If i pay for a connection through fios with no set limits.
If i don't use it at all, i still pay the same ammount.
So explain to me economically how i somehow associate bandwidth utilization that one month costs me nothing and the next is used up by spam?
Because last time i checked using bandwidth has a cost of.... (drum roll please) 0!
Maybe that's different for the other poor suckers who don't have a no set bandwidth contract with their isps, not my fault or problem.
Last time i checked even capped bandwidth contracts still have to pay a set ammount if they use up all their bandwidth or not. That would seem to go against your bandwidth costs you're so adamant about. Seems to me your greedy little isps want free lunch and you're paying them for it.
This is wrong on so many levels, I'm not sure if you're trolling or where to even begin pointing out the flaws here.
Let's just look at the internet and the resources used to send and receive data...bandwidth, hardware, etc. Hundreds of millions of spam e-mails are sent daily. This means that in addition to the bandwidth and hardware costs to ISPs to carry normal legit traffic, there's the massive additional costs in hardware and bandwidth requirements for all the spam.
Who pays for that? You can be sure that the ISPs don't simply eat the cost. It's *passed along* to you and I _regardless_ of the particular contract one may have with the ISP. That flat rate you pay _includes_ the costs of spam, although it's not listed separately. All that additional traffic also slows speeds and limits bandwidth available to legitimate subscribers.
If the ISPs write off some of the costs against their taxes, that just costs every other taxpayer more, either in increased tax burdens or reduced services.
A bit off-topic, but the games I still play are the MechWarrior series and European Air War, a classic WW2 air-combat sim. Both games still have 3rd-party skins, aircraft models/mech models (forMW), mods, utilities, and patches being produced.
As an added plus, if you're in the USA, TuneCore sign-up and specials are available in any of the "Guitar Center" music chain stores. Along with CD duplication services offered through Guitar Center, it's nearly a one-stop place for musicians to obtain online sales as well as physical CD's including CD jewel-cases, jackets, cover-art, and liners...all shrink-wrapped and ready to sell or use for promotional purposes.
Or you could take advantage of an online service to place your music in major online distribution channels like iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. and who also manage the accounting, micropayments from streaming, and other details and pay you from one source while you concentrate on making music.
If you are delivering just one track (a single) the only fee is an annual payment of $9.99. If you are delivering more than one song (an album) the annual fee is $19.98. The only additional charges (for an album) are one time fees of.99 cents per store you choose and per track that you upload to TuneCore. For example if you deliver a two track album to only iTunes US this would total to, $21.96 with an annual renewal fee of 19.98 after the initial payment.
The RIAA do not own the internet, why should I pay for something Im not using. If I put non RIAA music over the radio Im not going to pay the RIAA for something that is not theirs.
If you refuse to pay, first they'll send threatening pieces of paper to you in the mail. If you still do not comply and pay, then they send large men with guns to put you in a cage. If you resist, they kill you.
That statement is ignorant of history. Diplomacy can only work for a short amount of time before something happens which will require the kicking of someone's ass. Given enough time someone will come along who really wants to kill you and/or take what you have, no matter how badly the "let's all hug and get along" crowd want it to not be true. Human nature is, after all, driven by the same basic instinct as the rest of the animal kingdom: the will to survive.
Force cannot replacement diplomacy any more than diplomacy can replace force.
The relative ability (real or perceived) of each side in a conflict to use force is the only reason diplomacy ever works. If either side, rightly or wrongly, perceives that the other is unable or unwilling to use force, diplomacy fails. Force, throughout human history, has been and will continue to be the only real deciding factor in any serious international conflict at the end of the day.
That's not to say that economic and other factors have no affect, but if the party under economic and/or other pressures perceives that it can simply use force against it's foe with limited repercussions, then those pressures become secondary to the ability and willingness to use force.
I've always liked this quote:
"Diplomacy is saying 'nice doggy' until you find a rock." -- Wyn Catlin
How? Are people going to try and mug you with a CharlieTicket now that they might potentially be useless?
That's easy. If someone were to rob a bank or mug someone, then use a metro bus or the subway as their getaway vehicle using these cards, they might use a hacked card with false identification info. The police would be unable to identify the perpetrator without leaving the police station, interviewing witnesses, examining security camera records, dusting for fingerprints, etc.
In other words, the perpetrator would likely get away with his crime and wander the streets free to commit more crimes, as nobody in Boston would seriously expect the police there to go to those extremes, especially in the case of a crime like a mugging where the victim is not a bank, corporation, or the government itself.
"In California, you do not have to take a sobriety test in the field, but by applying for a license, you have agreed to take one at the police station, and if you don't, that is cause for revocation of your license."
Like I said above...yep, you may get your license revoked...lawyer up, and you can probably get a hardship license to drive to/from work...and grocery store, etc, till you are able to get your license back.
It sucks, but, is still better than a DWI on your record which can kill your credit rating...insurability, and even getting a new job might be hindered by it. You shouldn't drink and drive...but, they've lowered the bar so long now with BAC down to 0.08..you have to be ready to do what it takes to protect your livelyhood. If they want to solve drunk driving....outlaw bars where you by definition will drink...and then drive home. You don't see those bar's lots full of cars overnight by people taking alternate routes home, just not really feasible in the US.
Anyway, in a DWI pullover or any situation where you have to deal with the cops, don't help them gather evidence against you. Don't say anything....
Anyone in residing in Idaho (and possibly other states..didn't research that long) shouldn't assume they can refuse, because they can't. By driving on the roads of Idaho, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that you've given "implied consent" to substance testing, and may be taken to a medical facility to have the test performed under restraint, even if no traffic accident or harm has been done to any person or property.
Seems kinda ominous. With the current SCOTUS having made decisions like the Eminent Domain decision (Kelo), what might they decide in regards to this, if it came up? That by paying taxes you have given "implied consent" to wiretapping, surveillance, and search by agents of the federal government?
I taught high school and belonged to the union. The union must save their magical powers for schools other than the one I taught at. The only thing the union ever did for me was take money out of my paycheck.
Looks like we both got bitten by pro-NEA/pro-union shill-moderation. That seems to be the modus operandi these days for people that cannot defend their positions because they are indefensible. Just silence opposing ideas and opinions.
Yeah, those are the kind of people we want to determine how our kids are taught (or not, as it appears). Pity about that Streisand Effect though. Now the shill-moderation has just brought many times as much attention to these posts as they would have otherwise gotten. I guess critical thinking wouldn't be a requirement for being a shill, though.
The telcoms have a legitimate right to do whatever they want with their backbones. They payed and continue to pay for them.
Actually, the telecoms have been very, very heavily-funded by public funds and huge tax breaks to provide services.
Simply telling the telcoms that they no longer control what happens on their backbones is not an option, and the sooner everyone gets on the same page with this whole issue the better off we will all be.
Why? The telecoms have been heavily-regulated in just about every other area of their operations and services except this one, and for many of the same reasons. If they took the publics' money then they are obligated to put the interests of those taxpayers (their customers) at the top of their objectives. That they have failed is the reason to apply laws/regulations designed to make sure the customers' interests are not lost in marketing and monetization plans.
For starters abolish/disband or otherwise un-empower the NEA that makes it next to impossible to fire bad teachers and reward and retain the good ones. No amount of curricular advancement/improvement/modernization or money dumped into school districts' coffers will ever have a significant impact on the quality of education if the teachers are poor quality and/or uncaring. The NEA, IMO, has done more to hinder education than any other cause.
And before anyone starts with "But teachers are underpaid and *need* the unions!" I'd like to point out that the NEA has been around for a few decades now, and teachers are still underpaid.
How was my post a troll? C'mon mods! At least *pretend* to be fair! If you disagree with my take on the situation, then reply and tell everyone including me where I've erred. If all you can do is moder-ate instead of de-bate (hyphens intentional), then maybe it's time to re-examine your views.
For starters abolish/disband or otherwise un-empower the NEA that makes it next to impossible to fire bad teachers and reward and retain the good ones. No amount of curricular advancement/improvement/modernization or money dumped into school districts' coffers will ever have a significant impact on the quality of education if the teachers are poor quality and/or uncaring. The NEA, IMO, has done more to hinder education than any other cause.
And before anyone starts with "But teachers are underpaid and *need* the unions!" I'd like to point out that the NEA has been around for a few decades now, and teachers are still underpaid.
That's exactly it. We Americans have a very distorted perspective.
Used to be you could open a little produce shop, live above it, sell produce at a reasonable price and provide personalized service to your customers, and by that make enough money to support your family and pay your bills... and that was all you needed - you were successful, your business was successful, and you were happy.
You did that until you retired, and if your kids took over the store, great - if instead they went to college and became doctors or accountants or opened up a used furniture store and did like you did - great.
The American dream, you were all happy and successful.
NOW, if your produce store doesn't become "FRUITCO," with thousands of locations, grabbing the most market share and beating out "GREENSCO" to become the biggest produce corporation on the planet with diversified subsidiaries, then you're "failing."
Nationally we seem to have an all-or-nothing mentality.
Actually, I think that one of the bigger obstacles to small shops as you describe are the infrastructure requirements and costs to be in the market. The laws, legal liabilities, and regulations regarding any sort of business these days is centered around a large corporate entity.
Complying with regulations and laws regarding things like records, reporting requirements, insurance, certified inspection and licensing, zoning permits, labor laws, taxes, etc etc, on and on, cost a large corporation only a tiny fractional percentage of their gross income, but the percentage does not scale down linearly to small shops and is prohibitive. Not saying that all or any of the above is good or bad per se, just that in total, the costs of all of the burdens that are put in place to regulate and restrain the behaviors of big corporations are beyond the means of many small operators.
I truly believe this will be the next major battle in the arms race between those who wish to control information and people, and those that want freedom, and might very well be the last if they succeed. They've already committed themselves to this path and fired the first shot with the inclusion of the outboard "T.C." chip on many/most(?) motherboards. If they succeed in fully rolling this system out, times will surely get "interesting" indeed, in that bad old Chinese curse kind of way.
So how do we get around it? It sounds like hacktivism isn't enough here and the politicians have amply demonstrated that they refuse to listen to us. What next?
That's a very good question without a really good answer, and where the Chinese definition of "interesting" comes in.
If the ballot box and the jury box fails, then it might fall to groups of people willing to fight this, possibly the old fashioned way, like breaking into major telecom backbone data centers and fire-bombing multi-millions of dollars of infrastructure. Of course, the government will react to clamp down, possibly even calling out National Guard to guard critical infrastructure from our own citizens, possibly resulting in pitched battles and tragic deaths.
Of course, it might very well be that very few people will have the will to fight this. In that case, our country will take a sharp and deep dive into a non-free society once the government can have the kind of far-reaching and fine-grained control over information that this would allow.
Either way it turns out, we will truly live in "interesting times".
Oh yeah, mandatory Trusted Computing, the magic bullet. Because enumerating and safeguarding against all known good or bad software products has worked sooo well in corporate environments.
Apparently, you don't grok how "Trusted Computing" works. It works on a "white list" principal. If any of the software/OS/applications/BIOS/hardware isn't on the white list, then the machine in question will not certify as "trusted" when queried when you attempt to connect to your ISP or any other "trusted" machine, appliance, or service. Any time you attempt to connect, "T.C." authorization servers verify the "trusted" or "not trusted" state of the machine with a hash generated from the machines' hardware/software and the unique keys stored in the silicon against hashes/keys on a "T.C." authorization server.
Currently, the "T.C." chip is a discrete IC on the motherboard. It will soon be integrated directly onto the CPU wafer. There's no "getting to" the keys contained, as they never leave the IC, never resides in RAM or on a data bus. So unless you have advanced, very expensive equipment for reverse-engineering and fabricating microchips at the micron level you're out of luck. Even were someone to succeed, all that trouble and expense would only allow *one* machine to falsify a "trusted" state, and only until it was discovered and its' unique keys revoked at the T.C. authorization servers, all but "bricking" the machine as far as any use in conjunction with the "trusted" network.
I truly believe this will be the next major battle in the arms race between those who wish to control information and people, and those that want freedom, and might very well be the last if they succeed. They've already committed themselves to this path and fired the first shot with the inclusion of the outboard "T.C." chip on many/most(?) motherboards. If they succeed in fully rolling this system out, times will surely get "interesting" indeed, in that bad old Chinese curse kind of way.
So the ISPs now have another way to detect types of communication for throttling that they shouldn't normally have a problem with if they had actually kept to their agreements with the US Gov./the people to use the massive tax breaks they were given to build out their infrastructure so that..sort of like that whole deal was intended to do...we could've avoided this kind of problem where throttling would be necessary or desirable to begin with.
What next? You sign up for internet service and pay your money and they hand you a nice glossy screenshot of what your browser would be seeing if your computer was actually connected, because, you know, if they actually had to *transmit* packets, then the tubes would be congested and the pirates/terrists/hackers/crackers would win? What good is a connection to the internet if there's no "inter" in your net connection?
Sorry dude, but Fox isn't hiring at the moment. Try again in the fall.
Thanks, Rupert Murdoch
Ah, another graduate of the "If ya can't fight 'em with facts, just make fun of 'em." school of political discourse. Can't let the facts get in the way of a good USA-bash, now can we?
In any other country there would be a real left wing and something close to your democrats or republicans as right wing or ultra right wing
All fine and good but remind me again, who's the political/economic/military superpower that provides for the defense of many, if not most, of those countries so they can afford to be that way?
Maybe being a left and super-left country is only possible when the country in question has the luxury of being shielded for multiple decades from having to fully provide for its' own defense, as many of the Western European countries have been.
The USA has many faults, no denying it...but there's no denying the USA has also done (and continues to do) far far more good for far more countries than any other country on the planet in all of history.
The right wing conservatives manipulate the public view using Fox news and their method of twisting and distorting facts, and informing the viewers with their personal 'paid for' opinions.
[sarcasm]What!?!? You mean conservatives have a whole *one* network that doesn't act like they're incapable of being non-evil in anything they say or do!?!? How can the liberal left ever expect to convince anyone of their views with such uneven, unfair odds?
After all, all the poor under-represented-by-media Democrats/liberals/leftists have are ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, NYT, along with most other print, broadcast, and electronic media on their side.
With such uneven odds, I can understand why there's been talk of reviving the Fairness Doctrine.[/sarcasm]
As to the Google-bombing, I see posts here talking about how the Republicans/conservatives have played some political media "dirty tricks" in the past and how that is justification for "preemptive/retaliatory strikes" like this one. So, I guess dirty tricks are OK as long as they're done by the side with the "correct" views?
The ends justifying the means, and stooping as low as your opponents has never been the way to achieving anything good, as shown repeatedly through history. If your tactics are no better than the other sides' are, what exactly is the difference in the end?
Cheers!
Strat
*-2* Flamebait!?!?
Wow..I must've hit a nerve. I replied to what *I* thought was flamebait, but I guess moderating on/. has now degenerated to modding-down anything one disagrees with. This only reinforces the idea that people of certain political views would prefer to silence opposing viewpoints. Nice shot with the ol' footgun there.
Slashdot Mirror
If i pay for a connection through fios with no set limits.
If i don't use it at all, i still pay the same ammount.
So explain to me economically how i somehow associate bandwidth utilization that one month costs me nothing and the next is used up by spam?
Because last time i checked using bandwidth has a cost of.... (drum roll please) 0!
Maybe that's different for the other poor suckers who don't have a no set bandwidth contract with their isps, not my fault or problem.
Last time i checked even capped bandwidth contracts still have to pay a set ammount if they use up all their bandwidth or not. That would seem to go against your bandwidth costs you're so adamant about. Seems to me your greedy little isps want free lunch and you're paying them for it.
This is wrong on so many levels, I'm not sure if you're trolling or where to even begin pointing out the flaws here.
Let's just look at the internet and the resources used to send and receive data...bandwidth, hardware, etc. Hundreds of millions of spam e-mails are sent daily. This means that in addition to the bandwidth and hardware costs to ISPs to carry normal legit traffic, there's the massive additional costs in hardware and bandwidth requirements for all the spam.
Who pays for that? You can be sure that the ISPs don't simply eat the cost. It's *passed along* to you and I _regardless_ of the particular contract one may have with the ISP. That flat rate you pay _includes_ the costs of spam, although it's not listed separately. All that additional traffic also slows speeds and limits bandwidth available to legitimate subscribers.
If the ISPs write off some of the costs against their taxes, that just costs every other taxpayer more, either in increased tax burdens or reduced services.
TANSTAFL
Cheers!
Strat
Let's not forget MechWarrior.
A bit off-topic, but the games I still play are the MechWarrior series and European Air War, a classic WW2 air-combat sim. Both games still have 3rd-party skins, aircraft models/mech models (forMW), mods, utilities, and patches being produced.
Cheers!
Strat
Cool, as an artist this is good to know!
As an added plus, if you're in the USA, TuneCore sign-up and specials are available in any of the "Guitar Center" music chain stores. Along with CD duplication services offered through Guitar Center, it's nearly a one-stop place for musicians to obtain online sales as well as physical CD's including CD jewel-cases, jackets, cover-art, and liners...all shrink-wrapped and ready to sell or use for promotional purposes.
Cheers!
Strat
Or you could take advantage of an online service to place your music in major online distribution channels like iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. and who also manage the accounting, micropayments from streaming, and other details and pay you from one source while you concentrate on making music.
http://www.tunecore.com/
From the FAQ:
What does it cost me?
If you are delivering just one track (a single) the only fee is an annual payment of $9.99. If you are delivering more than one song (an album) the annual fee is $19.98. The only additional charges (for an album) are one time fees of .99 cents per store you choose and per track that you upload to TuneCore. For example if you deliver a two track album to only iTunes US this would total to, $21.96 with an annual renewal fee of 19.98 after the initial payment.
Cheers!
Strat
3. Develop a thug caste: Not yet, I think so at least.
I thought that "MTV Raps" was a recruiting show for this caste. Seriously though, I think the growing gang phenomenon would qualify here.
Cheers!
Strat
The RIAA do not own the internet, why should I pay for something Im not using. If I put non RIAA music over the radio Im not going to pay the RIAA for something that is not theirs.
If you refuse to pay, first they'll send threatening pieces of paper to you in the mail. If you still do not comply and pay, then they send large men with guns to put you in a cage. If you resist, they kill you.
You think you're free?
The matrix has you, Neo...errr, Dan.
Cheers!
Strat
That statement is ignorant of history. Diplomacy can only work for a short amount of time before something happens which will require the kicking of someone's ass. Given enough time someone will come along who really wants to kill you and/or take what you have, no matter how badly the "let's all hug and get along" crowd want it to not be true. Human nature is, after all, driven by the same basic instinct as the rest of the animal kingdom: the will to survive.
Force cannot replacement diplomacy any more than diplomacy can replace force.
The relative ability (real or perceived) of each side in a conflict to use force is the only reason diplomacy ever works. If either side, rightly or wrongly, perceives that the other is unable or unwilling to use force, diplomacy fails. Force, throughout human history, has been and will continue to be the only real deciding factor in any serious international conflict at the end of the day.
That's not to say that economic and other factors have no affect, but if the party under economic and/or other pressures perceives that it can simply use force against it's foe with limited repercussions, then those pressures become secondary to the ability and willingness to use force.
I've always liked this quote:
"Diplomacy is saying 'nice doggy' until you find a rock." -- Wyn Catlin
Cheers!
Strat
constitutes a threat to public health or safety
How? Are people going to try and mug you with a CharlieTicket now that they might potentially be useless?
That's easy. If someone were to rob a bank or mug someone, then use a metro bus or the subway as their getaway vehicle using these cards, they might use a hacked card with false identification info. The police would be unable to identify the perpetrator without leaving the police station, interviewing witnesses, examining security camera records, dusting for fingerprints, etc.
In other words, the perpetrator would likely get away with his crime and wander the streets free to commit more crimes, as nobody in Boston would seriously expect the police there to go to those extremes, especially in the case of a crime like a mugging where the victim is not a bank, corporation, or the government itself.
Cheers!
Strat
"In California, you do not have to take a sobriety test in the field, but by applying for a license, you have agreed to take one at the police station, and if you don't, that is cause for revocation of your license."
Like I said above...yep, you may get your license revoked...lawyer up, and you can probably get a hardship license to drive to/from work...and grocery store, etc, till you are able to get your license back.
It sucks, but, is still better than a DWI on your record which can kill your credit rating...insurability, and even getting a new job might be hindered by it. You shouldn't drink and drive...but, they've lowered the bar so long now with BAC down to 0.08..you have to be ready to do what it takes to protect your livelyhood. If they want to solve drunk driving....outlaw bars where you by definition will drink...and then drive home. You don't see those bar's lots full of cars overnight by people taking alternate routes home, just not really feasible in the US.
Anyway, in a DWI pullover or any situation where you have to deal with the cops, don't help them gather evidence against you. Don't say anything....
Anyone in residing in Idaho (and possibly other states..didn't research that long) shouldn't assume they can refuse, because they can't. By driving on the roads of Idaho, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled that you've given "implied consent" to substance testing, and may be taken to a medical facility to have the test performed under restraint, even if no traffic accident or harm has been done to any person or property.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:ktZDaViQxJUJ:www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/diaz.pdf+involuntary+blood+alcohol+test&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us
Seems kinda ominous. With the current SCOTUS having made decisions like the Eminent Domain decision (Kelo), what might they decide in regards to this, if it came up? That by paying taxes you have given "implied consent" to wiretapping, surveillance, and search by agents of the federal government?
Cheers!
Strat
I taught high school and belonged to the union. The union must save their magical powers for schools other than the one I taught at. The only thing the union ever did for me was take money out of my paycheck.
Looks like we both got bitten by pro-NEA/pro-union shill-moderation. That seems to be the modus operandi these days for people that cannot defend their positions because they are indefensible. Just silence opposing ideas and opinions.
Yeah, those are the kind of people we want to determine how our kids are taught (or not, as it appears). Pity about that Streisand Effect though. Now the shill-moderation has just brought many times as much attention to these posts as they would have otherwise gotten. I guess critical thinking wouldn't be a requirement for being a shill, though.
Cheers!
Strat
The telcoms have a legitimate right to do whatever they want with their backbones. They payed and continue to pay for them.
Actually, the telecoms have been very, very heavily-funded by public funds and huge tax breaks to provide services.
Simply telling the telcoms that they no longer control what happens on their backbones is not an option, and the sooner everyone gets on the same page with this whole issue the better off we will all be.
Why? The telecoms have been heavily-regulated in just about every other area of their operations and services except this one, and for many of the same reasons. If they took the publics' money then they are obligated to put the interests of those taxpayers (their customers) at the top of their objectives. That they have failed is the reason to apply laws/regulations designed to make sure the customers' interests are not lost in marketing and monetization plans.
Cheers!
Strat
For starters abolish/disband or otherwise un-empower the NEA that makes it next to impossible to fire bad teachers and reward and retain the good ones. No amount of curricular advancement/improvement/modernization or money dumped into school districts' coffers will ever have a significant impact on the quality of education if the teachers are poor quality and/or uncaring. The NEA, IMO, has done more to hinder education than any other cause.
And before anyone starts with "But teachers are underpaid and *need* the unions!" I'd like to point out that the NEA has been around for a few decades now, and teachers are still underpaid.
How was my post a troll? C'mon mods! At least *pretend* to be fair! If you disagree with my take on the situation, then reply and tell everyone including me where I've erred. If all you can do is moder-ate instead of de-bate (hyphens intentional), then maybe it's time to re-examine your views.
Cheers!
Strat
For starters abolish/disband or otherwise un-empower the NEA that makes it next to impossible to fire bad teachers and reward and retain the good ones. No amount of curricular advancement/improvement/modernization or money dumped into school districts' coffers will ever have a significant impact on the quality of education if the teachers are poor quality and/or uncaring. The NEA, IMO, has done more to hinder education than any other cause.
And before anyone starts with "But teachers are underpaid and *need* the unions!" I'd like to point out that the NEA has been around for a few decades now, and teachers are still underpaid.
Cheers!
Strat
That's exactly it. We Americans have a very distorted perspective.
Used to be you could open a little produce shop, live above it, sell produce at a reasonable price and provide personalized service to your customers, and by that make enough money to support your family and pay your bills... and that was all you needed - you were successful, your business was successful, and you were happy.
You did that until you retired, and if your kids took over the store, great - if instead they went to college and became doctors or accountants or opened up a used furniture store and did like you did - great.
The American dream, you were all happy and successful.
NOW, if your produce store doesn't become "FRUITCO," with thousands of locations, grabbing the most market share and beating out "GREENSCO" to become the biggest produce corporation on the planet with diversified subsidiaries, then you're "failing."
Nationally we seem to have an all-or-nothing mentality.
Actually, I think that one of the bigger obstacles to small shops as you describe are the infrastructure requirements and costs to be in the market. The laws, legal liabilities, and regulations regarding any sort of business these days is centered around a large corporate entity.
Complying with regulations and laws regarding things like records, reporting requirements, insurance, certified inspection and licensing, zoning permits, labor laws, taxes, etc etc, on and on, cost a large corporation only a tiny fractional percentage of their gross income, but the percentage does not scale down linearly to small shops and is prohibitive. Not saying that all or any of the above is good or bad per se, just that in total, the costs of all of the burdens that are put in place to regulate and restrain the behaviors of big corporations are beyond the means of many small operators.
Cheers!
Strat
#237 - Plate voltage too low on demodulator tube.
Now you've done it!
Poor confused users will now be calling their senators, ISPs and their great-uncles that were TV repair techs in the '60s.
Cheers!
Strat
I truly believe this will be the next major battle in the arms race between those who wish to control information and people, and those that want freedom, and might very well be the last if they succeed. They've already committed themselves to this path and fired the first shot with the inclusion of the outboard "T.C." chip on many/most(?) motherboards. If they succeed in fully rolling this system out, times will surely get "interesting" indeed, in that bad old Chinese curse kind of way.
So how do we get around it? It sounds like hacktivism isn't enough here and the politicians have amply demonstrated that they refuse to listen to us. What next?
That's a very good question without a really good answer, and where the Chinese definition of "interesting" comes in.
If the ballot box and the jury box fails, then it might fall to groups of people willing to fight this, possibly the old fashioned way, like breaking into major telecom backbone data centers and fire-bombing multi-millions of dollars of infrastructure. Of course, the government will react to clamp down, possibly even calling out National Guard to guard critical infrastructure from our own citizens, possibly resulting in pitched battles and tragic deaths.
Of course, it might very well be that very few people will have the will to fight this. In that case, our country will take a sharp and deep dive into a non-free society once the government can have the kind of far-reaching and fine-grained control over information that this would allow.
Either way it turns out, we will truly live in "interesting times".
Cheers!
Strat
Oh yeah, mandatory Trusted Computing, the magic bullet. Because enumerating and safeguarding against all known good or bad software products has worked sooo well in corporate environments.
Apparently, you don't grok how "Trusted Computing" works. It works on a "white list" principal. If any of the software/OS/applications/BIOS/hardware isn't on the white list, then the machine in question will not certify as "trusted" when queried when you attempt to connect to your ISP or any other "trusted" machine, appliance, or service. Any time you attempt to connect, "T.C." authorization servers verify the "trusted" or "not trusted" state of the machine with a hash generated from the machines' hardware/software and the unique keys stored in the silicon against hashes/keys on a "T.C." authorization server.
Currently, the "T.C." chip is a discrete IC on the motherboard. It will soon be integrated directly onto the CPU wafer. There's no "getting to" the keys contained, as they never leave the IC, never resides in RAM or on a data bus. So unless you have advanced, very expensive equipment for reverse-engineering and fabricating microchips at the micron level you're out of luck. Even were someone to succeed, all that trouble and expense would only allow *one* machine to falsify a "trusted" state, and only until it was discovered and its' unique keys revoked at the T.C. authorization servers, all but "bricking" the machine as far as any use in conjunction with the "trusted" network.
I truly believe this will be the next major battle in the arms race between those who wish to control information and people, and those that want freedom, and might very well be the last if they succeed. They've already committed themselves to this path and fired the first shot with the inclusion of the outboard "T.C." chip on many/most(?) motherboards. If they succeed in fully rolling this system out, times will surely get "interesting" indeed, in that bad old Chinese curse kind of way.
Cheers!
Strat
Three digits, starting with a '6'.
"Please allow me to introduce myself...
I'm a man of wealth and taste..."
[collective gasp]
C'mon, c'mon! Just kiddin!
Cheers!
Strat
ugh, eye hate these puns..
Oh, come now!
Everyone knows the beauty of a pun is in the "Oy!" of the beholder.
Cheers!
Strat
So the ISPs now have another way to detect types of communication for throttling that they shouldn't normally have a problem with if they had actually kept to their agreements with the US Gov./the people to use the massive tax breaks they were given to build out their infrastructure so that..sort of like that whole deal was intended to do...we could've avoided this kind of problem where throttling would be necessary or desirable to begin with.
What next? You sign up for internet service and pay your money and they hand you a nice glossy screenshot of what your browser would be seeing if your computer was actually connected, because, you know, if they actually had to *transmit* packets, then the tubes would be congested and the pirates/terrists/hackers/crackers would win? What good is a connection to the internet if there's no "inter" in your net connection?
Cheers!
Strat
Pay a Congressman.
Cheers!
Strat
Sorry dude, but Fox isn't hiring at the moment. Try again in the fall.
Thanks,
Rupert Murdoch
Ah, another graduate of the "If ya can't fight 'em with facts, just make fun of 'em." school of political discourse. Can't let the facts get in the way of a good USA-bash, now can we?
Cheers!
Strat
In any other country there would be a real left wing and something close to your democrats or republicans as right wing or ultra right wing
All fine and good but remind me again, who's the political/economic/military superpower that provides for the defense of many, if not most, of those countries so they can afford to be that way?
Maybe being a left and super-left country is only possible when the country in question has the luxury of being shielded for multiple decades from having to fully provide for its' own defense, as many of the Western European countries have been.
The USA has many faults, no denying it...but there's no denying the USA has also done (and continues to do) far far more good for far more countries than any other country on the planet in all of history.
Cheers!
Strat
The right wing conservatives manipulate the public view using Fox news and their method of twisting and distorting facts, and informing the viewers with their personal 'paid for' opinions.
[sarcasm]What!?!? You mean conservatives have a whole *one* network that doesn't act like they're incapable of being non-evil in anything they say or do!?!? How can the liberal left ever expect to convince anyone of their views with such uneven, unfair odds?
After all, all the poor under-represented-by-media Democrats/liberals/leftists have are ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, PBS, MSNBC, NYT, along with most other print, broadcast, and electronic media on their side.
With such uneven odds, I can understand why there's been talk of reviving the Fairness Doctrine.[/sarcasm]
As to the Google-bombing, I see posts here talking about how the Republicans/conservatives have played some political media "dirty tricks" in the past and how that is justification for "preemptive/retaliatory strikes" like this one. So, I guess dirty tricks are OK as long as they're done by the side with the "correct" views?
The ends justifying the means, and stooping as low as your opponents has never been the way to achieving anything good, as shown repeatedly through history. If your tactics are no better than the other sides' are, what exactly is the difference in the end?
Cheers!
Strat
*-2* Flamebait!?!?
Wow..I must've hit a nerve. I replied to what *I* thought was flamebait, but I guess moderating on /. has now degenerated to modding-down anything one disagrees with. This only reinforces the idea that people of certain political views would prefer to silence opposing viewpoints. Nice shot with the ol' footgun there.
Cheers!
Strat
Seriously what the hell are you talking about?
Something that, quite obviously judging by rest of your post, you will refuse to see no matter what I or anyone else says or does.
"There are none so blind as those that will not see."
Cheers!
Strat
oh the irony of this post.
continue in your right-wing delusions. I'm already making a 5 year plan to vacate to a sane nation.
Fantastic! Don't be selfish though...take a few like-minded friends along. We'll do our best to muddle along without you.
We'll be fine.
Really.
Bon voyage!
Strat