So there is a demographic that can afford computers with wireless capabilities but cannot afford monthly ISP fees? I'm not saying such folk don't exist; I'm saying it's probably a very small niche and probably shouldn't be factored into your scenario.
If you just want to surf the net, email, write letters, etc. you can get a complete system capable of that for less than $200. It may only be a pentium or pentium 11, running windows 98 (or a linux) but it will work. If you ask around you can probably get most of a system for nothing, there are a LOT of superceded computers out there. Add $30 for a network card. The only part most people would take notice of would be the monitor, and a decent second hand one can be less than $100.
You have to look at the demographic - have a good week at bingo, or put $10 bucks on a winner and you might buy the kids a cheap computer, but sign up for an ongoing $30 ~ 40 a month for access - no way.
I don't think this demographic is as small as you seem to think. In fact, I think it may big a bigger demographic than the slashdotter type.
it's not "released when it dies" it's released when it either burns or decomposes. The carbon came out of the air as CO2 to make wood/leaves/roots and is released as CO2 when the wood/leaves/roots burns or rots. Its exact because the total amount of carbon doesn't change, it just gets moved around.
If it absorbs x molecules of CO2 then it will contain x atoms of carbon in whatever chemical form. The O2 is released to, or comes from, the atmosphere. Trees rarely contain element transmutation equipment, so whatever atoms you start with, you finish up with as well. They are just chemically rearranged. CO2 = C + O2 C + O2 = CO2 or even,
12CO2 + 6H20 = 2C6O6H6 + 9O2
Re:Wood Ipod (guilt)
on
Real Wood iPod
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Strangely enough, converting an entire tree into CO2 by either burning or decomposition will release exactly the net amount of CO2 that the tree absorbed over its life. Weird huh?
You can do what ever you damn well like to the odometer, seatbelts, licence plates or windscreen wipers. What you can't do is drive an unsafe car on public roads or make fraudulent claims about the mileage when selling it.
Do you really not see the difference between "You will not endanger other people on public roads" and "We will invade your home and determine what you can do with your own property."?
Mostly that's because Pepsi and Chevrolet are not common words, they are proper nouns. You could call a computer a Lemonade or (probably) a Ford,(as long as Ford don't actually make computers, and your logo doesn't look like theirs.) I think they also consider the reason you want to call it something, e.g. if your computer was designed to communicate between other systems in a network you would have more chance of getting away with calling it a Ford than if it was a driving simulator.
The poster you are replying to is fairly obviously from the USA. I haven't read it in a while, but I'm fairly sure that the Constitution of the USA does say exactly what he claimed, ie. that the constitution of the USA does NOT recognize a natural right of copyright, it, like patents, is explicitly a Government-granted, time-limited monopoly solely for the purpose of encouraging progress in the arts and sciences.
And since the US definitions are the ones getting rammed through everyone else, it is relevant elsewhere.
No idiot, no-one is breaking in or stealing anything. The content is still there. Robots.txt is an electronic version of the little notice at the front of books which states under what conditions you can copy the book, or parts of it. If you don't put the notice there then you don't care to protect your content.
Do you have any idea how little damage an A-bomb would do to a mountain? If you could bury a 50 MT H-bomb half a mile inside you might make a noticable difference, but an A-bomb on the surface would scorch a few rocks.
That is not completely true.
Selection within existing variation can occur extremely rapidly, down to a single generation if the pressure is high enough. What is slow is the creation of new variation within a species. As a contrived example, the average height of a western male is about 5'9". If aliens landed tomorrow and executed every male less than 6'2", and kept that up as a matter of policy, within one or two generations the average height would be drastically higher (but with less variation). Sufficient evolutionary pressure can rapidly push the average of any trait almost to one of the extremes of the variation that existed before the pressure was applied.
He was talking about a world where technology has eliminated scarcity. I can see large groups of people combining to do things for free in such a world. There will still be people of all skill/creativity levels, including charismatic, visionary leaders who will be able to get a large following to help in the realization of their dreams. What will change is that people will work for someone who inspires them, rather than someone who pays them. Will these people be a minority ? - Definitely, but they will be a large enough minority to still produce more and better art of all types than our society currently does. I also wouldn't expect it to always be the same people, either. Some will get tired or distracted and will leave, others will get bored and begin helping. In such a world, reputation will become the new social currency. 'I worked on Wilson's "Schoedinger's Cat"' will get people slapping you on the back and shouting you (free) beers.
Not being able to skip ads/disabling controls etc. has to be at least partly the DVD players fault. Has anybody looked at hacking the firmware so that discs can't over-ride the DVD player controls?
Same in Oz. Though there was one guy who got off because when they tried to take a blood sample he insisted they take it from his big toe, and the doctor refused. Since he hadn't refused the test, but they had no sample, he got off. I think they changed the law after that to specify where the sample was drawn from.
The flip side of purging logs is that you are unable to provide evidence that such-and-such activity did not occur on your servers.
Ah Yes, the old argument of guilty until proven innocent. Justice reigns.
They don't HAVE the identity. The book was borrowed by Mr $20. I would assume that anyone who turns up with the book and card could collect the money too.
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So there is a demographic that can afford computers with wireless capabilities but cannot afford monthly ISP fees? I'm not saying such folk don't exist; I'm saying it's probably a very small niche and probably shouldn't be factored into your scenario.
If you just want to surf the net, email, write letters, etc. you can get a complete system capable of that for less than $200. It may only be a pentium or pentium 11, running windows 98 (or a linux) but it will work. If you ask around you can probably get most of a system for nothing, there are a LOT of superceded computers out there. Add $30 for a network card. The only part most people would take notice of would be the monitor, and a decent second hand one can be less than $100.
You have to look at the demographic - have a good week at bingo, or put $10 bucks on a winner and you might buy the kids a cheap computer, but sign up for an ongoing $30 ~ 40 a month for access - no way.
I don't think this demographic is as small as you seem to think. In fact, I think it may big a bigger demographic than the slashdotter type.
it's not "released when it dies" it's released when it either burns or decomposes. The carbon came out of the air as CO2 to make wood/leaves/roots and is released as CO2 when the wood/leaves/roots burns or rots. Its exact because the total amount of carbon doesn't change, it just gets moved around.
If it absorbs x molecules of CO2 then it will contain x atoms of carbon in whatever chemical form. The O2 is released to, or comes from, the atmosphere. Trees rarely contain element transmutation equipment, so whatever atoms you start with, you finish up with as well. They are just chemically rearranged.
CO2 = C + O2
C + O2 = CO2
or even,
12CO2 + 6H20 = 2C6O6H6 + 9O2
Strangely enough, converting an entire tree into CO2 by either burning or decomposition will release exactly the net amount of CO2 that the tree absorbed over its life. Weird huh?
You can do what ever you damn well like to the odometer, seatbelts, licence plates or windscreen wipers. What you can't do is drive an unsafe car on public roads or make fraudulent claims about the mileage when selling it.
Do you really not see the difference between "You will not endanger other people on public roads" and "We will invade your home and determine what you can do with your own property."?
It wasn't over the actual bomber, it was over a line of toy models they were making.
Mostly that's because Pepsi and Chevrolet are not common words, they are proper nouns. You could call a computer a Lemonade or (probably) a Ford,(as long as Ford don't actually make computers, and your logo doesn't look like theirs.)
I think they also consider the reason you want to call it something, e.g. if your computer was designed to communicate between other systems in a network you would have more chance of getting away with calling it a Ford than if it was a driving simulator.
With an iron blade? That would be... you know... ...
...Ferrous?
I would think everyone from the next province would walk their dogs in your province.
The poster you are replying to is fairly obviously from the USA.
I haven't read it in a while, but I'm fairly sure that the Constitution of the USA does say exactly what he claimed, ie. that the constitution of the USA does NOT recognize a natural right of copyright, it, like patents, is explicitly a Government-granted, time-limited monopoly solely for the purpose of encouraging progress in the arts and sciences.
And since the US definitions are the ones getting rammed through everyone else, it is relevant elsewhere.
No, and the device I'm typing this on is not a person employed to perform calculations. I still call it a computer.
:)
It's not yet a person. Give moore's law a few more generations and the old definition might be back
No idiot, no-one is breaking in or stealing anything. The content is still there.
Robots.txt is an electronic version of the little notice at the front of books which states under what conditions you can copy the book, or parts of it. If you don't put the notice there then you don't care to protect your content.
They do ask permission. They say "Hello Mr Robots.txt, am I allowed to copy this?", and Mr Robots.txt says either "Yes" or "No".
If my country commits attrocities, it doesn't give you the right to kill me.
Actually, under the rules of war, it does. You don't even have to commit atrocities, just be at war. Americans call it "collateral damage".
Do you have any idea how little damage an A-bomb would do to a mountain?
If you could bury a 50 MT H-bomb half a mile inside you might make a noticable difference, but an A-bomb on the surface would scorch a few rocks.
If you're good enough, you set your own rules.
That's easy - you just analyse the subtitles.
It's very bright.
That is not completely true.
Selection within existing variation can occur extremely rapidly, down to a single generation if the pressure is high enough. What is slow is the creation of new variation within a species.
As a contrived example, the average height of a western male is about 5'9". If aliens landed tomorrow and executed every male less than 6'2", and kept that up as a matter of policy, within one or two generations the average height would be drastically higher (but with less variation).
Sufficient evolutionary pressure can rapidly push the average of any trait almost to one of the extremes of the variation that existed before the pressure was applied.
He was talking about a world where technology has eliminated scarcity. I can see large groups of people combining to do things for free in such a world. There will still be people of all skill/creativity levels, including charismatic, visionary leaders who will be able to get a large following to help in the realization of their dreams. What will change is that people will work for someone who inspires them, rather than someone who pays them.
Will these people be a minority ? - Definitely, but they will be a large enough minority to still produce more and better art of all types than our society currently does.
I also wouldn't expect it to always be the same people, either. Some will get tired or distracted and will leave, others will get bored and begin helping.
In such a world, reputation will become the new social currency. 'I worked on Wilson's "Schoedinger's Cat"' will get people slapping you on the back and shouting you (free) beers.
Not being able to skip ads/disabling controls etc. has to be at least partly the DVD players fault. Has anybody looked at hacking the firmware so that discs can't over-ride the DVD player controls?
Same in Oz. Though there was one guy who got off because when they tried to take a blood sample he insisted they take it from his big toe, and the doctor refused. Since he hadn't refused the test, but they had no sample, he got off. I think they changed the law after that to specify where the sample was drawn from.
The flip side of purging logs is that you are unable to provide evidence that such-and-such activity did not occur on your servers.
Ah Yes, the old argument of guilty until proven innocent. Justice reigns.
They don't HAVE the identity. The book was borrowed by Mr $20.
I would assume that anyone who turns up with the book and card could collect the money too.
I'm not sure what the top 5% pay, but the top 1% pay NO taxes.