If he really wanted to defend the practice of downloading copies of what you purchased on DVD, he would need to spend millions. I think it's great that he's taking a stand, but defending *himself* ain't gonna do jack for the rest of us -- since most of us still can't afford a law team for penny-ante BS like this.
Maybe not right away, but if he can win all of the sudden there's a precedent. Class action suits could be filed, individuals can threaten court action and be confident of winning, etc... If the kind of behaviour the MPAA is participating in is ever going to be stopped someone has to start fighting it somewhere.
I can relate. I had 28 grams sitting by the DVD player for weeks before finally got up the gumption to watch it. I got about halfway through, turned it off and sent it back. With netflix I always think I should get artsy movies that are 'good for me', but I'm not always in the mood.
Of course the other problem is my sister has a super cool home theatre and it's more fun to watch the movies over there.
even drug dealers are required to pay taxes on their dealling (of couse they'd be stupid to claim such income on a signed government form) but still if they don't pay that is one more charge added when they are caught.
Actually, IIRC, information submitted to the IRS cannot be used as evidence for criminal prosecution. The US Government want's the drug dealer's money much more than they want to prosecute said dealer for any criminal activity.
Since home schooler do better with tests, and are more likely to get into a good college, you are threatening their future by not homeschooling.
I have no doubt that a home schooled child is better educated. They most likely do have more book knowledge than a public school educated child... of course if a parent has an active role in their child's education there is no reason they can't excel in any environment. Thing is social skills are the number one thing that gets a person ahead in this world. Being able to interact with others will go much further unless you want to be a research scientist. As far as a 'good college', I think that's a myth. It's not difficult to find undergrad programs at most local state schools that are very good. Again, unless your kid wants to go into a specialized field where the prestige of the college name will matter undergrad work doesn't matter that much. Grad school is much more important.
I am tired of 4th graders getting away with tormenting 1st and 2nd graders and no one is willing to punish them.
That's exactly the kind of situation I'm talking about. If a child can learn to deal with the tormenters in a positive constructive way it's a great learning experience. Throughout life there is always somebody bigger, stronger, smarter or wealthier than you that will want to bully you around. Teaching kids to avoid difficult situations is not an answer.
I am tired of my children not getting the challenges they need...
I think that is the one argument that I really agree with against public schools. They educate to the least common denominator (no child left behind). Any kid that has any more than the minimum intelligence isn't challenged in the least, but I think there are other ways to do this rather than keeping the child at home.
Good point. The other thing is that effective PC performance increases have slowed down significantly. As you said, you only picked up a 25% increase in performance with a processor 3 times as fast. It used to be that a 3x processor speed increase resulted in AT LEAST a corresponding visible performance increase. Not anymore.
See my post above about how home schooling is almost never about the kid's problems in school, but rather nearly always about the problems the *parent* is afraid of...
Looked at your post, and your other point is better. Even if it IS about the kid's problems in school, a parent that pulls them out is just reinforcing the idea that the kid can't cut it.
Do you think that homeschooling causes social ineptitude, or is it more attractive to people who tend to be socially inept anyway?
I wouldn't say homeschooling causes social ineptitude, more that it amplifies it. Putting a child in a classroom of 30+ other kids he doesn't know is going to be a learning experience no matter what. Sometimes it's a bad experience, and that's where parents need to help their kids work through it. Homeschooling just shelters a child from these experiences. Some say this is a good thing, personally I'm of the opinion that most experiences cause growth, especially for a kid.
Obviously homeschooling is going to be more attractive for people who have difficulties socially to start with, but catering to the desire for isolation only exacerbates the problem.
Being in a public school forces a child to associate with people who are not from the same socio-economic background they are from. One of the biggest problems I see with homeschooling is that when you are interacting socially outside the home it's generally with people from the same religious/ideological background as you. Kids rarely have much opportunity to meet new people from different backgrounds or exercise much in the way of conflict resolution skills.
Sometimes I like to whip out the virtual machine and play a few oldschool games (the fun ones where there is more interesting things to do and the graphics don't matter).
Ahhh... but there's a way around. This doesn't bypass the fact that Windows 98 sucks. Bottom line is these DOS games are your 'killer app'. That's fine, keep it around for that, but for actually getting things done it's generally better to upgrade to something modern.
What constitutes 'unsupported software'? While patches from Microsoft are nice and all, the important thing is software vendor support. Until the killer app that keeps my business running is supported on Vista there is no way I would change. In fact, I'm sure it will take quite some time for vendor support to reach the level it's at for current Microsoft OS's.
This article is somewhat misleading because we are talking about Windows 98. 98 sucks and pretty much always has. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't move from 98 to 2000 or XP (or slackware). Running an unsuppported OS is one thing. Running a worthless buggy OS is completely another.
I grew up with MANY homeschooled kids and if there is one thing I can say about all of them is that they were ALL socially awkward. My best friend was homeschooled and it's taken him the last 16 years to get over the social impact he suffered.
I agree completely that homeschooling can give you a much better education, especially at the elementary level. Social skills OTOH evolve from being in a social situation. A field trip once a month, or weekly sports activity is no substitute for spending many hours in a crowded classroom EVERY DAY.
My sister went to one of the most prestigious undergrad business programs in the country. You know what they taugh? Social skills. No, not directly, but nearly every class revolved around group project work. Why? Because social skills are the number one most valuable commodity in the world we live in. I know people that are dumber than a post but excel in their professional and personal lives specifically because of their ability to communicat and interact with other people.
Personally, I would not be so cavalier as to threaten my child's future by exposing them to a homeschool environment. Besides, if you live in an area where your child has so many peers that they can play with them after 3-4 hours of schoolwork (while normal kids are at school), why not get together and start your own private school?
If this were really the case why not just make online gambling legal?
Simple, local casinos wouldn't stand for it. Las Vegas, Atlantic City and all of the other casinos make a tremendous amount of revenue for their states. If online gambline were legalized the Feds would have to collect the money, and the states would get screwed.
Beside that, it's doubtful to me that a 'US controlled entity' could compete with an offshore casino. The US based company would have to comply with all of the regulations and pay more taxes, resulting in lower payouts to the customers.
The first order of business is to stamp out the existing online casinos. Eventually, if the existing casinos can be shut down, the large casinos with significant politcal clout will create the system that you describe.
Is this a hold over from Americas purtianical past? If enough people feel something should be legal why isn't it?
I believe gambling laws are all controlled by the state legislatures. Gambling bills come up from time to time that will allows gambling, often limited stakes, in specific areas (Atlantic City, Blackhawk, Deadwood, etc...) When a new gambling bill comes up for a vote, at least in my state, the biggest argument against it is concern about the type of people it will bring in. Most local citizens are more concerned about the potential bad elements, corruption and crime that may accompany the gambling than they are the actual gaming.
...I can tell you is that the businesses in Las Vegas definately don't want it legal everywhere else because it would remove their own (near) exclusive money making operation.
Nevada doesn't have nearly the exclusivity it used to. With all of the Indian casinos, riverboats and other gambling areas many people have something available withing a few hours drive. The real problem the government has with online gaming is the loss of revenue. They don't get any tax dollars from offshore gambling. Politicians are wrapping this up in a warm fuzzy "we are protecting the children" blanket, but really it's all about the money.
A political point of view doesn't need to be neutral as long as it's factual and there is room for dissenting views. If the wiki becomes polarized by one political faction there will be problems, but if it's allowed to express multiple views and filter out the name-calling I think it will be successful. The political climate in the US is increasingly dependant on the hot issue of the minute and the candidate's personal life. Important issues like Constitutional rights, spending, taxation, etc... are ignored. Hopefully this wiki will become a resource to cut through the BS we see on the news and give everyone a balanced view of the issues facing our country next election day.
Disrespect teachers or other school officials, you should get suspended or otherwise penalized within the boundaries of the school system... but not locked up.
If it is a public school then it is associated with the government and receives state and federal funding. Suspending the student is depriving him of access to a public service. The Constitution doesn't say ANYTHING about locking you up or fining you. It says the goverment shal make no law restricting free speech. Since the school is a government institution how does free speech not apply - especially when it's made outside of the school.
There is no fixed return on investment. In fact, there is no guarantee that there will even be a return on the investment.
Interest is just low risk. Interest has a fixed rate of return, unless someone defaults. Many VCs have a similar setup. They agree to invest in a company for a set return - of course there is risk, but if the venture is successful they are paid based on their contract.
Investment is often directly related to production, rather than consumption. Interest is often directly related to consumption.
I think we are discussing consumer/unsecured interest, like credit cards or even car loans. If a business borrows money, and pays interest on it, it should be directly related to production.
...in order for the investor to share in the profit he must share the risk. In short he must be a joint-venturer. Simply to invest the money and expect it to be returned regardless of the success of the venture was to make money simply by having money and not by taking any risk or by doing any work or by any effort or sacrifice at all.
The claim that people are better off because of capitalism is never made by the people who can't afford to feed their families, despite working a full-time job. I have never met a person who has made this claim that has ever been hungry.
The claim that communism was a good system wasn't made by the people standing in line for toilet paper. The claim that socialism is wonderful isn't made by someone that had a spouse die because of a bad doctor.
Half the people in this conversation talk about the 'poor' like they are a bunch of saints and the 'rich' like they are evil overlords. Nearly everyone I know that is 'poor' have performed actions that contributed to their situation. Many I know that start out 'poor' manage to build a good life through hard work.
That's not the fault of Capitalism as it is the fault of Interest. Interest is how money makes money without doing any work
How is this Interest's fault? Doesn't any investment do the same thing? I was under the impression that most very rich people didn't just have a pile of cash they are sleeping on. They invest in stocks, real estate, etc... Problem is the poor have nothing to invest, so they end up investing their time and labor.
In the end, though, I was just trying to "make a joke" over a "non-joking" matter - it just seems like you hear on a fairly regular basis about some crane or dump truck operator getting tangled up in electrical lines, tearing them down or killing himself or worse...
Fair enough. Seems like many of the threads on this topic don't seem to comprehend the difference between normal distribution lines and the transmission lines - just thought I would clarify for the benefit of the readers.
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Yeah, it does sound like a answering machine breakup message made after a few drinks.
Email should require a breathalyzer.
If he really wanted to defend the practice of downloading copies of what you purchased on DVD, he would need to spend millions. I think it's great that he's taking a stand, but defending *himself* ain't gonna do jack for the rest of us -- since most of us still can't afford a law team for penny-ante BS like this.
Maybe not right away, but if he can win all of the sudden there's a precedent. Class action suits could be filed, individuals can threaten court action and be confident of winning, etc... If the kind of behaviour the MPAA is participating in is ever going to be stopped someone has to start fighting it somewhere.
Yeah, all you have to do is wait 30 years for the trees to get big enough to shade your house. Great plan Poindexter.
They don't have 'Coke', just Diet Green Tea Organic Environmentally Friendly beverages.
Yeah, 21 grams. Couldn't remember off the top of my head and didn't want to look it up.
I can relate. I had 28 grams sitting by the DVD player for weeks before finally got up the gumption to watch it. I got about halfway through, turned it off and sent it back. With netflix I always think I should get artsy movies that are 'good for me', but I'm not always in the mood. Of course the other problem is my sister has a super cool home theatre and it's more fun to watch the movies over there.
Actually, how about both. Wouldn't want the surgeon losing his needle during the sewing process.
tooltips that show keyboard shortcuts...the option on shutdown to open up with the current tabs next time.
You might want to try Opera. Both of those features have been available for years.
even drug dealers are required to pay taxes on their dealling (of couse they'd be stupid to claim such income on a signed government form) but still if they don't pay that is one more charge added when they are caught.
Actually, IIRC, information submitted to the IRS cannot be used as evidence for criminal prosecution. The US Government want's the drug dealer's money much more than they want to prosecute said dealer for any criminal activity.
Fortunately the grammer NAZI databases are still intact.
Since home schooler do better with tests, and are more likely to get into a good college, you are threatening their future by not homeschooling.
I have no doubt that a home schooled child is better educated. They most likely do have more book knowledge than a public school educated child... of course if a parent has an active role in their child's education there is no reason they can't excel in any environment. Thing is social skills are the number one thing that gets a person ahead in this world. Being able to interact with others will go much further unless you want to be a research scientist. As far as a 'good college', I think that's a myth. It's not difficult to find undergrad programs at most local state schools that are very good. Again, unless your kid wants to go into a specialized field where the prestige of the college name will matter undergrad work doesn't matter that much. Grad school is much more important.
I am tired of 4th graders getting away with tormenting 1st and 2nd graders and no one is willing to punish them.
That's exactly the kind of situation I'm talking about. If a child can learn to deal with the tormenters in a positive constructive way it's a great learning experience. Throughout life there is always somebody bigger, stronger, smarter or wealthier than you that will want to bully you around. Teaching kids to avoid difficult situations is not an answer.
I am tired of my children not getting the challenges they need...
I think that is the one argument that I really agree with against public schools. They educate to the least common denominator (no child left behind). Any kid that has any more than the minimum intelligence isn't challenged in the least, but I think there are other ways to do this rather than keeping the child at home.
Good point. The other thing is that effective PC performance increases have slowed down significantly. As you said, you only picked up a 25% increase in performance with a processor 3 times as fast. It used to be that a 3x processor speed increase resulted in AT LEAST a corresponding visible performance increase. Not anymore.
See my post above about how home schooling is almost never about the kid's problems in school, but rather nearly always about the problems the *parent* is afraid of...
Looked at your post, and your other point is better. Even if it IS about the kid's problems in school, a parent that pulls them out is just reinforcing the idea that the kid can't cut it.
Do you think that homeschooling causes social ineptitude, or is it more attractive to people who tend to be socially inept anyway?
I wouldn't say homeschooling causes social ineptitude, more that it amplifies it. Putting a child in a classroom of 30+ other kids he doesn't know is going to be a learning experience no matter what. Sometimes it's a bad experience, and that's where parents need to help their kids work through it. Homeschooling just shelters a child from these experiences. Some say this is a good thing, personally I'm of the opinion that most experiences cause growth, especially for a kid.
Obviously homeschooling is going to be more attractive for people who have difficulties socially to start with, but catering to the desire for isolation only exacerbates the problem.
Being in a public school forces a child to associate with people who are not from the same socio-economic background they are from. One of the biggest problems I see with homeschooling is that when you are interacting socially outside the home it's generally with people from the same religious/ideological background as you. Kids rarely have much opportunity to meet new people from different backgrounds or exercise much in the way of conflict resolution skills.
Sometimes I like to whip out the virtual machine and play a few oldschool games (the fun ones where there is more interesting things to do and the graphics don't matter).
Ahhh... but there's a way around. This doesn't bypass the fact that Windows 98 sucks. Bottom line is these DOS games are your 'killer app'. That's fine, keep it around for that, but for actually getting things done it's generally better to upgrade to something modern.
What constitutes 'unsupported software'? While patches from Microsoft are nice and all, the important thing is software vendor support. Until the killer app that keeps my business running is supported on Vista there is no way I would change. In fact, I'm sure it will take quite some time for vendor support to reach the level it's at for current Microsoft OS's.
This article is somewhat misleading because we are talking about Windows 98. 98 sucks and pretty much always has. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't move from 98 to 2000 or XP (or slackware). Running an unsuppported OS is one thing. Running a worthless buggy OS is completely another.
I grew up with MANY homeschooled kids and if there is one thing I can say about all of them is that they were ALL socially awkward. My best friend was homeschooled and it's taken him the last 16 years to get over the social impact he suffered. I agree completely that homeschooling can give you a much better education, especially at the elementary level. Social skills OTOH evolve from being in a social situation. A field trip once a month, or weekly sports activity is no substitute for spending many hours in a crowded classroom EVERY DAY. My sister went to one of the most prestigious undergrad business programs in the country. You know what they taugh? Social skills. No, not directly, but nearly every class revolved around group project work. Why? Because social skills are the number one most valuable commodity in the world we live in. I know people that are dumber than a post but excel in their professional and personal lives specifically because of their ability to communicat and interact with other people. Personally, I would not be so cavalier as to threaten my child's future by exposing them to a homeschool environment. Besides, if you live in an area where your child has so many peers that they can play with them after 3-4 hours of schoolwork (while normal kids are at school), why not get together and start your own private school?
If this were really the case why not just make online gambling legal?
Simple, local casinos wouldn't stand for it. Las Vegas, Atlantic City and all of the other casinos make a tremendous amount of revenue for their states. If online gambline were legalized the Feds would have to collect the money, and the states would get screwed.
Beside that, it's doubtful to me that a 'US controlled entity' could compete with an offshore casino. The US based company would have to comply with all of the regulations and pay more taxes, resulting in lower payouts to the customers.
The first order of business is to stamp out the existing online casinos. Eventually, if the existing casinos can be shut down, the large casinos with significant politcal clout will create the system that you describe.
Is this a hold over from Americas purtianical past? If enough people feel something should be legal why isn't it?
...I can tell you is that the businesses in Las Vegas definately don't want it legal everywhere else because it would remove their own (near) exclusive money making operation.
I believe gambling laws are all controlled by the state legislatures. Gambling bills come up from time to time that will allows gambling, often limited stakes, in specific areas (Atlantic City, Blackhawk, Deadwood, etc...) When a new gambling bill comes up for a vote, at least in my state, the biggest argument against it is concern about the type of people it will bring in. Most local citizens are more concerned about the potential bad elements, corruption and crime that may accompany the gambling than they are the actual gaming.
Nevada doesn't have nearly the exclusivity it used to. With all of the Indian casinos, riverboats and other gambling areas many people have something available withing a few hours drive. The real problem the government has with online gaming is the loss of revenue. They don't get any tax dollars from offshore gambling. Politicians are wrapping this up in a warm fuzzy "we are protecting the children" blanket, but really it's all about the money.
A political point of view doesn't need to be neutral as long as it's factual and there is room for dissenting views. If the wiki becomes polarized by one political faction there will be problems, but if it's allowed to express multiple views and filter out the name-calling I think it will be successful. The political climate in the US is increasingly dependant on the hot issue of the minute and the candidate's personal life. Important issues like Constitutional rights, spending, taxation, etc... are ignored. Hopefully this wiki will become a resource to cut through the BS we see on the news and give everyone a balanced view of the issues facing our country next election day.
Disrespect teachers or other school officials, you should get suspended or otherwise penalized within the boundaries of the school system ... but not locked up.
If it is a public school then it is associated with the government and receives state and federal funding. Suspending the student is depriving him of access to a public service. The Constitution doesn't say ANYTHING about locking you up or fining you. It says the goverment shal make no law restricting free speech. Since the school is a government institution how does free speech not apply - especially when it's made outside of the school.
There is no fixed return on investment. In fact, there is no guarantee that there will even be a return on the investment.
...in order for the investor to share in the profit he must share the risk. In short he must be a joint-venturer. Simply to invest the money and expect it to be returned regardless of the success of the venture was to make money simply by having money and not by taking any risk or by doing any work or by any effort or sacrifice at all.
Interest is just low risk. Interest has a fixed rate of return, unless someone defaults. Many VCs have a similar setup. They agree to invest in a company for a set return - of course there is risk, but if the venture is successful they are paid based on their contract.
Investment is often directly related to production, rather than consumption. Interest is often directly related to consumption.
I think we are discussing consumer/unsecured interest, like credit cards or even car loans. If a business borrows money, and pays interest on it, it should be directly related to production.
Actually, found this on wikipedia's entry for usury
The claim that people are better off because of capitalism is never made by the people who can't afford to feed their families, despite working a full-time job. I have never met a person who has made this claim that has ever been hungry.
The claim that communism was a good system wasn't made by the people standing in line for toilet paper. The claim that socialism is wonderful isn't made by someone that had a spouse die because of a bad doctor.
Half the people in this conversation talk about the 'poor' like they are a bunch of saints and the 'rich' like they are evil overlords. Nearly everyone I know that is 'poor' have performed actions that contributed to their situation. Many I know that start out 'poor' manage to build a good life through hard work.
That's not the fault of Capitalism as it is the fault of Interest. Interest is how money makes money without doing any work
How is this Interest's fault? Doesn't any investment do the same thing? I was under the impression that most very rich people didn't just have a pile of cash they are sleeping on. They invest in stocks, real estate, etc... Problem is the poor have nothing to invest, so they end up investing their time and labor.
In the end, though, I was just trying to "make a joke" over a "non-joking" matter - it just seems like you hear on a fairly regular basis about some crane or dump truck operator getting tangled up in electrical lines, tearing them down or killing himself or worse...
Fair enough. Seems like many of the threads on this topic don't seem to comprehend the difference between normal distribution lines and the transmission lines - just thought I would clarify for the benefit of the readers.