Let's say this is a snack dispensing machine. You accidentally discover that if you bump the machine in a particular location, food drops without you putting any money in. You do this repeatedly. Has a crime occurred?
Conversely - I have put money into snack machines and had nothing come out. Has the machine defrauded me?
If it did it regularly and you had no redress, then yes the snack machine company would be defrauding you.
In the US, if someone mistakenly "gives" you something (they intended to give you something, but made an error), the international standard of "finders keepers" applies.
Seriously? If a bank made an error and credited your account with 100,000,000.00 instead of 100.00 (or something) you'd just be allowed to keep it? Are you sure?
The law doesn't work by saying "if you can come up with any kind of ridiculously outlandish and entirely unverifiable alternative explanation for a crime you're accused of, you're therefore not guilty of it". You can always explain anything away: if nothing else, there's the "invisible supernatural forces froze time and completely re-wrote reality while I was unconscious" argument.
"Beyond a reasonable doubt" means exactly that. Human justice can never be 100% sure of the truth, which is why it doesn't even claim to.
So in your wonderful religio-legal system, if I accidentally transfer my life savings to your account which is one digit different from my other savings account, that's fine and you can just keep it?
There is no implicit contract involved here. There is no transaction. There are no goods or services being purchased that can be returned or be made good if there is a defect.
Nonsense. If you play the machine, you are entering into a contract with the owner which says you are prepared to gamble on the chance of winning some money.
Do you really think the owner can just fix the machine so that it never pays out?
You're missing the point. If you kept going back to that 7-11 when the same cashier was there, and you knew she consistently gave you too much change, that is no longer an innocent piece of luck. You are defrauding 7/11.
It would be theft by taking/finding if you did it once. If you keep doing it, it's something more serious.
If a bank accidentally miscalculated your mortgage interest payments once, that's one thing. If they systematically kept doing it over a period of years even though they knew the calculations were incorrect, well, what would you call it?
The machine is programmed to behave in a certain way. If you handle it in some way, it will give you more money. I'd blame the vendor. Do you blame the customer who goes to the shop where they often overpay him in change for fraud?
And if we have to switch to renewables anyway, why not do it as soon as possible.
This question is easier to ask when you're making well-above-average computer-programmer-level salaries and quadrupling the price of electricity and fuel (or something) and the various manufactured things which depend on that price isn't going to really ding your lifestyle. But given the number of people in this world who make a trivial fraction of that, it gets more complicated.
So what you are saying is "think of the poor hungry third world children"? An interesting reversal of the expected line ("we'll use as much oil as we like and fuck the planet") I'll give you that.
There's a funky Dell out now that has an even wider aspect ratio, it's around 2.33:1 I believe. Now I'd like that, if it had more pixels. It's 2560x1080. That's a detriment. But imagine if that was more along the lines 3350x1440. Would you still complain that was too wide? You could have three documents, web pages, whatever up, side by side, and still have a lot of vertical space.
And if it was twice as wide again you could have six documents open side by side, but you'd probably want it curved inwards at each end, or else you'd have to be like a table football player sliding on your chair from side to side.
Because most people can't tell and/or don't care. There's not much money in catering to the resolution queens.
You do know that if you have gold-plated HDMI cables (at only $35K each) then your High Definition Television satisfaction quotient rises by almost 3 points?
Think of all the times you almost caused an accident when emotionally distressed for example. I can name a dozen easily, where I was so (insert emotional state like angry, excited, sad) where I simply lost focus on the road. Talking while driving may invoke a similar emotional responses, even if a service is translating the speak to text.
That example out of the way, there are numerous other situations where I have been similarly distracted. Thinking about a problem I needed to solve, sometimes coming up with that solution while driving.
If you're that psychologically unstable you shouldn't have a driving licence in the first place.
I have a friend who's Prius built-in control panel only works for certain functions when the car is stopped, so she'll slow her car to less than 5 miles an hour on the
freeway just so that *her* passenger can type in an address into the gps (thereby creating a dangerous situation where there shouldn't have been one to begin with).
That's why they invented traffic cops isn't it? Surely she'll get caught and hopefully banned from driving for a couple of years at some point?
I can carry a 5" screen phone comfortably in a pocket of a normal suit jacket. I can't do the same with a 10" tablet unless I have something with game (hunting) size pockets.
Until they invent seamlessly foldable screens, tablets remain something that you need a bag, briefcase or backpack for, and not all of us like to walk around with luggage.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's say this is a snack dispensing machine. You accidentally discover that if you bump the machine in a particular location, food drops without you putting any money in. You do this repeatedly. Has a crime occurred?
Conversely - I have put money into snack machines and had nothing come out. Has the machine defrauded me?
If it did it regularly and you had no redress, then yes the snack machine company would be defrauding you.
For a libertarian nonce, everything is about the fucking Gold Standard.
In the US, if someone mistakenly "gives" you something (they intended to give you something, but made an error), the international standard of "finders keepers" applies.
Seriously? If a bank made an error and credited your account with 100,000,000.00 instead of 100.00 (or something) you'd just be allowed to keep it? Are you sure?
"Beyond a reasonable doubt" means exactly that. Human justice can never be 100% sure of the truth, which is why it doesn't even claim to.
Fuck your anglo-saxon religion. FUCK IT.
So in your wonderful religio-legal system, if I accidentally transfer my life savings to your account which is one digit different from my other savings account, that's fine and you can just keep it?
Well, fuck YOU, mate.
There is no implicit contract involved here. There is no transaction. There are no goods or services being purchased that can be returned or be made good if there is a defect.
Nonsense. If you play the machine, you are entering into a contract with the owner which says you are prepared to gamble on the chance of winning some money.
Do you really think the owner can just fix the machine so that it never pays out?
I wish you luck in your career as a politician.
You're missing the point. If you kept going back to that 7-11 when the same cashier was there, and you knew she consistently gave you too much change, that is no longer an innocent piece of luck. You are defrauding 7/11.
If a bank accidentally miscalculated your mortgage interest payments once, that's one thing. If they systematically kept doing it over a period of years even though they knew the calculations were incorrect, well, what would you call it?
Everyone has equal odds of winning a given hand
No they don't.
The machine is programmed to behave in a certain way. If you handle it in some way, it will give you more money. I'd blame the vendor. Do you blame the customer who goes to the shop where they often overpay him in change for fraud?
Yes.
This question is easier to ask when you're making well-above-average computer-programmer-level salaries and quadrupling the price of electricity and fuel (or something) and the various manufactured things which depend on that price isn't going to really ding your lifestyle. But given the number of people in this world who make a trivial fraction of that, it gets more complicated.
So what you are saying is "think of the poor hungry third world children"? An interesting reversal of the expected line ("we'll use as much oil as we like and fuck the planet") I'll give you that.
Dear Government, You're fucked, now fuck off. Sincerely, The Internet.
Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather have a government in charge than the digital investigative geniuses at 4chan and reddit.
Posted AC for obvious...oh, fuck it, who cares?
The only difference between governments and the mafia is that the government just has bigger guns.
No, the difference is that governments are what stops the mafia from being just another corporation with bigger guns.
There's a funky Dell out now that has an even wider aspect ratio, it's around 2.33:1 I believe. Now I'd like that, if it had more pixels. It's 2560x1080. That's a detriment. But imagine if that was more along the lines 3350x1440. Would you still complain that was too wide? You could have three documents, web pages, whatever up, side by side, and still have a lot of vertical space.
And if it was twice as wide again you could have six documents open side by side, but you'd probably want it curved inwards at each end, or else you'd have to be like a table football player sliding on your chair from side to side.
Because most people can't tell and/or don't care. There's not much money in catering to the resolution queens.
You do know that if you have gold-plated HDMI cables (at only $35K each) then your High Definition Television satisfaction quotient rises by almost 3 points?
Think of all the times you almost caused an accident when emotionally distressed for example. I can name a dozen easily, where I was so (insert emotional state like angry, excited, sad) where I simply lost focus on the road. Talking while driving may invoke a similar emotional responses, even if a service is translating the speak to text.
That example out of the way, there are numerous other situations where I have been similarly distracted. Thinking about a problem I needed to solve, sometimes coming up with that solution while driving.
If you're that psychologically unstable you shouldn't have a driving licence in the first place.
I have a friend who's Prius built-in control panel only works for certain functions when the car is stopped, so she'll slow her car to less than 5 miles an hour on the freeway just so that *her* passenger can type in an address into the gps (thereby creating a dangerous situation where there shouldn't have been one to begin with).
That's why they invented traffic cops isn't it? Surely she'll get caught and hopefully banned from driving for a couple of years at some point?
Yes and talking to someone in the car is distracting too.
Actually, its not that distracting.
Talking to someone in the car is not hugely distracting as long as you don't turn towards them to speak.
There's a real drive in certain political circles right now to protect us from something that they perceive is dangerous
Those evil fucking government bastards. I should be free to kill myself and anyone slow enough not to get out of my way. Yee hah!
The thing in my house that's collecting dust? My old dell laptop. If I need to do real work I'm on my desktop
What's a desktop?
Until they invent seamlessly foldable screens, tablets remain something that you need a bag, briefcase or backpack for, and not all of us like to walk around with luggage.
I would like a smart phone but I don't like some phone company ramming 18 inches of dick in my anus 365 days a year.
I take it you're not an Apple customer.
I experienced no trauma to my lifestyle in such a move.
I once drank ready-ground coffee at breakfast instead of grinding my own beans by hand with my antique Italian grinder.
I survived unhurt.
Nothing says f-you, future mom-and-dad like a BlackBerry Playbook.
Talk about first world problems. "Waah! They didn't buy me an iPad!!"