...catching up with the rest of the world, please replace all your units of currency under $5 with coins. There's nothing stupider than trying to feed paper bills into a vending machine so you can buy 355 ml of pop. Er, I mean 12 ounces of soda. Or coke. Whatever. Get rid of the bills.
In principle, there's no reason to think the author can't support itself just because his books don't go for money -- in the past plenty of authors managed to survive without copyright.
My brother's an author - If his 'books don't go for money' he doesn't put food on the table.
Read the book "Against intellectual monopoly"
IMHO, IP *does* imply scarcity - If my brother spends a year writing a unique book, and you derive pleasure from reading it then you should compensate him.
Live performance, commissioned work, patronage, SPP, etc, etc. There are plenty of alternatives.
Alright, here's one example: I like to listen to talking books in the car. If the author wasn't compensated he wouldn't be able to write more books. How can an author be compensated for talking books if there's no copyright? Who is going to 'commission' the next John Grisham or Stephen King?
As I understand it, Canada may not be such a good choice as a hub anymore. Any flight over U.S. airspace is subject to the U.S. no-fly list, along with who knows how many other conditions.
That's true, but as of today that's the only other 'condition' (I live in Canada & I'm a plane geek). So while I agree it's not ideal, at least a foreign national's not fingerprinted. If the no-fly list is an issue it's best to stay south of the Rio Grande and use MEX as your hub.
There's a simple solution - Don't got to the USA! I'm not an American citizen, and if I don't like the rules for getting into the US, I won't go. When I wanted to visit Egypt and Jordan I had to submit a photograph of myself - No idea where that photo is now, but that was the price of admission.
Some might argue you need to transit through American airports to get to various destinations (i.e. Spain => South America), but that's a very rare case and you can usually use Canada as a transit point.
I've got decent speed data connectivity anywhere there's a Sprint cell network
I suspect if you'd been with FEMA in hurricane-battered New Orleans you might have had a problem. Or with the FBI at some Militia compound in rural Montana. Or...
Why would government people need to be dragging this stuff home on their laptops anyway?
It's not 'dragging this stuff home', it's people who go out in the field to do their job - One simple example is FEMA. When they go to a disaster they take along thousands of laptops in order to register people who need aid. There isn't a LAN they can "SSH into" and they can't phone this stuff in. Another example might be the IRS who would visit individuals and businesses to perform audits.... The list goes on.
there really is no speed improvement in putting your passport through a barcode reader
True, but this doesn't address the other issue: Making the US Passport harder to forge. It's my understanding that's the primary reason for going RF/ID, not speed.
As a side note, does anyone else who's taken physics see the issue with calling it "Satellite Radio" being as how it uses microwaves and not 'radio' waves?
The one I laugh at is "wireless cable" or "satellite cable" as in 'call your wireless cable provider.'
you always get some jackass who talk at top volume on their mobiles for hours
Anyone ever figured out why people talk louder on cellphones? Are they actually talking louder, or is it just a perception we have? Is it because on of their ears isn't available to hear back their loud talking so they compensate? A J. Seinfeld would say, "What's the deal?"
I'm in Canada, and the pool of online retailers here is still fairly small, so one of the first things I do with an eBay search is look for items 'located in Canada' (no duties, no customs brokerage fees, no incorrectly filled out waybills etc.). It's a great eBay feature which allows me to find things I might not otherwise locate from a Canadian e-tailer.
However, eBay Express doesn't support transactions outside of the USA, so I visited the site once and never went back.
I don't hate India. I hate the companies that route my calls there
The problem is this: People shop based on price - If company X charged $20 more per monitor than Dell but had 'western' tech support, people would still order from Dell. It's leg legroom on airlines - People claim they want better leg room, but when an airline like AA offered more legroom for a higher ticket price, everyone flew the cheaper airline and crushed themselves in like sardines.
And I'm only 36. I personally want- as a minimum- adaptive cruise control tied to a proximity alarm. I want infrared lasers shooting out 8 ways from my car, measuring distance- and a heads-up-display readout plus audible alarms.
I'm 39 and I don't want any of that crap (well, I suppose cruise control is handy, but that's it). I can't believe all the bells and whistles bloatparts that they put in cars now. If you can't back up without a TV camera and sonar then you shouldn't be backing up. There's a warehouse around the corner from me where these guys back up fifty-foot big rigs *around a corner* and into a loading bay using just their mirrors - No stinkin' sonar for them.
My 1988 Nissan 4x4 pickup has a manual gearbox, manual transfer case, manual windows, a manual speedometer, no heated seats, no LCD in the dash. There's a computer, but it's there for emissions controls, not to run the LAN that controls the tail-lights. The truck's staring down 300,000 kms and everything still 'just works'. If I wanted to buy that truck today from Nissan I can't - I have to have power windows and AC and every other piece of crap you can imagine.
Even if minivans get marginally better mileage than SUVs, they still both have very poor (passenger*miles)/gallon
What puzzles me is why north america doesn't see more 'compact' minivans like you see in europe / asia. These are basically minivans built on a small pickup chassis. They take a while go zero to sixty, but get great gas mileage.
Microso$t just can't win around these parts. Can you imagine the hue and cry of MONOPOLY MONOPOLY if MS required hardware and driver certification in order for the product to run under Windows. 'Poor little so and so can't bring his new joystick to market because he can't afford the $25,000 cost of the "Microsoft Hardware Certification" - Isn't MS evil??!' and so forth.
Stomach was generated for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan
Yes, by successfully convincing the American public that the troops were defending American and Americans, and avenging 9/11. There's no effective way of selling the notion of tens-of-thousands of American boys being killed trying to liberate North Koreans from opression.
The "UN" has no police force. The only way the UN can enforce anything is if the US agrees to go in as the primary backer. A case in Point is Gulf War I....and there's no stomach for "American Boys" to die freeing impoverished North Koreans.
But what? Does America really have the stomach to have tens-of-thousands of their 'boys' (i.e. soldiers) die in an attempt to liberate north korea? And what if that nut-job responds with his supposed nukes? I suspect the only way would be the death of Kim combined with the people having the will to rise up themselves.
That's bang-on. Read an interesting article the other week (Slate.com, maybe?) that basically said that while Darfur is a travesty, it's Disneyland (with no queues) compared to the concentration camps in North Korea. Yet nothing can be done.
Slashdot Mirror
I think we've got something, sir. The report is only a fragment from a probe droid in the sol system, but it's the best lead we've had.
We have thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy. I want proof, not leads!
The visuals indicate life readings.
It could mean anything. If we followed every lead...
But, sir, the sol system is supposed to be devoid of humaoid forms.
That's it. The humans are there.
There are so many uncharted worlds...
That is the system! Set your course for the sol system. General, prepare your men!
...catching up with the rest of the world, please replace all your units of currency under $5 with coins. There's nothing stupider than trying to feed paper bills into a vending machine so you can buy 355 ml of pop. Er, I mean 12 ounces of soda. Or coke. Whatever. Get rid of the bills.
My brother's an author - If his 'books don't go for money' he doesn't put food on the table.
Read the book "Against intellectual monopoly"
IMHO, IP *does* imply scarcity - If my brother spends a year writing a unique book, and you derive pleasure from reading it then you should compensate him.
Alright, here's one example: I like to listen to talking books in the car. If the author wasn't compensated he wouldn't be able to write more books. How can an author be compensated for talking books if there's no copyright? Who is going to 'commission' the next John Grisham or Stephen King?
Without copyright, how does an artist put bread on the table? How do we expect them to pay the rent?
If advertising on google didn't work, people wouldn't buy ads. However, the advertising does work, so Google makes Gobs of Cash.
That's true, but as of today that's the only other 'condition' (I live in Canada & I'm a plane geek). So while I agree it's not ideal, at least a foreign national's not fingerprinted. If the no-fly list is an issue it's best to stay south of the Rio Grande and use MEX as your hub.
Some might argue you need to transit through American airports to get to various destinations (i.e. Spain => South America), but that's a very rare case and you can usually use Canada as a transit point.
Interesting. Han Solo and Princess Leia's mother together in one movie...
I suspect if you'd been with FEMA in hurricane-battered New Orleans you might have had a problem. Or with the FBI at some Militia compound in rural Montana. Or...
It's not 'dragging this stuff home', it's people who go out in the field to do their job - One simple example is FEMA. When they go to a disaster they take along thousands of laptops in order to register people who need aid. There isn't a LAN they can "SSH into" and they can't phone this stuff in. Another example might be the IRS who would visit individuals and businesses to perform audits.... The list goes on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_LOAD_LETTER
True, but this doesn't address the other issue: Making the US Passport harder to forge. It's my understanding that's the primary reason for going RF/ID, not speed.
About the size of a large postage stamp. A PDF417 bar code can 'store' over 2500 characters, so a couple / few of them could do the trick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF417
The one I laugh at is "wireless cable" or "satellite cable" as in 'call your wireless cable provider.'
Anyone ever figured out why people talk louder on cellphones? Are they actually talking louder, or is it just a perception we have? Is it because on of their ears isn't available to hear back their loud talking so they compensate? A J. Seinfeld would say, "What's the deal?"
However, eBay Express doesn't support transactions outside of the USA, so I visited the site once and never went back.
The problem is this: People shop based on price - If company X charged $20 more per monitor than Dell but had 'western' tech support, people would still order from Dell. It's leg legroom on airlines - People claim they want better leg room, but when an airline like AA offered more legroom for a higher ticket price, everyone flew the cheaper airline and crushed themselves in like sardines.
I'm 39 and I don't want any of that crap (well, I suppose cruise control is handy, but that's it). I can't believe all the bells and whistles bloatparts that they put in cars now. If you can't back up without a TV camera and sonar then you shouldn't be backing up. There's a warehouse around the corner from me where these guys back up fifty-foot big rigs *around a corner* and into a loading bay using just their mirrors - No stinkin' sonar for them.
My 1988 Nissan 4x4 pickup has a manual gearbox, manual transfer case, manual windows, a manual speedometer, no heated seats, no LCD in the dash. There's a computer, but it's there for emissions controls, not to run the LAN that controls the tail-lights. The truck's staring down 300,000 kms and everything still 'just works'. If I wanted to buy that truck today from Nissan I can't - I have to have power windows and AC and every other piece of crap you can imagine.
What puzzles me is why north america doesn't see more 'compact' minivans like you see in europe / asia. These are basically minivans built on a small pickup chassis. They take a while go zero to sixty, but get great gas mileage.
(Something like this, but without the 'flare':)
http://www.japanoid.com/img/japanoid_every_cover_k eicar.jpg
Microso$t just can't win around these parts. Can you imagine the hue and cry of MONOPOLY MONOPOLY if MS required hardware and driver certification in order for the product to run under Windows. 'Poor little so and so can't bring his new joystick to market because he can't afford the $25,000 cost of the "Microsoft Hardware Certification" - Isn't MS evil??!' and so forth.
Yes, by successfully convincing the American public that the troops were defending American and Americans, and avenging 9/11. There's no effective way of selling the notion of tens-of-thousands of American boys being killed trying to liberate North Koreans from opression.
The "UN" has no police force. The only way the UN can enforce anything is if the US agrees to go in as the primary backer. A case in Point is Gulf War I. ...and there's no stomach for "American Boys" to die freeing impoverished North Koreans.
But what? Does America really have the stomach to have tens-of-thousands of their 'boys' (i.e. soldiers) die in an attempt to liberate north korea? And what if that nut-job responds with his supposed nukes? I suspect the only way would be the death of Kim combined with the people having the will to rise up themselves.
That's bang-on. Read an interesting article the other week (Slate.com, maybe?) that basically said that while Darfur is a travesty, it's Disneyland (with no queues) compared to the concentration camps in North Korea. Yet nothing can be done.