The DVD audio standard includes compression information in with the audio stream. Even the $20 (literally, no joke) DVD player I bought 2 years ago has a menu option to control this. I can adjust the compression level from "Full" down to "None" with abut 10 steps in between. There's also a setting for "Auto" "Always" or "None" which tells it to follow or ignore the settings that the DVD specifies (I think, I'm unclear on this one). You might want to look into what your DVD player manual says.
The fact that icons get arranged under the doc is ridiculous. I get icons from downloads and stuff under there all the time. It's a totally obvious thing they will never fix because then the dock becomes like the Windows task bar. For Apple, it's more important to be different than right.
The problem is that "get used to it" is used as an excuse to ignore constructive feedback. If you used an awful system for years, you would eventually get used to it, flaws and all. The feedback of the recent converts is more valuable than the feedback of people who have gotten used to things and lost their perspective.
These types of complaints are common. I think OS X is so overhyped that nobody can see the flaws. It's like the goal is to try and be as unlike Windows as possible, even if Windows has a good idea. Instead of "Think Different" Apple should "Think Better"
I'm going to ignore the utter stupidity and technical inaccuracies of this article to make a point.
The only issue with CDs is compression. But compression really can be good - it's done for a reason. What we need is a CD format like what DVDs have where the compression information can be embedded into the audio stream so that the player can decide how much compression to apply. My DVD player allows me to adjust the compression, and I actually turned it to full because I don't have a great sound system and I keep having to adjust the volume. But if I ever get a 5.1 sound system and a single house, I will want it turned off (or at least down). CDs have plenty of bandwidth to do this same thing if the format was changed. The problem is compatibility.
The biggest challenge in designing the cyclogyros is varying the angle of attack of the rotating wings. Don't helicopters have to do this too? I think it is one of the things that makes helicopters tough to manufacture. This would be cool to build, even if it wasn't a great design, just because it looks wacky.
The report finds that our education system actually produces more science and engineering graduates than the market demands. That just means that the market demands have shifted to account for the low number of science and engineering graduates.
For example, 20+ years ago, the U.S. was a significant exporter of technology (right? This is what my elders tell me). Now China and Japan design our cell phones and motherboards. So if we the number of scientists and engineers has increased again, then we should start to gain back those engineering and manufacturing facilities.
Every person on the planet, who is not a member of the FCC and is not working for a telecom company, has been making that exact same point for 10 years. Unfortunately, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 distinguished voice and data as different, even though they travel through the same "tubes" using the same protocols, and have the same political, social, economic, religious, and free speech issues.:-(
Interesting, I'm surprised to find it is available in my area --- at a whopping 384kbps! Oh well, at least they are trying... To bad the new FCC rules mean that they won't be able to offer this anymore, since the telcos no longer need to open their lines to competition.
I think that is nearly impossible. If you want an app to work with multiple databases, then it needs to go against a standard like ODBC and be as close to the ANSI SQL standard as possible.
I've never thought about levels as art before... very interesting...
Perhaps by current definitions, yes. But maybe this is a new form of art: something that was not possible until modern day. For example, Rube Goldberg machines are art because of their unnecessary complexity. So here, a machine has become art because it's nature has been twisted in an unusual way. Also, the result of mathematic manipulations like the spirograph are now considered art. Such is also the case with purely virtual manipulations of math such as fractals. Part of the reason these things are artistic is because they are not judged merely by their mathematical qualities, but based on aesthetic qualities.
I think, if you ask a level designer or a game designer, they will tell you that what they do is art. That's probably fair, since they are "designers" not "level engineers" or "game engineers." What they do is come-up with unique ideas, and draw them given a special set of tools made by a "software engineer." The tools they use are no different from using Adobe Illustrator to draw.
You are right that a hypercube is not art. However, a hypercube can be art if it is manipulated in an artistic way. I think that game levels are like that. This doesn't mean that game levels are "high art" but there is certainly an artistic nature to them.
Subversion isn't just for source code. Many many companies use version control systems for binary files, documents, etc. And many of the users of those systems are QA testers or UI designers or technical writers or end-users.
Okay, I'll get flamed and modded down to the depths of trolldom, but here goes....
I love Linux as a concept: An open-source, free as in beer, free as in speech, tweakable operating system offered and supported by multiple vendors. But Linux as a reality is an hodge-podge of incomplete applications spread across multiple subtly-incompatible distributions.
Moments ago, I read the following thread on the Rapidsvn mailing list. Rapidsvn is a very nice front-end for the Subversion version control system. I've compiled it, made changes to it - it's quite nice. I like it especially since it works on Linux, Mac, and PC -- all three are OSs I use to some degree. So the following is not a dig on this particular project. It is one example of something that happens a million times every day:
(P.S. I chopped the thread for brevity to make my point)
Hi, I have downloaded rapidsvn 0.94. I am trying to install on SLED 10sp1. I enter./configure at the command prompt. I get a lots of messages and finally:
checking for APR... not found configure: error: APR is required. Try --with-apr-config.
I tried...[various things] but got the same error message. I installed all the available APR's for listed listed as version 1.2.2-13.2
Any ideas how to install rapidsvn -- I really want a gui interface on linux similar to tortoisesvn on windows.
[various responses about apr-config, apu-config, downloading pre-built binaries, etc. but no solution] So we have a fairly simple GUI program, with no crazy dependencies. This application is not available in binary form for this distro, and since there are many major Linux distros and you never know what will happen if you install an RPM from another one. You can't compile it from source without a CS degree, and you need gigs of development libraries to do it.
This is the Linux I know, and it is why I have Linux on that other partition so I can boot it up now and then and see what the state of Linux is. But so far, it's always stuff like this. The challenge with Linux isn't learning the UI or thinking differently or anything. It's just getting stuff installed and getting it to work properly. I've never gotten a Linux distro up to the productivity of either my Mac or my Windows PC. I've maybe gotten 80% of the way, but with 500% of the effort. It's just not worth it.
Paying for a lower latency connection requires that there be two connections: A pricier low-latency connection, and a cheaper high-latency connection. So that way, you pay a fee to have your bags placed on the low-latency connection since it costs more. Presumably, this connection transports the baggage with lesser delay, and is thus more expensive (stronger flight attendants carry the bags, faster escalators carry the bags to the baggage claim). The problem arises when they divide a single delivery system into two latencies by delaying some bags in favor of others. The result is a less-efficient system for everyone, but the perception of a faster system for some people.
This is why the author relates this to network neutrality. We hear about "tiered service" where someone pays to have their packets delivered ahead of someone else's. But the telecom provider didn't install a faster pipe to that person's computer. They just slowed down the other connections.
I like the idea of what Radiohead is doing. Offering a physical discbox or an online download via their own site. It's great. I dislike the web site itself and the physical discbox.
The site is ugly, slow, and has been up and down for the past 2 weeks. It doesn't work right in Firefox. It has unnecessary use of flash. It's not intuitive. I can't preview the songs. I have to "register" with my name and address in order to download a song. Mobile phone # is a required field. The discbox is expensive and I don't need vinyl disks. You know what would be great though? A CD! I can put it on my shelf, use it in my CD player, and it has a 44khz uncompressed audio file on it. Great huh?
Their EULA:
Specifications :
The Company reserve the right to alter specifications to those stated. [WTF???] The Customer's statutory rights will not be affected. [WTF???]
Mailing list :
By registering with the shop, w.a.s.t.e. products may use your e-mail address to send you Radiohead news, updates, ticket info etc. This is perhaps the worst-designed, jerkiest web site I've used in the last year. I'm not sure which is worse: This ordering system, or the RIAA. At least the RIAA only penalizes me if I don't buy the CD. These guys are penalizing me for actually buying it.
Where I live, Verizon doesn't offer me DSL. But Cavalier Telephone offers me DSL, over Verizon's lines. (My neighborhood is fairly poor, so Verizon probably thinks we aren't worth it). So does that mean that I won't be able to get DSL then? If that's the case, my only option is Comcast, who doesn't allow me to use Bittorrent. So now I will have only one choice for broadband internet. And it's a company that doesn't believe in neutrality.
This "regulation" was a step toward making sure that companies could compete evenly and fairly, by limiting the power of a government-granted monopoly. How is allowing the monopoly to grow unabated and block competition equal to deregulation? It isn't.
If we changed the law so that banks didn't have to follow standard accounting practices, would that be "deregulation" or "a complete nightmare?" If we removed the requirements that food be edible and properly labeled, would that be "deregulation" too? How about we just eliminate the rule of law, and the constitution, and clear-up a whole lot of regulations?
Re:none of the above
on
eBay The Vote
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
In the US, there is a very good "none of the above" option: Vote for a party other than Republicans or Democrats.
In most states, your party needs 5% of the votes to be acknowledged as a political party, given federal funding, and invited to all the debates. In the last presidential election, about 50% of the people voted. That's enough votes that if the apathetic 50% just voted COMPLETELY RANDOMLY then we would have 10 new full-fledged political parties. Can you imagine what an immense shake-up it would be to have 12 political parties given federal funding and invited to the debates? Given equal air time? It would completely change the political climate in the U.S.
Or if only 2 other parties get onto the ballot: let's say Green and Libertarian. Then the apathetic majority just gave these two groups 25% of the vote. Enough to win the presidency!
So do yourself and your fellow American a favor, and vote "none of the above" in the next election.
The modifications would be useless to anyone else. They add a few fields showing internal account information that applies only to us. And the company is definitely helping the community, because they pay for licenses which provides money for bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
Surprisingly, his voting record shows he is in support of the wiretapping in general, although this isn't quite enough information to go on.
Rated 60% by the ACLU, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002) Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
Absolutely! They could even sell their copyrights to Microsoft, and continue development on an open-source fork if they wanted. Heck, Microsoft might even decide to leave the application open source. I think it would all prove to be a very interesting experiment, to see if buying the company was really good for Microsoft, and to see if the community continued development of the product, and which ways the forks went. Quite interesting!
Also note that this isn't really a "threat" to the community because large-scale OSS projects have copyrights owned by a myriad of people, so they really can't be sold. It only applies to companies that develop completely in-house, or require contributors to sign-away their copyrights.
Related note: I work for a company that uses SugarCRM internally, and has modified it (very slightly) for our purposes. SugarCRM would become useless if we didn't have the source.
Okami had a fun concept with the really cool rendering technique, and with the concept of drawing. But overall, it is a mediocre game. It is probably more of a kids game, being really easy, having really repetitive fights, and long drawn out dialog that I could read way faster than the game presented it to me. It was frustrating, and although I liked the story, I am beating the game over the course of many many months so that the curiosity of what comes next exceeds the boredom of the game's pacing.
They aren't written in normal legaleze. I worked at a company that submitted a patent for a device I helped design and build. We submitted technical documentation, and the company lawyers turned that into a patent document. When I reviewed the patent, I would have had no idea that the patent was describing what I worked on, had they not told me so ahead of time. I'm not joking. What was about 20 pages of documentation of a concept, including illustrations, became hundreds of pages of completely confusing information. Where a single technical term was the precise meaning of something, it would be replaced with entire paragraphs explaining that concept in a way that no engineer would understand it.
Patents are technical documents. They are supposed to describe a solution to a problem in a way that a technician with adequate knowledge can understand the concept and verify that it is not already in use, and that a future product does not infringe upon it. If the designer of the system does not even recognize the patent, then it is not able to do that.
You are correct when you say that legalize has very precise meaning. But patents are intended to be as broad as possible, so the lawyers do what they can do take a single concept and make it as vague as possible. So words that have precise meanings in the original technical document are replaced with vague meanings (hence how single terms become entire paragraphs). I actually saw sentences that spanned whole pages, and paragraph separators were used to indicate that this "word" had been explained inline.
For example: The ruler must be 12 inches long.
Becomes: The [entire paragraph explaining what a physical object with measurements might look like, in every possible way you could imagine, regardless of shape, size, or material, without requiring graduation marks or whatever],
must be [complex explanation indicating that some unspecified minimum dimensions may or may not be required].
Not all patents are written this way, but many of them are.
I do wonder about this. What is the threshold where people should start to take-up arms? It seems we are really close to the threshold here:
1. Companies collude with the executive branch to perform illegal and unconstitutional activities 2. Government passes law giving themselves the power to do this 3. Government passes law giving immunity to anyone who helps
I can actually FORGIVE #1, as sad as that is. But only because I trust the courts and congress to hold them accountable. But then when congress passes an immunity law, then what the heck???? That's about one step short of just granting themselves the power to do whatever they want. "You mean it's illegal to burst into your house and steal your possessions and rape your family? Oh, well, then we'll just fix that tomorrow in the next session..."
Now everybody will jump on my and say how they aren't really busting into American's houses. But that misses the point. The exact same tactic used to bust into American's phone lines is what would be required to bust into American homes. It's the same laws, same tactics. Frankly, I don't care if they listen in on suspected terrorist phone conversations.0001% as much as I care about the fact that they are trying to pass laws to make it legal after the fact.
Slashdot Mirror
The DVD audio standard includes compression information in with the audio stream. Even the $20 (literally, no joke) DVD player I bought 2 years ago has a menu option to control this. I can adjust the compression level from "Full" down to "None" with abut 10 steps in between. There's also a setting for "Auto" "Always" or "None" which tells it to follow or ignore the settings that the DVD specifies (I think, I'm unclear on this one). You might want to look into what your DVD player manual says.
The fact that icons get arranged under the doc is ridiculous. I get icons from downloads and stuff under there all the time. It's a totally obvious thing they will never fix because then the dock becomes like the Windows task bar. For Apple, it's more important to be different than right.
The problem is that "get used to it" is used as an excuse to ignore constructive feedback. If you used an awful system for years, you would eventually get used to it, flaws and all. The feedback of the recent converts is more valuable than the feedback of people who have gotten used to things and lost their perspective.
These types of complaints are common. I think OS X is so overhyped that nobody can see the flaws. It's like the goal is to try and be as unlike Windows as possible, even if Windows has a good idea. Instead of "Think Different" Apple should "Think Better"
I'm going to ignore the utter stupidity and technical inaccuracies of this article to make a point.
The only issue with CDs is compression. But compression really can be good - it's done for a reason. What we need is a CD format like what DVDs have where the compression information can be embedded into the audio stream so that the player can decide how much compression to apply. My DVD player allows me to adjust the compression, and I actually turned it to full because I don't have a great sound system and I keep having to adjust the volume. But if I ever get a 5.1 sound system and a single house, I will want it turned off (or at least down). CDs have plenty of bandwidth to do this same thing if the format was changed. The problem is compatibility.
For example, 20+ years ago, the U.S. was a significant exporter of technology (right? This is what my elders tell me). Now China and Japan design our cell phones and motherboards. So if we the number of scientists and engineers has increased again, then we should start to gain back those engineering and manufacturing facilities.
Every person on the planet, who is not a member of the FCC and is not working for a telecom company, has been making that exact same point for 10 years. Unfortunately, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 distinguished voice and data as different, even though they travel through the same "tubes" using the same protocols, and have the same political, social, economic, religious, and free speech issues. :-(
Interesting, I'm surprised to find it is available in my area --- at a whopping 384kbps! Oh well, at least they are trying... To bad the new FCC rules mean that they won't be able to offer this anymore, since the telcos no longer need to open their lines to competition.
I don't think this applies to their data service though, only to the VOIP service.
I think that is nearly impossible. If you want an app to work with multiple databases, then it needs to go against a standard like ODBC and be as close to the ANSI SQL standard as possible.
I've never thought about levels as art before... very interesting...
Perhaps by current definitions, yes. But maybe this is a new form of art: something that was not possible until modern day. For example, Rube Goldberg machines are art because of their unnecessary complexity. So here, a machine has become art because it's nature has been twisted in an unusual way. Also, the result of mathematic manipulations like the spirograph are now considered art. Such is also the case with purely virtual manipulations of math such as fractals. Part of the reason these things are artistic is because they are not judged merely by their mathematical qualities, but based on aesthetic qualities.
I think, if you ask a level designer or a game designer, they will tell you that what they do is art. That's probably fair, since they are "designers" not "level engineers" or "game engineers." What they do is come-up with unique ideas, and draw them given a special set of tools made by a "software engineer." The tools they use are no different from using Adobe Illustrator to draw.
You are right that a hypercube is not art. However, a hypercube can be art if it is manipulated in an artistic way. I think that game levels are like that. This doesn't mean that game levels are "high art" but there is certainly an artistic nature to them.
Subversion isn't just for source code. Many many companies use version control systems for binary files, documents, etc. And many of the users of those systems are QA testers or UI designers or technical writers or end-users.
I love Linux as a concept: An open-source, free as in beer, free as in speech, tweakable operating system offered and supported by multiple vendors. But Linux as a reality is an hodge-podge of incomplete applications spread across multiple subtly-incompatible distributions.
Moments ago, I read the following thread on the Rapidsvn mailing list. Rapidsvn is a very nice front-end for the Subversion version control system. I've compiled it, made changes to it - it's quite nice. I like it especially since it works on Linux, Mac, and PC -- all three are OSs I use to some degree. So the following is not a dig on this particular project. It is one example of something that happens a million times every day:
(P.S. I chopped the thread for brevity to make my point) Hi, I have downloaded rapidsvn 0.94. I am trying to install on SLED 10sp1. I enter
at the command prompt. I get a lots of messages and finally:
checking for APR... not found
configure: error: APR is required. Try --with-apr-config.
I tried...[various things] but got the same error message. I installed all the available APR's for
listed listed as version 1.2.2-13.2
Any ideas how to install rapidsvn -- I really want a gui interface on
linux similar to tortoisesvn on windows.
[various responses about apr-config, apu-config, downloading pre-built binaries, etc. but no solution] So we have a fairly simple GUI program, with no crazy dependencies. This application is not available in binary form for this distro, and since there are many major Linux distros and you never know what will happen if you install an RPM from another one. You can't compile it from source without a CS degree, and you need gigs of development libraries to do it.
This is the Linux I know, and it is why I have Linux on that other partition so I can boot it up now and then and see what the state of Linux is. But so far, it's always stuff like this. The challenge with Linux isn't learning the UI or thinking differently or anything. It's just getting stuff installed and getting it to work properly. I've never gotten a Linux distro up to the productivity of either my Mac or my Windows PC. I've maybe gotten 80% of the way, but with 500% of the effort. It's just not worth it.
Paying for a lower latency connection requires that there be two connections: A pricier low-latency connection, and a cheaper high-latency connection. So that way, you pay a fee to have your bags placed on the low-latency connection since it costs more. Presumably, this connection transports the baggage with lesser delay, and is thus more expensive (stronger flight attendants carry the bags, faster escalators carry the bags to the baggage claim). The problem arises when they divide a single delivery system into two latencies by delaying some bags in favor of others. The result is a less-efficient system for everyone, but the perception of a faster system for some people.
This is why the author relates this to network neutrality. We hear about "tiered service" where someone pays to have their packets delivered ahead of someone else's. But the telecom provider didn't install a faster pipe to that person's computer. They just slowed down the other connections.
I dislike the web site itself and the physical discbox.
The site is ugly, slow, and has been up and down for the past 2 weeks. It doesn't work right in Firefox. It has unnecessary use of flash. It's not intuitive. I can't preview the songs. I have to "register" with my name and address in order to download a song. Mobile phone # is a required field. The discbox is expensive and I don't need vinyl disks. You know what would be great though? A CD! I can put it on my shelf, use it in my CD player, and it has a 44khz uncompressed audio file on it. Great huh?
Their EULA: Specifications :
The Company reserve the right to alter specifications to those stated. [WTF???]
The Customer's statutory rights will not be affected. [WTF???]
Mailing list :
By registering with the shop, w.a.s.t.e. products may use your e-mail address to send you Radiohead news, updates, ticket info etc. This is perhaps the worst-designed, jerkiest web site I've used in the last year. I'm not sure which is worse: This ordering system, or the RIAA. At least the RIAA only penalizes me if I don't buy the CD. These guys are penalizing me for actually buying it.
Where I live, Verizon doesn't offer me DSL. But Cavalier Telephone offers me DSL, over Verizon's lines. (My neighborhood is fairly poor, so Verizon probably thinks we aren't worth it). So does that mean that I won't be able to get DSL then? If that's the case, my only option is Comcast, who doesn't allow me to use Bittorrent. So now I will have only one choice for broadband internet. And it's a company that doesn't believe in neutrality.
Yay for deregulation!
This "regulation" was a step toward making sure that companies could compete evenly and fairly, by limiting the power of a government-granted monopoly. How is allowing the monopoly to grow unabated and block competition equal to deregulation? It isn't.
If we changed the law so that banks didn't have to follow standard accounting practices, would that be "deregulation" or "a complete nightmare?" If we removed the requirements that food be edible and properly labeled, would that be "deregulation" too? How about we just eliminate the rule of law, and the constitution, and clear-up a whole lot of regulations?
In the US, there is a very good "none of the above" option: Vote for a party other than Republicans or Democrats.
In most states, your party needs 5% of the votes to be acknowledged as a political party, given federal funding, and invited to all the debates. In the last presidential election, about 50% of the people voted. That's enough votes that if the apathetic 50% just voted COMPLETELY RANDOMLY then we would have 10 new full-fledged political parties. Can you imagine what an immense shake-up it would be to have 12 political parties given federal funding and invited to the debates? Given equal air time? It would completely change the political climate in the U.S.
Or if only 2 other parties get onto the ballot: let's say Green and Libertarian. Then the apathetic majority just gave these two groups 25% of the vote. Enough to win the presidency!
So do yourself and your fellow American a favor, and vote "none of the above" in the next election.
The modifications would be useless to anyone else. They add a few fields showing internal account information that applies only to us. And the company is definitely helping the community, because they pay for licenses which provides money for bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
Surprisingly, his voting record shows he is in support of the wiretapping in general, although this isn't quite enough information to go on.
Rated 60% by the ACLU, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
Absolutely! They could even sell their copyrights to Microsoft, and continue development on an open-source fork if they wanted. Heck, Microsoft might even decide to leave the application open source. I think it would all prove to be a very interesting experiment, to see if buying the company was really good for Microsoft, and to see if the community continued development of the product, and which ways the forks went. Quite interesting!
Also note that this isn't really a "threat" to the community because large-scale OSS projects have copyrights owned by a myriad of people, so they really can't be sold. It only applies to companies that develop completely in-house, or require contributors to sign-away their copyrights.
Related note: I work for a company that uses SugarCRM internally, and has modified it (very slightly) for our purposes. SugarCRM would become useless if we didn't have the source.
Okami had a fun concept with the really cool rendering technique, and with the concept of drawing. But overall, it is a mediocre game. It is probably more of a kids game, being really easy, having really repetitive fights, and long drawn out dialog that I could read way faster than the game presented it to me. It was frustrating, and although I liked the story, I am beating the game over the course of many many months so that the curiosity of what comes next exceeds the boredom of the game's pacing.
They aren't written in normal legaleze. I worked at a company that submitted a patent for a device I helped design and build. We submitted technical documentation, and the company lawyers turned that into a patent document. When I reviewed the patent, I would have had no idea that the patent was describing what I worked on, had they not told me so ahead of time. I'm not joking. What was about 20 pages of documentation of a concept, including illustrations, became hundreds of pages of completely confusing information. Where a single technical term was the precise meaning of something, it would be replaced with entire paragraphs explaining that concept in a way that no engineer would understand it.
Patents are technical documents. They are supposed to describe a solution to a problem in a way that a technician with adequate knowledge can understand the concept and verify that it is not already in use, and that a future product does not infringe upon it. If the designer of the system does not even recognize the patent, then it is not able to do that.
You are correct when you say that legalize has very precise meaning. But patents are intended to be as broad as possible, so the lawyers do what they can do take a single concept and make it as vague as possible. So words that have precise meanings in the original technical document are replaced with vague meanings (hence how single terms become entire paragraphs). I actually saw sentences that spanned whole pages, and paragraph separators were used to indicate that this "word" had been explained inline.
For example:
The ruler must be 12 inches long.
Becomes:
The [entire paragraph explaining what a physical object with measurements might look like, in every possible way you could imagine, regardless of shape, size, or material, without requiring graduation marks or whatever],
must be [complex explanation indicating that some unspecified minimum dimensions may or may not be required].
Not all patents are written this way, but many of them are.
I do wonder about this. What is the threshold where people should start to take-up arms? It seems we are really close to the threshold here:
.0001% as much as I care about the fact that they are trying to pass laws to make it legal after the fact.
...NO CARRIER
1. Companies collude with the executive branch to perform illegal and unconstitutional activities
2. Government passes law giving themselves the power to do this
3. Government passes law giving immunity to anyone who helps
I can actually FORGIVE #1, as sad as that is. But only because I trust the courts and congress to hold them accountable. But then when congress passes an immunity law, then what the heck???? That's about one step short of just granting themselves the power to do whatever they want. "You mean it's illegal to burst into your house and steal your possessions and rape your family? Oh, well, then we'll just fix that tomorrow in the next session..."
Now everybody will jump on my and say how they aren't really busting into American's houses. But that misses the point. The exact same tactic used to bust into American's phone lines is what would be required to bust into American homes. It's the same laws, same tactics. Frankly, I don't care if they listen in on suspected terrorist phone conversations
So where do I recruit an army?