If I tried to go through my IT department to get anything done, I would never have time for work. Basically, I have to work from my home computer to get anything done. My work computer is absolutely worthless (can't install any software on it, most of the internet is blocked with Websense blocking software, takes months to get any software approved for it). Basically, I just finally told my boss that I would buy my own personal equipment and software and set that up at home. It serves me well, as I do freelance work at homne anyway.
If I went through IT at work, I would still be using Photoshop 5.0 and some ancient version of Pagemaker. They're so slow (and this is a true story, honest to God) that the last time they approved any work software for me, the company had stopped making the version they approved before they finally approved it.
More likely, they will bribe the U.S. Congress directly to cut of federal funding for any college that doesn't bow before the RIAA. They've been trying. And with Democrats (who are owned by Hollywood) and Republicans (who are owned by big business) dominating Congress pretty much exclusively, it's quite likely they will succeed.
I would certainly never claim that America had cornered the market on propaganda. Virtually every country either engages in it now or has engaged in it at some point.
The U.S. government and military have routinely engaged in propaganda and information control at least since WWII (and, more informally, since long before that). Hell, they had an entire agency that did nothing but this sort of stuff (an agency which John McCain wants to bring back , incidentally).
How on earth anyone could be shocked by this at this point is beyond me. This kind of stuff is fairly benign next to the kind of stuff they do in SECRET. It's when they actually start talking about killing reporters to silence dissent that they REALLY get nasty.
I'm sick of these companies with no real credentials claiming to build the next big rocket. Until you've got a prototype that can actually go into space, then STFU. Any jerkass can put together some drawings and animation.
Trey Parker claims that he has never smoked weed in his life. But if you listen to the "drunken cannibals" commentary track on "Cannibal the Musical" he does drink like a fish and talk about dropping acid in college. Of course, he also ends up drunkenly bitching about all his ex-girlfriends, but that's just icing on the cake.
Reminds me of when Fox started cracking down on YouTube and claiming that Hulu would make up for it. There was a time when you could find virtually every episode and skit from Family Guy on YouTube. Now Fox's great legal alternative, that was supposed to be everything YouTube wasn't, offers a grand total 3 lousy episodes. Whoopty fucking do.
To this American it looks more like a bunch of resentful Europeans screaming ANYONE BUT THE AMERICANS! Seriously, is there ANYTHING that we evil Americans have invented that you WON'T try to dispute?
They arent doing evil, thats the Chinese government.
I bet a lot of gun-runners, drug-dealers, pimps, and others who indirectly profit off evil tell themselves the same thing every night. "Hey, I'm not doing evil, THEY'RE the ones doing it. So what if I make some money helping them? If I didn't do it, someone else would."
If companies like Walmart had been held to a standard of human rights decency in the first place, we WOULDN'T be buying from them (or would have forced them to reform first). And, yes, people need to demand a better standard out of their companies--including Google and Walmart. Just because a bunch of companies have gotten away with it, and a lot of people don't call them on it, doesn't mean that we just throw our hands up and say "Fuck it, let company X just do whatever they want."
Exactly why we need to get OFF that shit (like we should have done in the 70's). The U.S. and Europe could be completely free of doing business in Saudi Arabia if we had gotten off our ass and developed the technology for energy independence years ago.
Yet another round of the "Who invented it first" pissing contest. An American claims to invent something and 10 Europeans jump up to say "No, Sir Dunston Whogivesashit from MY country actually invented it first!", followed by a black nationalist who announces that it was actually a black man who invented it first, a Hispanic who proclaims that a Guatemalan invented it first, etc.
It's not the place of an international corporation to pick and choose which laws to follow.
No, but it is their place to decide WHERE they do business. Saudi Arabia may have a law that says a woman must be imprisoned for having pre-marital sex and that companies have to cooperate in any prosecution of such a case (by providing her emails and phone records, etc.). But I'm damn sure never going to follow that law because I'm damn sure never going to do business in Saudi Arabia as long as they have those kind of evil bullshit laws.
Google hides behind that lame "we're just following the law" excuse just because they don't want to give up the money they stand to make from the Chinese market. The only logical response to "we're just following the law" is "If their law requires you to do evil things if you're doing business in their country, then why are you doing business in their country in the first place?"
Should I have to prove to MS that I have a legitimate copy of Windows just to develop Windows software? Should I have to prove to Apple that I bought an iPod from an authorized iPod dealer to develop an iPod carrying case?
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If I went through IT at work, I would still be using Photoshop 5.0 and some ancient version of Pagemaker. They're so slow (and this is a true story, honest to God) that the last time they approved any work software for me, the company had stopped making the version they approved before they finally approved it.
More likely, they will bribe the U.S. Congress directly to cut of federal funding for any college that doesn't bow before the RIAA. They've been trying. And with Democrats (who are owned by Hollywood) and Republicans (who are owned by big business) dominating Congress pretty much exclusively, it's quite likely they will succeed.
I would certainly never claim that America had cornered the market on propaganda. Virtually every country either engages in it now or has engaged in it at some point.
How on earth anyone could be shocked by this at this point is beyond me. This kind of stuff is fairly benign next to the kind of stuff they do in SECRET. It's when they actually start talking about killing reporters to silence dissent that they REALLY get nasty.
They would probably become lawyers...unfrozen cavemen lawyers whose noble words would ring every bit as true today as they did in their own time.
The head of the idiot who uses them
Now you've done it.
I'm sick of these companies with no real credentials claiming to build the next big rocket. Until you've got a prototype that can actually go into space, then STFU. Any jerkass can put together some drawings and animation.
That's all we're asking for!
Trey Parker claims that he has never smoked weed in his life. But if you listen to the "drunken cannibals" commentary track on "Cannibal the Musical" he does drink like a fish and talk about dropping acid in college. Of course, he also ends up drunkenly bitching about all his ex-girlfriends, but that's just icing on the cake.
That's payback for bombing our Baldwins, you bastards!
Reminds me of when Fox started cracking down on YouTube and claiming that Hulu would make up for it. There was a time when you could find virtually every episode and skit from Family Guy on YouTube. Now Fox's great legal alternative, that was supposed to be everything YouTube wasn't, offers a grand total 3 lousy episodes. Whoopty fucking do.
And miss out on the William Shatner commentary track that's on the DVD? No way, dude!
To this American it looks more like a bunch of resentful Europeans screaming ANYONE BUT THE AMERICANS! Seriously, is there ANYTHING that we evil Americans have invented that you WON'T try to dispute?
Are you responding to me or the little dude that has been dispensing legal advice on your shoulder since you ate your roommate's green brownies?
Yeah, and they got called on it--and so should Apple.
You do realize that was a figure of speech, not a promise, right?
Why, do you expect me to change my mind?
I bet a lot of gun-runners, drug-dealers, pimps, and others who indirectly profit off evil tell themselves the same thing every night. "Hey, I'm not doing evil, THEY'RE the ones doing it. So what if I make some money helping them? If I didn't do it, someone else would."
If companies like Walmart had been held to a standard of human rights decency in the first place, we WOULDN'T be buying from them (or would have forced them to reform first). And, yes, people need to demand a better standard out of their companies--including Google and Walmart. Just because a bunch of companies have gotten away with it, and a lot of people don't call them on it, doesn't mean that we just throw our hands up and say "Fuck it, let company X just do whatever they want."
Exactly why we need to get OFF that shit (like we should have done in the 70's). The U.S. and Europe could be completely free of doing business in Saudi Arabia if we had gotten off our ass and developed the technology for energy independence years ago.
Yet another round of the "Who invented it first" pissing contest. An American claims to invent something and 10 Europeans jump up to say "No, Sir Dunston Whogivesashit from MY country actually invented it first!", followed by a black nationalist who announces that it was actually a black man who invented it first, a Hispanic who proclaims that a Guatemalan invented it first, etc.
No, but it is their place to decide WHERE they do business. Saudi Arabia may have a law that says a woman must be imprisoned for having pre-marital sex and that companies have to cooperate in any prosecution of such a case (by providing her emails and phone records, etc.). But I'm damn sure never going to follow that law because I'm damn sure never going to do business in Saudi Arabia as long as they have those kind of evil bullshit laws.
Google hides behind that lame "we're just following the law" excuse just because they don't want to give up the money they stand to make from the Chinese market. The only logical response to "we're just following the law" is "If their law requires you to do evil things if you're doing business in their country, then why are you doing business in their country in the first place?"
Should I have to prove to MS that I have a legitimate copy of Windows just to develop Windows software? Should I have to prove to Apple that I bought an iPod from an authorized iPod dealer to develop an iPod carrying case?
Since all possibilities that can happen do, I just find a universe where the cube was never unscrambled in the first place.