information as to where the hell the domain name of Kazaa Lite leads to, since it's been stolen ?
seems to be some kind of scam to me...
If you're not going to make any money off of it, what the hell do you need a copyright for?
Maybe you should ask the people releasing software under the GPL...
If they're not gonna make any money off of it, why should they need any copyright? Maybe to prevent somebody else from claiming it and selling it?
I'm looking a you, Darl McBride !
Joule is a measurement of energy or work, as is calories.
Watt is a measurement of power.
Power is energy divided by time.
Windows is not an invention !
It comes by default on every computer...
It's like spam: it's everywhere, it's annoying and it costs money...
In a free market, this would never happen, because people are willing to pay a little extra for a non-crippled computer.
Computers with a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) will be marketed to be better, not crippled, because they will supposedly make an end to virusses and spam. Somehow I think the companies selling computers will be reluctant to say it will also make an end to your personal freedom.
All Congress has to do is pass a law requiring "compliance" chips in all new computers. For a while you can probably get around this by importing stuff from other countries, but eventually they may simply ban possession of such equipment.
They might just do that. I even think it was Congress itself asking the industry to develop a DRM system that can't be circumvented that lead to the development of TPM's.
In case you hadn't noticed, its spelled "spelt".>BR>
And in case you hadn't noticed, it's spelled "it's"
and the correct name of THAT song is Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch.
It's not because 'discovery channel' are the only words you understood of the lyrics, that that is really the title.
If someone tried to sell you a new type of car which had to have the oil replaced every day ("to protect you against problems caused by old oil, the car won't start till you replace it"), would you buy one of those?
Strange, isn't that what HP's printers are like these days? Every once in a while, the printer checks the ink cartridges on the expiration date and if they're expired... *BAM* No more prints for you untill you buy new cartridges... HP's own of course, cheap alternative brands are unacceptable...
Everything to protect your expensive printer from the perils of old ink... I even think the HP driver program includes a nice link to buy HP ink online. Isn't it wonderful how the customer is being looked after?
You get 100 mb/hour on dial-up? That's about 28.5 kb/s, you know.
Interesting...
You forgot an important competitor for Belgacom.
ADSL2FIT has competitive offers for adsl. They allow you to run servers and don't enforce a traffic limitation.
So what kind of fine did he have to pay?
Some vouchers?
Yes, you have the right to slander and libel other people, and that right should be maintained...
Yes, you have the right to shout "fire" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire, and that right should be maintained.
Yes, you have the right to incite riots through spoken and written word, and that right should be maintained...
Never should a person be punished for what he said, just because he said it.
In some cases however, this person should prepare to be held responsable for the consequences of his speech.
A small yet vital difference, wouldn't you agree?
The theory goes that these drugs would never have been invented anyhow without patents.
... could it be maybe because *certain* large companies hold the copyright for these invention? No, that's not the kind of world we live in ...
Interesting theory, could you elaborate on that a little ?
Personally, I think a limited patent model should be acceptable for very specific inventions, as an incent for the creator to be even more creative. But these kinds of patents should only be valuable for 10 years max.
The current situation is clearly impossible, allowing anyone to patent an invention with an extremely vague and broad description, to gain money of it for the next 180 years.
Why should patents still be valuable after the death of the author? Dead authors aren't very creative, so the argument of stimulating them to more creation doesn't really hold.
Or
I think the embedded OS for these robots MUST be Linux.
I mean, how else could this story have made it to Slashdot? Ever?