I'd prefer it if patents were vetted more thoroughly in the first place,
The problem with this is that a more thorough vetting of patent applications will drive up the cost of getting patents. So only the already wealthy and powerful could afford to get patents. The solution is abolishing patents. The only reason patents are granted, yes granted as they are not a right, is to encourage progress. But when you have to hire and pay for the multitude of lawyers who them spend their tyme making sure their employer isn't infringing on another corporation's patents that drains money from being spent on research.
If you can't compeat on quality, low cost, and/or extras then you need to get out of business. This is especially true in electronics and semiconductors.
It has already been proven that just because you bring a website online it doesn't mean anyone will find it. Without some sort of creative marketing it's hardly likely anyone will find the website. Volumes and volumes have been written about online marketing. And I bet every one of them says to start with self-promotion.
That's the problem, "Unlimited"! Such ads should either be banned or the services should really be unlimited. As I see it it's false advertizing, so users should be able to sue. Of course corporations sometimes think of these things so they include clauses in contracts that allows them to unilaterally change service plans.
Even if Virgin doesn't allow people to bring their own device (BYOD?) it isn't the only service provider that supports mifi 2200s. That eBay link I already provided listed them from Verizon and Sprint as well. The Wireless MiFi -A Product Review lists others such as ATT, T-Mobile, and Orange.
However you bring up a valid point, locked hardware. These should not exist, buyers should be able to use whatever service provider they want when they buy a device. That is unless there was a contract such as providers offering free or reduced prices if the buyer signs up for 2 year service plans. Even then though after those 2 years the owner should still be able to use another service provider should they so choose.
You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.
Not quite. Virgin's Broadband2Go is month to month, there is no contract. So if you pay for B2G service on 14 February you will not be throttled throughout the rest of February but after 14 March you will be throttled if you go over 5GB.
I fully support this. Normal users won't use that much, however for businesses and such that need more bandwidth Virgin should offer higher priced plans with more bandwidth.
How exactly does this relate in any way to free markets?
Because free markets are so bad we need government to control them. Except the free market has not killed 10s of millions of people. Governments have. How hard is that to understand? Oh that right, socialists and or authoritarians don't want people to think.
The lack of a central representative government is called the dark ages - where you have local mafia style rules by local thugs.
Distorting thing now? That or something else. There is a huge difference between government control of business and courts upholding contract laws, rights, and giving people a place to go to seek redress. Of course people like you only see things in black or white, there are no colours or shades of grey.
Ever since 1996 Hong Kong has been a part of China.
Sort of, but sort of not. It's officially considered a "Special Administrative Region". It has its own currency and retains a UK modelled legal system.
Not sort of, Hong Kong has been part of China. But after the First Opium War (1839–42) Britain gained control of Hong Kong by treaty. It is one of two special administrative regions, the other one being Macau. Now Macau was both the first and last European colony in China. It was ruled by Portugal until 1999 when it was given back to China. The two are separated by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea.
It certainly isn't part of China in the same way that Beijing and Shanghai are.
Yes and no. Territorially they're the same. Politically and legally they're not. But then again China as it exists now is new. Prior to Mao there were different nations or kingdoms. Like Tibet Mao had them invaded. There are even Chinese in Russia and Russians in China. China and Russia have fought over land and where the border is. Further more there are ethnic groups in the region who are neither Chinese nor Russian.
Things are a lot more complicated than people know or admit.
Companies can decide their terms of service are being violated at any time, they don't have to wait for a US court to decide the company's terms of service have been violated.
If they don't wait and it's in the contract then they can be sued for breach of contract.
To claim otherwise is absurd.
To claim otherwise is what's absurd.
As for whether Wikileaks would do that I doubt. Amazon was giving free use of servers and storage space to Wikileaks.
"Innocent until proven guilty" is not relevant to private companies. Amazon is not required to wait until its user is convicted of $CRIME before deciding the user needs to be booted off of Amazon's servers because of it.
Again in the US there's this thing called contract law. Amazon's can not say their terms of service were violated until there is a guilty verdict. Now whether Wikileaks violated another term is neither here nor there, Amazon said the term violated was breaking US law. There was no guilty verdict!
The company is registered in Germany and every business partner does business there too. So the question then becomes is CPTN or it's principals doing anything illegal there? That I don't know. But after investigating CPTN and this transaction if they decide there is a basis then charges can be filed in court.
Typical of trolls. Like them you can't use logic or reason. All you know how to do is call names, make disparaging remarks, or some other non-constructive thing.
Where are people going if they don't want to use Amazon anymore?
Exactly what I was thinking. When I've ordered from Amazon it's because doing so has saved me money compared to buying somewhere else. I was going to say I could order books from Bookpool but it's now part of Amazon. There are Barnes and Noble as well as Borders but Amazon is cheaper and being on disability I need to watch my money.
Under 18 USC 793, persons convicted of gathering defense information with the intent or reason to believe the information will be used against the United States
I see that uses "intent" and "against". Care to prove Wikileaks intended to use the information against the USA? Having served in the US military and being a registered voter, I say what Wikileaks did was give me information on what my government has done without my knowledge.
A bald-faced lie? They said Wikileaks was violating several of the terms of service. One of the terms of service is "don't use our service to break US law". It's pretty clear that Wikileaks was violating US law. Ergo, not a lie.
Yes, a bald faced lie. See we have this thing called "Innocent until proven guilty". Unless you can show where the court documents and jury verdict is no US law have been violated.
but I'd rather the government not be spending money on maintaining an infrastructure that industry can do far more cost effectively.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather not let the government have the power to decide what businesses do unless they're breaking a law. I'd rather not let government censor information or operate in secrecy. I'd rather not have to recite Martin Niemöller'sFirst they came. Nor do I want to stick my head in the sand.
Because of J. Edgar Hoover's and others' hostility to the Civil Rights Movement, agents of the U.S. FBI resorted to outright lying to smear civil rights workers and other opponents of lynching. For example, the FBI disseminated false information in the press about lynching victim Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered in 1965 in Alabama. The FBI said Liuzzo had been a member of the Communist Party, had abandoned her five children, and was involved in sexual relationships with African Americans in the movement.
Ad you were talking about reporting corruption to the FBI?
On one hand we have an organization that is trying to bring down civilization
So, trying to open government is destroying civilization?. No, people who hide behind secrecy is who's destroying society.
WikiLeaks may think they are trying to expose corruption, but so far, I haven't seen the corruption they think exists.
As a citizen and voter I have the right to know what my government is doing. Maybe you don't want to but then you're no better than the Germans who let the NAZI get away with their crimes.
That's if you're only counting above-the-table pay and monetary benefits. Under-the-table and non-monetarily they probably do quite well
If Democrats or Republicans were taking money under the table politicians from the other party who be howling loudly, especially those serving their first term who ran on a platform of cleaning Washington. Tea Partiers, many who ran against the Republican establishment but who helped Republicans take control of the House and gained senate seats will surely be howling loudly come January. Just look at what happened to Rep Charlie Rangel, who has served 20 terms in office and is a Korean War hero. He was found guilty of 11 ethics violations.
Why else would individuals willingly pay out millions of their own money to run a campaign that may not work?
Because they believe in something. There are some people who aren't greedy and only think of themselves. I'm pretty cynical about politics but I admit not everyone who runs for office only does it for money.
note: 21.5 million rural population live below the official "absolute poverty" line (approximately $90 per year); an additional 35.5 million rural population live above that level but below the official "low income" line (approximately $125 per year) (2007)
That proves nothing other than China has the largest foreign exchange reserves. Guess what? China is the largest exporter, would you then say it should be the wealthiest nation?
in the short term their citizens are getting artificially low wages to make it possible.
Yet those Chinese you decry as being paid low wages fight to get those jobs. In fact what you are doing is trying to impose your own living standards on others and when their living standards don't measure up then you say their suffering. But in fact you don't know how the economy works.
crop insurance is not quite the same as direct subsidies
That's not all the subsidies beets get. "Sugar Beet Subsidies in the United States totaled $242 million from 1995-2009." Sugar Beet subsidies by state. It lists two programs. Sugar Beet Disaster Program, insurance I bet, and Sugar Beet Diversion Program which I don't know what it is. Oh it looks like it's a payment-in-kind program where farmers are paid to destroy sugar beets. Subsidies for growing beets and subsidies for not growing beets. While not nearly as much as corn sugar beets do get subsidies.
I guess my point was to tackle the things that we had the technology for and the capability today,
Where is this nuclear technology?
France successfully powers the country on Nuclear power very economically
"How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."
though their reactors are generally much more modern designs that waste far less fuel
Citation needed. Here's some of my own:
Finland's Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant, designed and being built by the French Government owned AREVA was supposed to be compleated last year, 2009, but is not scheduled to be done before 2012 3 years behind schedule. And because of cost overruns "there is a real risk now that the utility will default". In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble.
"Boiling The Frog: Nuclear Optimism Hides True Costs Till It's Too Late".
And those are just some of the links I have in my bookmarks.
What I think people fail to realize is that we don't have to solve all our problems in a day
But isn't that exactly what proponents of nuclear power are advocating today? "Build more nuclear power plants, we'll fix the problems later." It's either that or they ignore the problems and say they don't exist.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd prefer it if patents were vetted more thoroughly in the first place,
The problem with this is that a more thorough vetting of patent applications will drive up the cost of getting patents. So only the already wealthy and powerful could afford to get patents. The solution is abolishing patents. The only reason patents are granted, yes granted as they are not a right, is to encourage progress. But when you have to hire and pay for the multitude of lawyers who them spend their tyme making sure their employer isn't infringing on another corporation's patents that drains money from being spent on research.
If you can't compeat on quality, low cost, and/or extras then you need to get out of business. This is especially true in electronics and semiconductors.
Falcon
if the author has to pimp their own story.
It has already been proven that just because you bring a website online it doesn't mean anyone will find it. Without some sort of creative marketing it's hardly likely anyone will find the website. Volumes and volumes have been written about online marketing. And I bet every one of them says to start with self-promotion.
Falcon
That's the problem, "Unlimited"! Such ads should either be banned or the services should really be unlimited. As I see it it's false advertizing, so users should be able to sue. Of course corporations sometimes think of these things so they include clauses in contracts that allows them to unilaterally change service plans.
Falcon
Even if Virgin doesn't allow people to bring their own device (BYOD?) it isn't the only service provider that supports mifi 2200s. That eBay link I already provided listed them from Verizon and Sprint as well. The Wireless MiFi -A Product Review lists others such as ATT, T-Mobile, and Orange.
However you bring up a valid point, locked hardware. These should not exist, buyers should be able to use whatever service provider they want when they buy a device. That is unless there was a contract such as providers offering free or reduced prices if the buyer signs up for 2 year service plans. Even then though after those 2 years the owner should still be able to use another service provider should they so choose.
Falcon
Then what are you supposed to do with your $150 mifi device?
Sell it on eBay.
Falcon
You even have a month to buy in to the old plan if you so desire, which I find surprising.
Not quite. Virgin's Broadband2Go is month to month, there is no contract. So if you pay for B2G service on 14 February you will not be throttled throughout the rest of February but after 14 March you will be throttled if you go over 5GB.
I fully support this. Normal users won't use that much, however for businesses and such that need more bandwidth Virgin should offer higher priced plans with more bandwidth.
Falcon
How exactly does this relate in any way to free markets?
Because free markets are so bad we need government to control them. Except the free market has not killed 10s of millions of people. Governments have. How hard is that to understand? Oh that right, socialists and or authoritarians don't want people to think.
The lack of a central representative government is called the dark ages - where you have local mafia style rules by local thugs.
Distorting thing now? That or something else. There is a huge difference between government control of business and courts upholding contract laws, rights, and giving people a place to go to seek redress. Of course people like you only see things in black or white, there are no colours or shades of grey.
Falcon
Ever since 1996 Hong Kong has been a part of China.
Sort of, but sort of not. It's officially considered a "Special Administrative Region". It has its own currency and retains a UK modelled legal system.
Not sort of, Hong Kong has been part of China. But after the First Opium War (1839–42) Britain gained control of Hong Kong by treaty. It is one of two special administrative regions, the other one being Macau. Now Macau was both the first and last European colony in China. It was ruled by Portugal until 1999 when it was given back to China. The two are separated by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea.
It certainly isn't part of China in the same way that Beijing and Shanghai are.
Yes and no. Territorially they're the same. Politically and legally they're not. But then again China as it exists now is new. Prior to Mao there were different nations or kingdoms. Like Tibet Mao had them invaded. There are even Chinese in Russia and Russians in China. China and Russia have fought over land and where the border is. Further more there are ethnic groups in the region who are neither Chinese nor Russian.
Things are a lot more complicated than people know or admit.
Falcon
Companies can decide their terms of service are being violated at any time, they don't have to wait for a US court to decide the company's terms of service have been violated.
If they don't wait and it's in the contract then they can be sued for breach of contract.
To claim otherwise is absurd.
To claim otherwise is what's absurd.
As for whether Wikileaks would do that I doubt. Amazon was giving free use of servers and storage space to Wikileaks.
Falcon
"Innocent until proven guilty" is not relevant to private companies. Amazon is not required to wait until its user is convicted of $CRIME before deciding the user needs to be booted off of Amazon's servers because of it.
Again in the US there's this thing called contract law. Amazon's can not say their terms of service were violated until there is a guilty verdict. Now whether Wikileaks violated another term is neither here nor there, Amazon said the term violated was breaking US law. There was no guilty verdict!
How hard is that to understand?
Falcon
It makes innovation and development of new products easier.
Patent pools are not needed for that. Abolishing patents will do more to spur innovation, research, and development.
Falcon
The company is registered in Germany and every business partner does business there too. So the question then becomes is CPTN or it's principals doing anything illegal there? That I don't know. But after investigating CPTN and this transaction if they decide there is a basis then charges can be filed in court.
Falcon
Typical of trolls. Like them you can't use logic or reason. All you know how to do is call names, make disparaging remarks, or some other non-constructive thing.
Falcon
Where are people going if they don't want to use Amazon anymore?
Exactly what I was thinking. When I've ordered from Amazon it's because doing so has saved me money compared to buying somewhere else. I was going to say I could order books from Bookpool but it's now part of Amazon. There are Barnes and Noble as well as Borders but Amazon is cheaper and being on disability I need to watch my money.
Falcon
Sure.
Under 18 USC 793, persons convicted of gathering defense information with the intent or reason to believe the information will be used against the United States
I see that uses "intent" and "against". Care to prove Wikileaks intended to use the information against the USA? Having served in the US military and being a registered voter, I say what Wikileaks did was give me information on what my government has done without my knowledge.
Falcon
A bald-faced lie? They said Wikileaks was violating several of the terms of service. One of the terms of service is "don't use our service to break US law". It's pretty clear that Wikileaks was violating US law. Ergo, not a lie.
Yes, a bald faced lie. See we have this thing called "Innocent until proven guilty". Unless you can show where the court documents and jury verdict is no US law have been violated.
Falcon
but I'd rather the government not be spending money on maintaining an infrastructure that industry can do far more cost effectively.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather not let the government have the power to decide what businesses do unless they're breaking a law. I'd rather not let government censor information or operate in secrecy. I'd rather not have to recite Martin Niemöller's First they came. Nor do I want to stick my head in the sand.
Falcon
no WikiLeaks to post it to?
How about reporting it to the FBI.
Ad you were talking about reporting corruption to the FBI?
Falcon
And of course you get to decide what needs to be kept secret.
Falcon
On one hand we have an organization that is trying to bring down civilization
So, trying to open government is destroying civilization?. No, people who hide behind secrecy is who's destroying society.
WikiLeaks may think they are trying to expose corruption, but so far, I haven't seen the corruption they think exists.
As a citizen and voter I have the right to know what my government is doing. Maybe you don't want to but then you're no better than the Germans who let the NAZI get away with their crimes.
Falcon
That's if you're only counting above-the-table pay and monetary benefits. Under-the-table and non-monetarily they probably do quite well
If Democrats or Republicans were taking money under the table politicians from the other party who be howling loudly, especially those serving their first term who ran on a platform of cleaning Washington. Tea Partiers, many who ran against the Republican establishment but who helped Republicans take control of the House and gained senate seats will surely be howling loudly come January. Just look at what happened to Rep Charlie Rangel, who has served 20 terms in office and is a Korean War hero. He was found guilty of 11 ethics violations.
Why else would individuals willingly pay out millions of their own money to run a campaign that may not work?
Because they believe in something. There are some people who aren't greedy and only think of themselves. I'm pretty cynical about politics but I admit not everyone who runs for office only does it for money.
Falcon
First link : Hong Kong
Ever since 1996 Hong Kong has been a part of China.
Second link : Average not median
The first link was median not average.
From the CIA: Population below poverty line: 2.8%
note: 21.5 million rural population live below the official "absolute poverty" line (approximately $90 per year); an additional 35.5 million rural population live above that level but below the official "low income" line (approximately $125 per year) (2007)
Less than 10% of the Chinese population is "low income". A wiki article on Poverty in the United States says about 13% to 17% of the US population is below the poverty line. Chinese do better. Going further, according to Bureau of Statistics of China the Per Capita Annual Net Income of Rural Households rural which you have said are the ones suffering most, has increased from 686.31 yuan in 1990 to 2936.40. That's an increase of 400%. There's also this: Percentage of Rural Households Grouped by Per Capita Annual Net Income.
Third link : ? Who's point are you trying to prove?
That the Chinese are trying to fight inequality of income.
Here is my proof :
http://www.chinability.com/Reserves.htm
That proves nothing other than China has the largest foreign exchange reserves. Guess what? China is the largest exporter, would you then say it should be the wealthiest nation?
in the short term their citizens are getting artificially low wages to make it possible.
Yet those Chinese you decry as being paid low wages fight to get those jobs. In fact what you are doing is trying to impose your own living standards on others and when their living standards don't measure up then you say their suffering. But in fact you don't know how the economy works.
Falcon
crop insurance is not quite the same as direct subsidies
That's not all the subsidies beets get. "Sugar Beet Subsidies in the United States totaled $242 million from 1995-2009." Sugar Beet subsidies by state. It lists two programs. Sugar Beet Disaster Program, insurance I bet, and Sugar Beet Diversion Program which I don't know what it is. Oh it looks like it's a payment-in-kind program where farmers are paid to destroy sugar beets. Subsidies for growing beets and subsidies for not growing beets. While not nearly as much as corn sugar beets do get subsidies.
Falcon
I guess my point was to tackle the things that we had the technology for and the capability today,
Where is this nuclear technology?
France successfully powers the country on Nuclear power very economically
"How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."
though their reactors are generally much more modern designs that waste far less fuel
Citation needed. Here's some of my own:
Finland's Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant, designed and being built by the French Government owned AREVA was supposed to be compleated last year, 2009, but is not scheduled to be done before 2012 3 years behind schedule. And because of cost overruns "there is a real risk now that the utility will default". In Finland, Nuclear Renaissance Runs Into Trouble.
"Cost overruns and delays have jeopardized the fate of nuclear plants around the world." Study warns of steep cost overruns at new reactors. Is it time to press reset on nuclear?: "Cost overruns, delays in building reactors are sapping a nuclear revival".
"Boiling The Frog: Nuclear Optimism Hides True Costs Till It's Too Late".
And those are just some of the links I have in my bookmarks.
What I think people fail to realize is that we don't have to solve all our problems in a day
But isn't that exactly what proponents of nuclear power are advocating today? "Build more nuclear power plants, we'll fix the problems later." It's either that or they ignore the problems and say they don't exist.
Falcon
Just because you didn't like my points it doesn't mean I didn't make them.
Falcon