"3taps Statement Regarding craigslist’s Misuse of the CFAA At craigslist’s urging, a federal court has recently interpreted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), known as the “worst law in technology,” to apply when an owner of a public website decides that it no longer wants an Internet user accessing its website. The court held that “the statute protects all information on any protected computer accessed ‘without authorization’ and nothing in that language prohibits a computer owner from selectively revoking authorization to access its website.” Order at 12. 3taps is obviously disappointed in the Judge’s ruling and believes that by making public information publicly available on the Internet, without a password, firewall, or other similar restriction, craigslist has authorized, and continues to authorize, everyone to access that information. 3taps believes that the CFAA was meant to protect private and confidential information and that it was never meant to be used to selectively criminalize accessing public websites and obtaining the public information found on those sites. Importantly, the Court noted that the “current broad reach of the CFAA may well have impacts on innovation, competition, and the general ‘openness’ of the internet . . . but it is for Congress to weigh the significance of those consequences and decide whether amendment would be prudent.” Order at 12. 3taps continues to urge Congress to clarify the scope of the CFAA so that companies like craigslist cannot use it as a tool to stifle competition, innovation, and access to public websites. While we disagree with the Court’s interpretation of the CFAA, we of course respect the Court’s ruling. Accordingly, 3taps will adhere to the current interpretation of the law and will immediately cease all access to craigslist’s servers. (Significantly, 3taps only began accessing craigslist’s servers because, as alleged in 3taps’ antitrust counterclaim, craigslist interfered with 3taps’ ability to source content through general search engines.) Although craigslist may use the CFAA as currently interpreted to prevent 3taps from accessing its servers, 3taps can continue to function because directly accessing these servers is only one of three ways in which the information in question can be obtained. The other two, crowdsourcing and public search results, require no such access to craigslist’s servers and thus obviate the need to engage in conduct that may implicate the CFAA. Going forward, 3taps will operate based on its understanding that if it does not access craigslist’s servers, it has a right to collect public information originally posted on craigslist’s website. In particular, 3taps reasserts four fundamental points:
3taps does not now scrape craigslist’s servers, and therefore, cannot be in violation of the CFAA.
3taps' indexing and caching of exchange posting data reduces (rather than increases) the net computing resources expended by craigslist and other publishers to deliver complex search results to end users.
As the Court previously held, craigslist cannot rely on its current Terms of Use to claim the right to enforce copyrights associated with user-generated ads posted on its website.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently confirmed that craigslist cannot trademark a peace sign – even if that peace sign is purple. See http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/ttabvue-77956067-EXA-24.pdf. 3taps and others cannot be harassed for using the peace sign to indicate where information was sourced. 3taps will hold a public event to demonstrate to any interested party that it is possible (despite assertions to the contrary) to obtain public information on the Internet without reliance on accessing a particular source website. 3taps believes that, by no
This is nothing new, except for the specific technologies involved. Stores have been doing similar things for as long as they have existed. For example, years ago Walmart was identifying what demographics specific customers belonged to based on the way they walked on the store cameras, and Target was doing it based on their purchasing habits.
You simply cannot avoid being tracked in our modern world, and you have to go to a lot of effort to even minimize it. For the longest time I did not have a Facebook account, until I realized that Facebook already has a large entry in the database for me based on other people tagging my name and email and following me around with their huge tracking network embedded in half of all websites.
They are both just companies doing the same stuff that companies normally do. None of it so far has really affected the consumers much. Neither of them is getting one up on the other either, so in the end they are just wasting their money. If people are unhappy with the way that corps work, we should be rallying to change the laws regulating them rather than wasting our energy debating the relative merits of common place aggressive troll lawsuits.
They probably don't care, and just didn't see a point in putting effort into bugging people. The reality is that its virtually impossible to get 30% of all Facebook users to even vote, let alone in agreement. In fact from stats I've seen, I don't even think 30% of facebook 'users' are active, let alone in the two day time frame they gave. Or put another way, if ever single user who logged into facebook during the vote had votes the same way, they'd be we'll short of the 30% requirement. The whole vote was just lip service to caring about what users think.
Lol wat? The iOS interface was derided on slashdot, probably by people like you, for being too tonka toy. It's got to be the easiest interface to use ever developed. 1 year old kids can figure out how to use it in minutes. On the other hand, no one seems capable of figuring out Windows 8 without significant confusion, and preferably someone telling them how to use it. Ignoring the relative merits of each interface once you are an expert at them, it's one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard to say that the learning curve for Windows 8 is the same as that for iOS.
Bobo Explores Light is an engaging, entertaining and extremely extensive app exploring light and its consequences. Sounds boring or technical, but they've managed to get an amazing amount of content (we forget how much light affects us and how weird it is!) into a very fun package.
I'd actually recommend an ipad mini. My kids have had an ipad 1 for years and absolutely love it, but I got them a mini and its much more suited to them. The littlest (2) looks hilarious carting the big ipad with protective case around... It's like half his size lol. Plus it's cheaper than a 2nd gen! Plus, the iPads can use the TV, kinda like a WiiU, so you don't lose too much from a console, and you gain a ton (like CHEAP apps and great educational software - my 4 year old learned how to spell almost entirely because she loves a spelling game on the ipad so much).
I have 3 times actually seen a cop driving in a car talking on their cell phone, despite a law here banning using a cell while driving. I even managed to get a video of it one of the times. I think the reason respect for cops has decreased so much over the last couple decades is that people are realizing they are hypocritical, power drunk assholes, and not just a few 'bad apples, but the majority of them.
Hilariously, I was just coming home on the metro, and I noticed the person sitting next to me was tapping away on an iPhone. Then I noticed the person right across from me was tapping on an iPhone too. I started to look around and realized that of the 15 or so people around me, 10 were actively using iPhones, 1 was using an Android, and the rest were not using phones. When I get home I'm greeted by this article and can't help but think: where are all these Android phones? The article itself supplies the answers: most of them are in China, and most of the ones in the west are cheap phones that people don't really use as 'smart' phones.
I'm not commenting my opinion on any of this, but its an interesting trend, and a reality check for the statistics of how well Android is doing. This isn't a simple Android or iPhone ecosystem, its a complex system of numerous players and phones, different usages, money making strategies and very fast changes. I certainly not see stats like this as the huge victory for Android that many want it to be.
I find it hilarious reading through the comments of people proclaiming that tablet gaming could never be as good because of some control issue, when it is clear these people have never actually played many good tablet games. I've been an avid gamer for decades and played numerous racing games, and a few of the tablet racing games have the best controls I've ever used. Buttons and tiny joysticks are just REALLY hard to use to steer a (simulated) car, whereas full screen tilt is awesome once you get a little practice. The good racing games even keep the horizon level while you turn the tablet. Plus with the ipad I can push the game to the tv screen and race there, and the tablet becomes the controller with info and maps on its screen. Someone else made the hilarious comment that "there's no way you're going to get anything [like] Civ IV" on a mobile device... I must have been hallucinating pretty good last night during my Civ gaming session on my tablet...
The reality is that game makers are beginning to learn how to make great games for mobile devices. The games are getting better, the controls more slick, and as people switch over all but the most hardcore quickly realize that mobile devices are the future of gaming. When I saw that the WiiU is going to be a tablet like controller for the tv, my first thought was that I had been doing almost that exact same thing for months already with my versatile tablet, why the heck would I want the WiiU? Really, once you get the controls figured out, the only other appeal of consoles is game titles, and that's changing, very very quickly.
The point is that if working 80-100 hours a week is the norm for those students, then many of them are going to suffer and be un healthy, and we as a society should not simply accept, condone or encourage that. I mean do the math: 100 hours of work in one week means 14.5 hours a day, every day. That's INSANE. Considering the average person needs 9 hours of sleep per night to stay healthy, that leaves them the choice of either not sleeping enough, or having 30 minutes of time away from work per day. No prob, it's just enough time for a shit and shower! You can eat while you work.
If there's a joke here, it's that anyone thinks its ok for this to be a reality check.
The summary is wrong. There is no app on ios, and in fact no way to do this on ios through an app. The 'script' is for fully fledged desktops. On ios they have instructions for how to setup wajam as your proxy. This is pretty basic stuff. iOS slandering at its best.
"it could actually make a difference" I'm sorry, what? What kind of difference do you expect it to make? Terrorist attacks on planes are EXTREMELY rare. I do not lose sleep over them. You and I are far, far more likely to die from a plane malfunction or pilot error than a terrorist. The only 'difference' I can see is yet another hoop to jump through at airports.
What choice do they have? You practically HAVE to have a bank account, or you can't get paid, pay bills easily, get a mortgage, and on and on. A person can hate the banks, distrust them, but have no real viable alternative. There is no practical way to avoid big business. Even if you focus your shopping exclusively on small shops (most of which are owned by large companies, unbeknownst to you), they get most of their goods from big business. My tax money goes to big business whether I want it to or not. There are no small telecoms or utility companies. Even if you move to the boonies and become a live-off-the-lander, some of your money still goes to big business through taxes, for seeds, and so forth.
There is no practical (maybe even possible) way of removing oneself from the reach of big business. That doesn't mean one likes it or trusts it.
There's a very simple reason developers are tending towards 'freemium' games: it makes more money (at least on ios). Let's be honest, as much as a developer may love making an app, if they are to invest the time and resources required to make it good, they need to get paid. So their options are ad supported, which often doesn't pay very well, a non-free app, which often won't get many downloads (unless you're a marketing guru), or IAP. IAP have the benefit of allowing a free app which gets lots of downloads, the possibility of ad generated revenue that can be disabled for a fee if the user wants, and the option for the USER to determine how much they want to give. It's (theoretically) win/win for developer and customer.
However, the kids apps are absolutely horrible. The apps themselves are usually quick hack jobs with some manipulative child psychology tricks in them. Adults often hate them and can't stand them, but the kids love them and beg and cry to get them. Then they dress up IAP in pretty buttons and what not so every thing the kid clicks on brings up a purchase window and the kid bugs the heck out of the parents to fix it... One slip on the parents part and they accidentally make a purchase.
Honestly, they need to go after the lecherous developers that make that trash, rather than ask apple to censor (yet more) apps from the app store.
You know, I have 2 children, and I'm f'ing sick and tired of people here on slashdot standing on their pulpits preaching about how others should raise their kids, or what they would do if they 'love' their children. It's the hardest damn job in the world to raise kids, and every single parent (whether you think so or not) loves their children. They do the best they are able and know how. One thing I can practically guarantee: if you haven't actually DONE what you are preaching that others should, then it doesn't work like you think it will. That's a basic lesson in life.
I love vaccines, and my comment is in no way specifically about them, but... I fundamentally disagree that the government should be in the business of 'protecting individuals from bad choices that other people make'. Freedom at its heart is about the ability to make choices, BAD choices if we want, without artificial hindrance from the government. Our society was based on the idea of punishing people for their actions, not someone else's judgement of their decisions. I know that mine is not a popular opinion, and everyone seems to want every other persons rights trampled to the ground, then that person thrown in jail forever (some ass rape would be good for them too), but it scares the shit out of me where our society is going. The last thing we as a people need right now is mandated vaccines.
Any person who performs surgery on another without proper training is likely mentally unstable, barring extraordinary circumstances. Anyways, this example is about action, not decisions. The appropriate comparison would be if the parent made the decision to not have surgery done. And yes, that decision should be (and is) within the parents rights. What should happen (and what does) is that the government takes the child away if the parent makes a grossly dangerous decision (such as not allowing surgery for a life threatening affliction). That's fine and good, in my opinion.
Are you seriously suggesting that a person needs to be in order to make a decision?
If the stakes are high enough, that does seem like a reasonable position to take.
It doesn't seem reasonable to me. I agree that its DESIRABLE for a person to be as highly informed as is practical to be, but not that they NEED to be. Do you think the government should step in and make decisions for you for everything that you are not an expert at?
You're disingenuously arguing this topic by focusing on just one of the points I raised (5). However, yes, parents are not always 'highly' informed and educated on all issues. Are you seriously suggesting that a person needs to be in order to make a decision?
Don't be a smartass; it doesn't help the conversation.
1) No one is more familiar and in a better position to understand a child than their parents. Parents spend huge amounts of time dealing with their child and learning their quirks, emotions, and knowing their history.
2) Parents expend vast, enormous amounts of resources raising their children, and are directly and massively affected by the decisions that affect their children.
3) Without a doubt and by orders of magnitude, parents are most invested and concerned about their children's well being. There is simply no comparison to the love and care a parent feels towards their children. If there are people who can be trusted to do their best for a child, it's their parents.
4) Parents are legally obligated to provide the resources necessary for a child until they are 18, and to deal with the results of that child.
5) Parents MAY not always be the most rational decision makers concerning their children, and MAY not be the most expert on the decision at hand.
The obvious conclusion from this information is that PARENTS, by large orders of magnitude, are the ones who should be making decisions for their children. They are the defacto most trusted, invested, and authoritative people capable of making the decisions. In my opinion, the government should only step in when it is clear that the parents are giving worse general and long term care than the alternative (IE foster homes, etc.). That line is very, very low.
Is there any chance you have the research you've done on other vaccinations, and can post it for others to read? I've done significant research myself, but the problem I always ran into was suppressed or redacted information, so I feel the conclusions I've come to are somewhat inaccurate.
In general however I've concluded basically the same thing as you: it's a risk assessment, and the risks on both sides (in the current world situation) are negligible. The added inconvenience is a factor for deciding to not get the vaccinations, although I have to admit my defacto position on medical procedures and drugs is to avoid unless there is compelling reason not to, and that is my largest deciding factor. Too many times I've witnessed medical procedures and drugs which were recommended and then discovered to be harmful.
Tablets do two primary things to improve on traditional methods of education and learning:
1) they provide an interactive, consistent, high availability, versatile environment which replaces alternative 'babysitters' such as the TV or game console. Let's be honest, if all kids had 2 parents giving 24 hours a day to them, we wouldn't need daycare, babysitters, or school, because they are all just supplements for parents. But parents need to work, make dinner, clean the house, change diapers, buy the groceries... And they run out of time and energy. A tablet with a good educational app is better than many of the readily available alternatives.
2) they have the ability to engage kids in a way that adults often struggle with while teaching certain (boring, non physical) content. I know that my very best efforts were barely enough to keep my daughter interested in learning letters for more than a couple minutes, yet playing an alphabet app with her could keep her interested for up to 30 minutes. Apps that simply are not available for desktops/laptops, in a format (touch) that is far superior, especially for young kids.
Slashdot Mirror
3Taps responds:
"3taps Statement Regarding craigslist’s Misuse of the CFAA
At craigslist’s urging, a federal court has recently interpreted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), known as the “worst law in technology,” to apply when an owner of a public website decides that it no longer wants an Internet user accessing its website. The court held that “the statute protects all information on any protected computer accessed ‘without authorization’ and nothing in that language prohibits a computer owner from selectively revoking authorization to access its website.” Order at 12. 3taps is obviously disappointed in the Judge’s ruling and believes that by making public information publicly available on the Internet, without a password, firewall, or other similar restriction, craigslist has authorized, and continues to authorize, everyone to access that information. 3taps believes that the CFAA was meant to protect private and confidential information and that it was never meant to be used to selectively criminalize accessing public websites and obtaining the public information found on those sites. Importantly, the Court noted that the “current broad reach of the CFAA may well have impacts on innovation, competition, and the general ‘openness’ of the internet . . . but it is for Congress to weigh the significance of those consequences and decide whether amendment would be prudent.” Order at 12. 3taps continues to urge Congress to clarify the scope of the CFAA so that companies like craigslist cannot use it as a tool to stifle competition, innovation, and access to public websites.
While we disagree with the Court’s interpretation of the CFAA, we of course respect the Court’s ruling. Accordingly, 3taps will adhere to the current interpretation of the law and will immediately cease all access to craigslist’s servers. (Significantly, 3taps only began accessing craigslist’s servers because, as alleged in 3taps’ antitrust counterclaim, craigslist interfered with 3taps’ ability to source content through general search engines.)
Although craigslist may use the CFAA as currently interpreted to prevent 3taps from accessing its servers, 3taps can continue to function because directly accessing these servers is only one of three ways in which the information in question can be obtained. The other two, crowdsourcing and public search results, require no such access to craigslist’s servers and thus obviate the need to engage in conduct that may implicate the CFAA.
Going forward, 3taps will operate based on its understanding that if it does not access craigslist’s servers, it has a right to collect public information originally posted on craigslist’s website. In particular, 3taps reasserts four fundamental points:
3taps does not now scrape craigslist’s servers, and therefore, cannot be in violation of the CFAA.
3taps' indexing and caching of exchange posting data reduces (rather than increases) the net computing resources expended by craigslist and other publishers to deliver complex search results to end users.
As the Court previously held, craigslist cannot rely on its current Terms of Use to claim the right to enforce copyrights associated with user-generated ads posted on its website.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office recently confirmed that craigslist cannot trademark a peace sign – even if that peace sign is purple. See http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/ttabvue-77956067-EXA-24.pdf. 3taps and others cannot be harassed for using the peace sign to indicate where information was sourced.
3taps will hold a public event to demonstrate to any interested party that it is possible (despite assertions to the contrary) to obtain public information on the Internet without reliance on accessing a particular source website. 3taps believes that, by no
This is nothing new, except for the specific technologies involved. Stores have been doing similar things for as long as they have existed. For example, years ago Walmart was identifying what demographics specific customers belonged to based on the way they walked on the store cameras, and Target was doing it based on their purchasing habits.
You simply cannot avoid being tracked in our modern world, and you have to go to a lot of effort to even minimize it. For the longest time I did not have a Facebook account, until I realized that Facebook already has a large entry in the database for me based on other people tagging my name and email and following me around with their huge tracking network embedded in half of all websites.
Check out the new Slashdot iPad app
They are both just companies doing the same stuff that companies normally do. None of it so far has really affected the consumers much. Neither of them is getting one up on the other either, so in the end they are just wasting their money. If people are unhappy with the way that corps work, we should be rallying to change the laws regulating them rather than wasting our energy debating the relative merits of common place aggressive troll lawsuits.
Check out the new Slashdot iPad app.
MS is as doomed as IBM. A company of such immense size does not disappear, its as simple as that. MS will be around for a long, long time.
They probably don't care, and just didn't see a point in putting effort into bugging people. The reality is that its virtually impossible to get 30% of all Facebook users to even vote, let alone in agreement. In fact from stats I've seen, I don't even think 30% of facebook 'users' are active, let alone in the two day time frame they gave. Or put another way, if ever single user who logged into facebook during the vote had votes the same way, they'd be we'll short of the 30% requirement. The whole vote was just lip service to caring about what users think.
Lol wat?
The iOS interface was derided on slashdot, probably by people like you, for being too tonka toy. It's got to be the easiest interface to use ever developed. 1 year old kids can figure out how to use it in minutes. On the other hand, no one seems capable of figuring out Windows 8 without significant confusion, and preferably someone telling them how to use it. Ignoring the relative merits of each interface once you are an expert at them, it's one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard to say that the learning curve for Windows 8 is the same as that for iOS.
Bobo Explores Light is an engaging, entertaining and extremely extensive app exploring light and its consequences. Sounds boring or technical, but they've managed to get an amazing amount of content (we forget how much light affects us and how weird it is!) into a very fun package.
The best I've found is MonkeyMath (for math and numbers). My daughter got it when she was 3 and still loves it, a year later.
I'd actually recommend an ipad mini. My kids have had an ipad 1 for years and absolutely love it, but I got them a mini and its much more suited to them. The littlest (2) looks hilarious carting the big ipad with protective case around... It's like half his size lol. Plus it's cheaper than a 2nd gen! Plus, the iPads can use the TV, kinda like a WiiU, so you don't lose too much from a console, and you gain a ton (like CHEAP apps and great educational software - my 4 year old learned how to spell almost entirely because she loves a spelling game on the ipad so much).
I have 3 times actually seen a cop driving in a car talking on their cell phone, despite a law here banning using a cell while driving. I even managed to get a video of it one of the times. I think the reason respect for cops has decreased so much over the last couple decades is that people are realizing they are hypocritical, power drunk assholes, and not just a few 'bad apples, but the majority of them.
Hilariously, I was just coming home on the metro, and I noticed the person sitting next to me was tapping away on an iPhone. Then I noticed the person right across from me was tapping on an iPhone too. I started to look around and realized that of the 15 or so people around me, 10 were actively using iPhones, 1 was using an Android, and the rest were not using phones. When I get home I'm greeted by this article and can't help but think: where are all these Android phones? The article itself supplies the answers: most of them are in China, and most of the ones in the west are cheap phones that people don't really use as 'smart' phones.
I'm not commenting my opinion on any of this, but its an interesting trend, and a reality check for the statistics of how well Android is doing. This isn't a simple Android or iPhone ecosystem, its a complex system of numerous players and phones, different usages, money making strategies and very fast changes. I certainly not see stats like this as the huge victory for Android that many want it to be.
I find it hilarious reading through the comments of people proclaiming that tablet gaming could never be as good because of some control issue, when it is clear these people have never actually played many good tablet games. I've been an avid gamer for decades and played numerous racing games, and a few of the tablet racing games have the best controls I've ever used. Buttons and tiny joysticks are just REALLY hard to use to steer a (simulated) car, whereas full screen tilt is awesome once you get a little practice. The good racing games even keep the horizon level while you turn the tablet. Plus with the ipad I can push the game to the tv screen and race there, and the tablet becomes the controller with info and maps on its screen. Someone else made the hilarious comment that "there's no way you're going to get anything [like] Civ IV" on a mobile device... I must have been hallucinating pretty good last night during my Civ gaming session on my tablet...
The reality is that game makers are beginning to learn how to make great games for mobile devices. The games are getting better, the controls more slick, and as people switch over all but the most hardcore quickly realize that mobile devices are the future of gaming. When I saw that the WiiU is going to be a tablet like controller for the tv, my first thought was that I had been doing almost that exact same thing for months already with my versatile tablet, why the heck would I want the WiiU? Really, once you get the controls figured out, the only other appeal of consoles is game titles, and that's changing, very very quickly.
The point is that if working 80-100 hours a week is the norm for those students, then many of them are going to suffer and be un healthy, and we as a society should not simply accept, condone or encourage that. I mean do the math: 100 hours of work in one week means 14.5 hours a day, every day. That's INSANE. Considering the average person needs 9 hours of sleep per night to stay healthy, that leaves them the choice of either not sleeping enough, or having 30 minutes of time away from work per day. No prob, it's just enough time for a shit and shower! You can eat while you work.
If there's a joke here, it's that anyone thinks its ok for this to be a reality check.
The summary is wrong.
There is no app on ios, and in fact no way to do this on ios through an app. The 'script' is for fully fledged desktops. On ios they have instructions for how to setup wajam as your proxy.
This is pretty basic stuff. iOS slandering at its best.
"it could actually make a difference"
I'm sorry, what? What kind of difference do you expect it to make?
Terrorist attacks on planes are EXTREMELY rare. I do not lose sleep over them. You and I are far, far more likely to die from a plane malfunction or pilot error than a terrorist. The only 'difference' I can see is yet another hoop to jump through at airports.
Yes, because a real train is exactly as convenient and practical as driving my car on the highway. Should I get off your lawn now?
What choice do they have?
You practically HAVE to have a bank account, or you can't get paid, pay bills easily, get a mortgage, and on and on. A person can hate the banks, distrust them, but have no real viable alternative.
There is no practical way to avoid big business. Even if you focus your shopping exclusively on small shops (most of which are owned by large companies, unbeknownst to you), they get most of their goods from big business. My tax money goes to big business whether I want it to or not. There are no small telecoms or utility companies. Even if you move to the boonies and become a live-off-the-lander, some of your money still goes to big business through taxes, for seeds, and so forth.
There is no practical (maybe even possible) way of removing oneself from the reach of big business. That doesn't mean one likes it or trusts it.
There's a very simple reason developers are tending towards 'freemium' games: it makes more money (at least on ios). Let's be honest, as much as a developer may love making an app, if they are to invest the time and resources required to make it good, they need to get paid. So their options are ad supported, which often doesn't pay very well, a non-free app, which often won't get many downloads (unless you're a marketing guru), or IAP. IAP have the benefit of allowing a free app which gets lots of downloads, the possibility of ad generated revenue that can be disabled for a fee if the user wants, and the option for the USER to determine how much they want to give. It's (theoretically) win/win for developer and customer.
However, the kids apps are absolutely horrible. The apps themselves are usually quick hack jobs with some manipulative child psychology tricks in them. Adults often hate them and can't stand them, but the kids love them and beg and cry to get them. Then they dress up IAP in pretty buttons and what not so every thing the kid clicks on brings up a purchase window and the kid bugs the heck out of the parents to fix it... One slip on the parents part and they accidentally make a purchase.
Honestly, they need to go after the lecherous developers that make that trash, rather than ask apple to censor (yet more) apps from the app store.
You know, I have 2 children, and I'm f'ing sick and tired of people here on slashdot standing on their pulpits preaching about how others should raise their kids, or what they would do if they 'love' their children. It's the hardest damn job in the world to raise kids, and every single parent (whether you think so or not) loves their children. They do the best they are able and know how. One thing I can practically guarantee: if you haven't actually DONE what you are preaching that others should, then it doesn't work like you think it will. That's a basic lesson in life.
I love vaccines, and my comment is in no way specifically about them, but...
I fundamentally disagree that the government should be in the business of 'protecting individuals from bad choices that other people make'. Freedom at its heart is about the ability to make choices, BAD choices if we want, without artificial hindrance from the government. Our society was based on the idea of punishing people for their actions, not someone else's judgement of their decisions. I know that mine is not a popular opinion, and everyone seems to want every other persons rights trampled to the ground, then that person thrown in jail forever (some ass rape would be good for them too), but it scares the shit out of me where our society is going.
The last thing we as a people need right now is mandated vaccines.
Any person who performs surgery on another without proper training is likely mentally unstable, barring extraordinary circumstances. Anyways, this example is about action, not decisions. The appropriate comparison would be if the parent made the decision to not have surgery done. And yes, that decision should be (and is) within the parents rights. What should happen (and what does) is that the government takes the child away if the parent makes a grossly dangerous decision (such as not allowing surgery for a life threatening affliction). That's fine and good, in my opinion.
Are you seriously suggesting that a person needs to be in order to make a decision?
If the stakes are high enough, that does seem like a reasonable position to take.
It doesn't seem reasonable to me. I agree that its DESIRABLE for a person to be as highly informed as is practical to be, but not that they NEED to be. Do you think the government should step in and make decisions for you for everything that you are not an expert at?
You're disingenuously arguing this topic by focusing on just one of the points I raised (5).
However, yes, parents are not always 'highly' informed and educated on all issues. Are you seriously suggesting that a person needs to be in order to make a decision?
Don't be a smartass; it doesn't help the conversation.
1) No one is more familiar and in a better position to understand a child than their parents. Parents spend huge amounts of time dealing with their child and learning their quirks, emotions, and knowing their history.
2) Parents expend vast, enormous amounts of resources raising their children, and are directly and massively affected by the decisions that affect their children.
3) Without a doubt and by orders of magnitude, parents are most invested and concerned about their children's well being. There is simply no comparison to the love and care a parent feels towards their children. If there are people who can be trusted to do their best for a child, it's their parents.
4) Parents are legally obligated to provide the resources necessary for a child until they are 18, and to deal with the results of that child.
5) Parents MAY not always be the most rational decision makers concerning their children, and MAY not be the most expert on the decision at hand.
The obvious conclusion from this information is that PARENTS, by large orders of magnitude, are the ones who should be making decisions for their children. They are the defacto most trusted, invested, and authoritative people capable of making the decisions. In my opinion, the government should only step in when it is clear that the parents are giving worse general and long term care than the alternative (IE foster homes, etc.). That line is very, very low.
Is there any chance you have the research you've done on other vaccinations, and can post it for others to read? I've done significant research myself, but the problem I always ran into was suppressed or redacted information, so I feel the conclusions I've come to are somewhat inaccurate.
In general however I've concluded basically the same thing as you: it's a risk assessment, and the risks on both sides (in the current world situation) are negligible. The added inconvenience is a factor for deciding to not get the vaccinations, although I have to admit my defacto position on medical procedures and drugs is to avoid unless there is compelling reason not to, and that is my largest deciding factor. Too many times I've witnessed medical procedures and drugs which were recommended and then discovered to be harmful.
Tablets do two primary things to improve on traditional methods of education and learning:
1) they provide an interactive, consistent, high availability, versatile environment which replaces alternative 'babysitters' such as the TV or game console. Let's be honest, if all kids had 2 parents giving 24 hours a day to them, we wouldn't need daycare, babysitters, or school, because they are all just supplements for parents. But parents need to work, make dinner, clean the house, change diapers, buy the groceries... And they run out of time and energy. A tablet with a good educational app is better than many of the readily available alternatives.
2) they have the ability to engage kids in a way that adults often struggle with while teaching certain (boring, non physical) content. I know that my very best efforts were barely enough to keep my daughter interested in learning letters for more than a couple minutes, yet playing an alphabet app with her could keep her interested for up to 30 minutes. Apps that simply are not available for desktops/laptops, in a format (touch) that is far superior, especially for young kids.