Because you and your neighbors constantly re-elect them whether they listen to you or not. When everybody gets their minds off the sex scandals and start paying attention to what the politicians are doing "behind the scenes", the situation might change. Until that happens, we'll just have to live with what we got. We have the power in our hands, and we're letting it dribble through our fingers.
This is based on what? TV news? Have you ever lived in either country? Have you ever been to either country? I hope you're not basing these irrefutable facts of yours from what you read on Slashdot! The fact is that you can be detained for any or no reason in both countries.
But oppressing a hundred people, as bad as it is, isn't quantitively the same.
I'm afraid I'll have to echo the previous response by another poster. I'm not as concerned about the "quantity" as much as I am about the "quality" of the abuse. If repression is such a major part of their culture, who am I to condemn it? They might feel the same way about our music.(After hearing Britney countless times, it's possible that they might be right.)
I don't know why some people think I am advocating American activities of late...
I'm not one of those people. I'm not comparing the Americans with the Chinese. There is no comparison, except that we're all human. I won't condemn the Chinese any more than any other country's oppression just because of the size of their population.
In other words, it cheapens the message that the US seeks liberty and justice in other parts of the world.
I hope you don't believe that that nonsense. If that were true they wouldn't have let Walmart move their workforce to China. They would treat China(and various others) the same way they treat Cuba.
What's more, if Americans are so thoroughly disenchanted (which many of them don't seem to be), they have the power to elect anyone who can get on the ballot.
And if one billion are so thoroughly disenchanted, they have the power to actually unite and rise up. I think they out number the military by a small margin. It's been that way over there for over 50 years now. Hell, 60 years into our history, we were in the midst of a civil war. I still don't know if the "good" guys won. Only because I don't know the real causes. If so many people felt that badly about their situation, I think they would have attempted something by now. Yeah, they had Tianamin(sp) Square, and we had our Kent State and a couple of others. Until I actually liver there with average Chinese, I can't make any judgements on their system. I'll bet that it not much different from a place like Guatemala or Honduras. Lots of oppression going on there also, and to me it appears every bit as evil as whatever we accuse the Chinese of.
...it's the underlying cultures, their histories, their priorities and their attitudes towards authority.
Those things are relevent. It's also another reason we shouldn't complain so much about China or other coutries that are different from ours. I'm not impressed with the numbers thing If I'm one of those numbers being oppressed. It just doesn't make any difference if 1 person or a billion people are in the same situation as me. Oppression is oppression, whether you do it to 100 or 100 million. Doing it to everybody doesn't make you any worse of an animal. You're still an animal.
I understood your point, and I agree. I would like to just point out that if the corps want to be treated as individuals, we should treat them as badly as we do to actual individuals.
If YOU are the one being detained, then yes, they are indeed equal. Why this fascination with big numbers exists, I'll never understand. At what point will you become concerned?
FTA: The problem is, those speaking for the telecoms industry sometimes find themselves arguing for more stringent controls on UWB devices than on "unintentional radios", ordinary electronic equipment - or even from the thermal radiation produced by human beings. This tends to irritate the vendors and UWB proponents, as it seems to suggest that the European mobile industry is not objecting to the noise - but the simple fact that people are communicating without their say-so. Emphasis mine.
Because the corporate fat cats and megalomaniacs don't get their chance to screw the customer and line their pockets in the progress?
And just who is making them so fat? I'll copy and share things as I please, if I'm so inclined, but I no longer blame the corporations or the gov't. These people get fat because they offer convenience, and we lap it up at almost any price. Who's fault is that? We have only one legal recourse. Kepp your money in your pocket.(And to content creators, I say, if you don't want people to share your ideas, then don't devulge them. Keep them to yourself.) I will also say the unrepresented minority in any democracy sometimes has no other recourse except breaking the law to make it unenforcable and to get it repealed. In any case, I still won't blame the gov't. They are doing what we let them get away with. That our reps actually represent the voters wishes may be false, it's still up to the voter to see the fallacy(sp) for himself and act accordingly. So don't look to your gov't to fix the problem. Look to your neighbors and yourself to fix the gov't. Did I just paraphase Kennedy somehow? It was an accident. I swear.
It depends if they can keep it under control. Once one of these things "escapes", we'll be fighting a whole new battle. This is not much different than genetic enginnering in the dangers it represents.
It does seem to take this robot wars thing to a new level. It certainly will raise the debate on what is alive. To tell you the truth, I am a bit concerned about what these things could evolve into if not watched carefully. They will evolve, just like everything else. They will follow nature to the tee, only I think it will go much faster. And like all life, it will become self aware. That's when things will get interesting. Especially when they build themselves internal, long lasting power sources.
The web has been held back for seven years now because IE won't properly support CSS2. That's like someone developing an improved version of gasoline that costs and pollutes less, and then none of the gas stations adopting it for close to a decade even though it's cheap and available...It's times like these I wish I was rich enough to run public service commercials that stated all this, just to inform people how they're being hindered without even knowing it.
You can thank IP law for that. I think the web has been held back fifty years or more because we had to wait for some patent or copyright to expire before the technology could be widely adopted(kinda like FM radio and the Diesel engine?). It would also explain why we're still using kerosene burning, sub-sonic jalopies for our transportation needs.
Yeah, it does seem a bit ironic. I think they see more value in control than just simple profits that could swing wildly in any direction(all two of them). This control brings about stability, or so they think. We could prove otherwise if we change our buying habits.
Can't we all be along? It's much more profitable that way.
On the contrary. Format wars and constant changes keep the upgrade cycle going at full speed. Stability is no longer profitable. "New and improved" every couple of months keeps 'em buying the same thing over and over.
I doubt the share holders feel that way. They might be wrong, but they're certainly not idiots. I think the recording industry did more damage to the mini disk than Sony did. DAT suufered the same fate.
I wait for someone to come out with an innovative new CD/DVD case design, perhaps something like combining a booklet and cases.
The mini disk solved that problem quite nicely by using the same tech as the 3.5in floppy. However, everybody's favorite industry had it virtually killed when asking for and getting laws that crippled its data transfer abilities. And the size is much more convenient.
Slashdot Mirror
Our one ISP gives us two choices, "internet with us" and "no internet".
Because you and your neighbors constantly re-elect them whether they listen to you or not. When everybody gets their minds off the sex scandals and start paying attention to what the politicians are doing "behind the scenes", the situation might change. Until that happens, we'll just have to live with what we got. We have the power in our hands, and we're letting it dribble through our fingers.
Or would it be better if Standard Oil and AT&T hadn't been split up?
These monopolies were protected by the gov't. I don't think they would have survived without it.
This is based on what? TV news? Have you ever lived in either country? Have you ever been to either country? I hope you're not basing these irrefutable facts of yours from what you read on Slashdot! The fact is that you can be detained for any or no reason in both countries.
But oppressing a hundred people, as bad as it is, isn't quantitively the same.
I'm afraid I'll have to echo the previous response by another poster. I'm not as concerned about the "quantity" as much as I am about the "quality" of the abuse. If repression is such a major part of their culture, who am I to condemn it? They might feel the same way about our music.(After hearing Britney countless times, it's possible that they might be right.)
I don't know why some people think I am advocating American activities of late...
I'm not one of those people. I'm not comparing the Americans with the Chinese. There is no comparison, except that we're all human. I won't condemn the Chinese any more than any other country's oppression just because of the size of their population.
In other words, it cheapens the message that the US seeks liberty and justice in other parts of the world.
I hope you don't believe that that nonsense. If that were true they wouldn't have let Walmart move their workforce to China. They would treat China(and various others) the same way they treat Cuba.
Which is why I am glad that the people who orchastrated those events have been punished.
You mean to tell me that they locked up Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz??
What's more, if Americans are so thoroughly disenchanted (which many of them don't seem to be), they have the power to elect anyone who can get on the ballot.
And if one billion are so thoroughly disenchanted, they have the power to actually unite and rise up. I think they out number the military by a small margin. It's been that way over there for over 50 years now. Hell, 60 years into our history, we were in the midst of a civil war. I still don't know if the "good" guys won. Only because I don't know the real causes. If so many people felt that badly about their situation, I think they would have attempted something by now. Yeah, they had Tianamin(sp) Square, and we had our Kent State and a couple of others. Until I actually liver there with average Chinese, I can't make any judgements on their system. I'll bet that it not much different from a place like Guatemala or Honduras. Lots of oppression going on there also, and to me it appears every bit as evil as whatever we accuse the Chinese of.
...it's the underlying cultures, their histories, their priorities and their attitudes towards authority.
Those things are relevent. It's also another reason we shouldn't complain so much about China or other coutries that are different from ours. I'm not impressed with the numbers thing If I'm one of those numbers being oppressed. It just doesn't make any difference if 1 person or a billion people are in the same situation as me. Oppression is oppression, whether you do it to 100 or 100 million. Doing it to everybody doesn't make you any worse of an animal. You're still an animal.
I understood your point, and I agree. I would like to just point out that if the corps want to be treated as individuals, we should treat them as badly as we do to actual individuals.
If YOU are the one being detained, then yes, they are indeed equal. Why this fascination with big numbers exists, I'll never understand. At what point will you become concerned?
So...It's all about the numbers then? It's not ok to mess with 98% of the populace, but 2% is ok? What IS the magic number? 51%? 20%?
FTA: The problem is, those speaking for the telecoms industry sometimes find themselves arguing for more stringent controls on UWB devices than on "unintentional radios", ordinary electronic equipment - or even from the thermal radiation produced by human beings. This tends to irritate the vendors and UWB proponents, as it seems to suggest that the European mobile industry is not objecting to the noise - but the simple fact that people are communicating without their say-so.
Emphasis mine.
Not if you used it where I think you used it.
Because the corporate fat cats and megalomaniacs don't get their chance to screw the customer and line their pockets in the progress?
And just who is making them so fat? I'll copy and share things as I please, if I'm so inclined, but I no longer blame the corporations or the gov't. These people get fat because they offer convenience, and we lap it up at almost any price. Who's fault is that? We have only one legal recourse. Kepp your money in your pocket.(And to content creators, I say, if you don't want people to share your ideas, then don't devulge them. Keep them to yourself.) I will also say the unrepresented minority in any democracy sometimes has no other recourse except breaking the law to make it unenforcable and to get it repealed. In any case, I still won't blame the gov't. They are doing what we let them get away with. That our reps actually represent the voters wishes may be false, it's still up to the voter to see the fallacy(sp) for himself and act accordingly. So don't look to your gov't to fix the problem. Look to your neighbors and yourself to fix the gov't. Did I just paraphase Kennedy somehow? It was an accident. I swear.
...unless a corporation is now considered and individual.
Indeed, under the prevailing interpretation of the Constitution, corporations have the same rights as individuals. in the U.S anyway.
It depends if they can keep it under control. Once one of these things "escapes", we'll be fighting a whole new battle. This is not much different than genetic enginnering in the dangers it represents.
It does seem to take this robot wars thing to a new level. It certainly will raise the debate on what is alive. To tell you the truth, I am a bit concerned about what these things could evolve into if not watched carefully. They will evolve, just like everything else. They will follow nature to the tee, only I think it will go much faster. And like all life, it will become self aware. That's when things will get interesting. Especially when they build themselves internal, long lasting power sources.
The web has been held back for seven years now because IE won't properly support CSS2. That's like someone developing an improved version of gasoline that costs and pollutes less, and then none of the gas stations adopting it for close to a decade even though it's cheap and available...It's times like these I wish I was rich enough to run public service commercials that stated all this, just to inform people how they're being hindered without even knowing it.
You can thank IP law for that. I think the web has been held back fifty years or more because we had to wait for some patent or copyright to expire before the technology could be widely adopted(kinda like FM radio and the Diesel engine?). It would also explain why we're still using kerosene burning, sub-sonic jalopies for our transportation needs.
Yeah, it does seem a bit ironic. I think they see more value in control than just simple profits that could swing wildly in any direction(all two of them). This control brings about stability, or so they think. We could prove otherwise if we change our buying habits.
This will be GPL'd. I don't know how the copyright cartels would react if a machine could make illegal copies of itself.
Read up on the history of mini disk and DAT. Two great technologies that never caught on for precisely that reason.
Can't we all be along? It's much more profitable that way.
On the contrary. Format wars and constant changes keep the upgrade cycle going at full speed. Stability is no longer profitable. "New and improved" every couple of months keeps 'em buying the same thing over and over.
They have great ideas but crappy market sense.
I doubt the share holders feel that way. They might be wrong, but they're certainly not idiots. I think the recording industry did more damage to the mini disk than Sony did. DAT suufered the same fate.
I wait for someone to come out with an innovative new CD/DVD case design, perhaps something like combining a booklet and cases.
The mini disk solved that problem quite nicely by using the same tech as the 3.5in floppy. However, everybody's favorite industry had it virtually killed when asking for and getting laws that crippled its data transfer abilities. And the size is much more convenient.