But you have to realize, this happens in other contracts as well. People sign their "rights" away all the time. A plea bargain is signing away the right to a trial. A prenuptial agreement signs away the right (in most cases) to a divorce lawsuit. Now imagine if none of those things were legally binding.
Unions often sign away certain legal recourses as well as part of contract negotiations. And 99% of the time, arbitration IS better than court, at least for unions. This is often because people are more likely to go to arbitration for smaller issues that aren't exactly "illegal". Issues like employees not being disciplined according to the rules. In non-union companies, if an employer is unfair, but not illegal, employees rarely have a recourse except quit or get fired. At least with a union, you can force a company into arbitration, and regardless of the outcome, they can't just fire you for bringing up the issue... try doing that at McDonalds or Walmart. Your ass would be fired on the spot.
In that case, I don't see it as giving up a "right". You have the "right" to remain silent. What's the next line? "If you refuse this right..."
Would this ruling have affected the Tobacco settle? Nope. This only affects people who sign a contract waiving the right to class action. If you simply buy a product, and don't sign, you can still file a class action.
Case in point, iPhone. Could Apple force subscribers to sign? Sure. Of course, if you sell that iPhone to someone else, or you could buy it without a contract. The court should have no problem with a class action, with the limitation that anyone who is under contract would not be included.
The really big class actions are pharmaceutical ones, where individuals get hundreds of thousands, and companies pay hundreds of millions. And I don't think this is ever going away. Why? Because health insurance companies (HMOs) receive a portion of those settlements. And they will simply place any doctor or medicine that includes a class action waver outside of their network and refuse to cover it.
So, Pfizer has a choice. Face class action lawsuits if their drugs kill people. Or force arbitration, and lose all HMO coverage (or seriously reduced rates) for brand name drugs.
It's the one time I feel thankful for HMOs. They're big, ugly, and lawyered up like a BOSS, and they can push a class action lawsuit and/or lobby congress to make a legal change that actually benefits the patient (but only because it also benefits them as well).
Just do routing of all "unknown" users through a Tor proxy. #1 - It's slow enough that you'll never notice it. #2 - It's private, and will never trace back to your IP (no party van coming because your neighbor is a pedophile). #3 - Most outbound Tor gateways don't support any other protocols other than web or IRC. So no file sharing or streaming.
You're just as safe running an open router with Tor as you are with just running Tor for yourself. But I wouldn't use the same router as your personal one. Buy a separate router, run it behind a computer with a second NIC, and pipe that NIC through Tor and from there, just route it like it's your normal traffic. It's a bit technical, and you'll have to play with it (hell, isn't that the point, to have fun and learn?).
And, have a good laugh when your neighbor tells you about his internet getting a German language version of Google (because the Tor gateway happened to be in Europe).
It's only embarassing in the way that watching your drunk uncle fall down, yet again, into his own vomit is embarassing. The whole family is wondering how long traditional media will make it without rehab and a new liver.
This is just embarrassing, for the Atlantic, the Seattle PI, and every other paper that's copy-and-pasted this non-story.
How many prime time shows? Will they be have current seasons of all major studios? Will they play through my cable box? Will they support TV Guide listings?
Until these and many other questions are answered, I wouldn't call Netflix a competitor to cable companies at all...
(/sarcasm)
Seriously, you listed Blockbuster? Did you write that comment 3 years ago or travel through a time warp? A back alley Betamax rental booth is a real threat to Blockbuster. And Walmart, Apple, and Amazon? WTF, man? These aren't even in the same league as Netflix. At least you could have said RedBox.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Lionsgate and Universal have all licensed their movies to the service.
How many movies? In what release window? will they be in HD? Will my xbox/PS3/blu-ray player support their streaming? Will they mail physical copies of movies that aren't available for streaming to my mailbox within 24-hours? What's the monthly fee?
Until these and many more questions are answered, I wouldn't call them a Netflix competitor at all. Netflix has established themselves as the guys to beat. And even if you can match their streaming service, you're damn sure going to have a tough time beating their mail service. And their mail service is still where I get most of my movies from them (since streaming is still only available for a fraction of their library). The fact that they're still missing three major studios doesn't give me much confidence that they're going to represent any real threat to Netflix. Blockbuster, Walmart, Apple, Amazon, and Hulu have all tried (often with half-assed efforts) to beat Netflix before. So you had better bring your A-game if you hope to do any better than they did.
Of course, they will decidely have an upper hand over Netflix in offering short videos of guys getting kicked in the groin and whiney teenagers crying about their tough suburban lives on webcams. I'll leave if for others to judge if that's an advantage or disadvantage.
Yeah, nobody freaks out about the government being in charge of postal mail, and that's actively scanned by xray. And, there are always alternatives if you don't like it.
Actually, a government department is less likely to spy on you because they have no economic incentive. All you need is privacy provision in the email act, and the chances become very slim. I've worked in government, and they like to do things by the book.
Is it because this fuel packs more bang for the buck than traditional one, or is it because everyone wants to "feel" being green, even when trying to fly to other planets (and using all of 0.0000001% of world's "non-green" emissions of "whatever")?;)
Just curious,
Paul B.
Don't you want your rocket to be finger lickin' good?
I don't think any global company in the history of the world has done more for open source and open standards as Google. Comparing apples to apples, and throwing out quality, streamability, and all the technical standards, who do you REALLY trust with backing up an open codec?
Microsoft, Apple, or Google?
Who profits most from open protocols? Who profits most from DRM? The distinction is clear, and MS or Apple bashing Google is just laughable at this point. They are the ones who for years profited from DRM while Google profited from linking to open sites and content.
That may be true, but for the largest piece of the mobile market pie, you'd think Netflix would get off its arse and head hunt companies like Pandora for Android programmers. There are absolutely no minor technical limitations that cannot be surmounted by billions in potential profits.
That's strange. My test was timed, and how quickly you finished also factored into your score. I would not trust any test that is not timed. Given enough time, many could find the answer to almost any riddle, puzzle, or problem.
Let's see how well you do on http://www.iqtest.com/. I scored a 139 and was not bored in the least, because I was timed. A very simple IQ test could theoretically be all basic math, but if it is timed, and the difference between a 120 and a 140 is 5 seconds, I doubt you will be yawning much. While nothing in the IQTest.com test is hard, it will require quick intuitive answers. The higher IQ people will find that the answers to these problems will just feel obvious, including complex math problems that quickly weed out the smart (quick answer) and the not so smart (stop, think, pencil, uh... uh...).
I consider the site accurate for me at least, as it matches very closely to tests I've taken in the past, scoring in the 135-145 range.
Parent:
And whether or not you are bored. I scored a 156 but was bored out of my mind and piddled around more than anything for the last hour or so.
Office Space shows even managers must fear other, higher level managers.
The only way to be irreplaceable is to create necessity out of that which only you can provide but provide it in a way in which you are protected from liability.
Many administrators think that taking passwords will make them irreplaceable. But rather, it just makes them liable to wind up in jail. While programmers can breed security through complexity of their home grown software, they often find it too hard on their own jobs. But I know one programmer who has written so much custom code, that replacing him would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of work. His job will never be outsourced.
As an administrator, I can be replaced overnight. But that is also why I rarely automate anything, and for a few critical jobs, I rely on my own work by hand. It may cost me a few hours of reading/, per week. But should I leave, the systems will slowly degrade. While not making it impossible to replace me, it raises the cost of replacing me.
Yes, I could automate myself right out of a job. I'm paid for my knowledge. Automation is hard coding my knowledge, and that doesn't pay royalty fees. This is why I like highly customizable systems. It will rely on me being present for the system to continue running as needed.
If you don't want replaced by a robot or cheap labor, don't make your job so easy that it could be done by them.
With Facebook always stripping and 4chan not always stripping, we can reasonably conclude without any pictures at all that Facebook works at a strip club.
By cross referencing the fact that "4chan didn't use to strip", we can also reasonably conclude that Facebook is a gateway to stripping.
And from there, we can reasonably conclude that Facebook, being the more mature stripper, probably holds the leash attached to the dog collar on 4chan's neck when they strip together on stage.
Natural human responsibility? You're not a student of history, are you? Everyone's always been blaming everything on someone else. Even the bible toting population can escape it with the myth of the first man Adam blaming eating an apple on the first woman Eve who blamed it on a snake. So... If that's your baseline "natural", then there ya go, nobody takes responsibility "naturally".
Of course, if we're talking evolution, taking responsibility only makes sense if it propagated our species. Doesn't make much sense in a death penalty court case. Doesn't make much sense in telling your lover you screwed around on her/him (since you are now very unlikely to procreate with said lover).
So... what's this "natural" thing you are talking about? Or is that some 1950's sounding buzzword to return us all to the "good ole days"?
If everybody took responsibility for themselves, their children, and their own actions and words, then what's in that for government? The goal is to transfer that natural human responsibility to the business of government, justifying yet even more power and revenue for the elite few. The goal is to have the populace run to government at the first hint of a problem -- NOT to think for themselves and come to a reasonable solution, skipping the middleman entirely.
You're not in the buisiness of government, are you?
And I don't care at all, I listen to audio books. The device makes no difference what so ever. And libraries have supported audio books longer than books have had batteries. Most people don't even realize the wealth of recordings, cds, and movies at their local library. They think all they have are old dusty encyclopedias.
Yeah, I've seen the same. Million dollar machines controlled by XP. I've also seen machines still running Win NT, just not as many. They keep guys like me employed as there is no MicroCiscoBS certification.;) You complete against some kid fresh out of college and he has the same degree and certs as you, it all comes down to "Do you have experience with X?"
And I'm glad XP is dying. At some point, you get tired of PS2 and IDE cables. It forces companies to bust open a tiny crack in their titanium piggy banks and buy new computers.
3G is the equivalent of the Electric Car in one way, you are always trying to find a place to plug in... in this case, to Wifi. 3G = contract + overages + throttling. Most 3G users I know are always asking for the company Wifi password after they see the bill.
The tablet is expensive enough. At home and work, I have Wifi. I suppose not being able to use it in a car is the only thing I have to weigh against a 3G bill. For my DroidX, yeah, I'm not doing without 3G which means no Maps while driving, no Pandora, etc etc.
Besides, I grandfathered into an unlimited 3G plan on my phone, plus I have tethering. I have mobile wifi where-ever I go. Why would I ever need a second 3G device?
Slashdot Mirror
But you have to realize, this happens in other contracts as well. People sign their "rights" away all the time. A plea bargain is signing away the right to a trial. A prenuptial agreement signs away the right (in most cases) to a divorce lawsuit. Now imagine if none of those things were legally binding.
Unions often sign away certain legal recourses as well as part of contract negotiations. And 99% of the time, arbitration IS better than court, at least for unions. This is often because people are more likely to go to arbitration for smaller issues that aren't exactly "illegal". Issues like employees not being disciplined according to the rules. In non-union companies, if an employer is unfair, but not illegal, employees rarely have a recourse except quit or get fired. At least with a union, you can force a company into arbitration, and regardless of the outcome, they can't just fire you for bringing up the issue... try doing that at McDonalds or Walmart. Your ass would be fired on the spot.
In that case, I don't see it as giving up a "right". You have the "right" to remain silent. What's the next line? "If you refuse this right..."
You have the right to refuse a right.
Would this ruling have affected the Tobacco settle? Nope. This only affects people who sign a contract waiving the right to class action. If you simply buy a product, and don't sign, you can still file a class action.
Case in point, iPhone. Could Apple force subscribers to sign? Sure. Of course, if you sell that iPhone to someone else, or you could buy it without a contract. The court should have no problem with a class action, with the limitation that anyone who is under contract would not be included.
The really big class actions are pharmaceutical ones, where individuals get hundreds of thousands, and companies pay hundreds of millions. And I don't think this is ever going away. Why? Because health insurance companies (HMOs) receive a portion of those settlements. And they will simply place any doctor or medicine that includes a class action waver outside of their network and refuse to cover it.
So, Pfizer has a choice. Face class action lawsuits if their drugs kill people. Or force arbitration, and lose all HMO coverage (or seriously reduced rates) for brand name drugs.
It's the one time I feel thankful for HMOs. They're big, ugly, and lawyered up like a BOSS, and they can push a class action lawsuit and/or lobby congress to make a legal change that actually benefits the patient (but only because it also benefits them as well).
I can't go digging in soil with Armadillo excrement? Well there goes my vacation plans!
Just do routing of all "unknown" users through a Tor proxy. #1 - It's slow enough that you'll never notice it. #2 - It's private, and will never trace back to your IP (no party van coming because your neighbor is a pedophile). #3 - Most outbound Tor gateways don't support any other protocols other than web or IRC. So no file sharing or streaming.
You're just as safe running an open router with Tor as you are with just running Tor for yourself. But I wouldn't use the same router as your personal one. Buy a separate router, run it behind a computer with a second NIC, and pipe that NIC through Tor and from there, just route it like it's your normal traffic. It's a bit technical, and you'll have to play with it (hell, isn't that the point, to have fun and learn?).
And, have a good laugh when your neighbor tells you about his internet getting a German language version of Google (because the Tor gateway happened to be in Europe).
... and I snapped a quick photo on the phone I snuck in. What the hell are they doing, anyways?
It's only embarassing in the way that watching your drunk uncle fall down, yet again, into his own vomit is embarassing. The whole family is wondering how long traditional media will make it without rehab and a new liver.
This is just embarrassing, for the Atlantic, the Seattle PI, and every other paper that's copy-and-pasted this non-story.
Just use Fog, it's Raid 1 for Clouds.
How many prime time shows? Will they be have current seasons of all major studios? Will they play through my cable box? Will they support TV Guide listings?
Until these and many other questions are answered, I wouldn't call Netflix a competitor to cable companies at all...
(/sarcasm)
Seriously, you listed Blockbuster? Did you write that comment 3 years ago or travel through a time warp? A back alley Betamax rental booth is a real threat to Blockbuster. And Walmart, Apple, and Amazon? WTF, man? These aren't even in the same league as Netflix. At least you could have said RedBox.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Lionsgate and Universal have all licensed their movies to the service.
How many movies? In what release window? will they be in HD? Will my xbox/PS3/blu-ray player support their streaming? Will they mail physical copies of movies that aren't available for streaming to my mailbox within 24-hours? What's the monthly fee?
Until these and many more questions are answered, I wouldn't call them a Netflix competitor at all. Netflix has established themselves as the guys to beat. And even if you can match their streaming service, you're damn sure going to have a tough time beating their mail service. And their mail service is still where I get most of my movies from them (since streaming is still only available for a fraction of their library). The fact that they're still missing three major studios doesn't give me much confidence that they're going to represent any real threat to Netflix. Blockbuster, Walmart, Apple, Amazon, and Hulu have all tried (often with half-assed efforts) to beat Netflix before. So you had better bring your A-game if you hope to do any better than they did.
Of course, they will decidely have an upper hand over Netflix in offering short videos of guys getting kicked in the groin and whiney teenagers crying about their tough suburban lives on webcams. I'll leave if for others to judge if that's an advantage or disadvantage.
Yeah, nobody freaks out about the government being in charge of postal mail, and that's actively scanned by xray. And, there are always alternatives if you don't like it.
Actually, a government department is less likely to spy on you because they have no economic incentive. All you need is privacy provision in the email act, and the chances become very slim. I've worked in government, and they like to do things by the book.
Is it because this fuel packs more bang for the buck than traditional one, or is it because everyone wants to "feel" being green, even when trying to fly to other planets (and using all of 0.0000001% of world's "non-green" emissions of "whatever")? ;)
Just curious,
Paul B.
Don't you want your rocket to be finger lickin' good?
it's on the orders of Xenu.
Psychologists run NASA!
HAHA, sorry, I just can't keep a straight face.
I don't think any global company in the history of the world has done more for open source and open standards as Google. Comparing apples to apples, and throwing out quality, streamability, and all the technical standards, who do you REALLY trust with backing up an open codec?
Microsoft, Apple, or Google?
Who profits most from open protocols? Who profits most from DRM? The distinction is clear, and MS or Apple bashing Google is just laughable at this point. They are the ones who for years profited from DRM while Google profited from linking to open sites and content.
That may be true, but for the largest piece of the mobile market pie, you'd think Netflix would get off its arse and head hunt companies like Pandora for Android programmers. There are absolutely no minor technical limitations that cannot be surmounted by billions in potential profits.
That's strange. My test was timed, and how quickly you finished also factored into your score. I would not trust any test that is not timed. Given enough time, many could find the answer to almost any riddle, puzzle, or problem.
Let's see how well you do on http://www.iqtest.com/. I scored a 139 and was not bored in the least, because I was timed. A very simple IQ test could theoretically be all basic math, but if it is timed, and the difference between a 120 and a 140 is 5 seconds, I doubt you will be yawning much. While nothing in the IQTest.com test is hard, it will require quick intuitive answers. The higher IQ people will find that the answers to these problems will just feel obvious, including complex math problems that quickly weed out the smart (quick answer) and the not so smart (stop, think, pencil, uh... uh...).
I consider the site accurate for me at least, as it matches very closely to tests I've taken in the past, scoring in the 135-145 range.
Parent:
And whether or not you are bored. I scored a 156 but was bored out of my mind and piddled around more than anything for the last hour or so.
Office Space shows even managers must fear other, higher level managers.
The only way to be irreplaceable is to create necessity out of that which only you can provide but provide it in a way in which you are protected from liability.
Many administrators think that taking passwords will make them irreplaceable. But rather, it just makes them liable to wind up in jail. While programmers can breed security through complexity of their home grown software, they often find it too hard on their own jobs. But I know one programmer who has written so much custom code, that replacing him would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of work. His job will never be outsourced.
As an administrator, I can be replaced overnight. But that is also why I rarely automate anything, and for a few critical jobs, I rely on my own work by hand. It may cost me a few hours of reading /, per week. But should I leave, the systems will slowly degrade. While not making it impossible to replace me, it raises the cost of replacing me.
Yes, I could automate myself right out of a job. I'm paid for my knowledge. Automation is hard coding my knowledge, and that doesn't pay royalty fees. This is why I like highly customizable systems. It will rely on me being present for the system to continue running as needed.
If you don't want replaced by a robot or cheap labor, don't make your job so easy that it could be done by them.
Smugness.
I've never understood why Apple's use of basic marketing strategy seems so *outrageously* offensive to some people - every company does it.
With Facebook always stripping and 4chan not always stripping, we can reasonably conclude without any pictures at all that Facebook works at a strip club.
By cross referencing the fact that "4chan didn't use to strip", we can also reasonably conclude that Facebook is a gateway to stripping.
And from there, we can reasonably conclude that Facebook, being the more mature stripper, probably holds the leash attached to the dog collar on 4chan's neck when they strip together on stage.
MIT's report isn't so impressive, now is it?
Natural human responsibility? You're not a student of history, are you? Everyone's always been blaming everything on someone else. Even the bible toting population can escape it with the myth of the first man Adam blaming eating an apple on the first woman Eve who blamed it on a snake. So... If that's your baseline "natural", then there ya go, nobody takes responsibility "naturally".
Of course, if we're talking evolution, taking responsibility only makes sense if it propagated our species. Doesn't make much sense in a death penalty court case. Doesn't make much sense in telling your lover you screwed around on her/him (since you are now very unlikely to procreate with said lover).
So... what's this "natural" thing you are talking about? Or is that some 1950's sounding buzzword to return us all to the "good ole days"?
If everybody took responsibility for themselves, their children, and their own actions and words, then what's in that for government? The goal is to transfer that natural human responsibility to the business of government, justifying yet even more power and revenue for the elite few. The goal is to have the populace run to government at the first hint of a problem -- NOT to think for themselves and come to a reasonable solution, skipping the middleman entirely.
You're not in the buisiness of government, are you?
And I don't care at all, I listen to audio books. The device makes no difference what so ever. And libraries have supported audio books longer than books have had batteries. Most people don't even realize the wealth of recordings, cds, and movies at their local library. They think all they have are old dusty encyclopedias.
Yeah, I've seen the same. Million dollar machines controlled by XP. I've also seen machines still running Win NT, just not as many. They keep guys like me employed as there is no MicroCiscoBS certification. ;) You complete against some kid fresh out of college and he has the same degree and certs as you, it all comes down to "Do you have experience with X?"
And I'm glad XP is dying. At some point, you get tired of PS2 and IDE cables. It forces companies to bust open a tiny crack in their titanium piggy banks and buy new computers.
But the scanner says their power level is Over 9000!
Agree. The similarities kinda end when Cisco doesn't cause the death of people. But that isn't black and white either. It would ignore the fact that while they don't really have a large presence in totalitarian governments, they kinda don't care about who they do business with because indirectly oppressing people is profitable.
Doesn't bode well for Slashdot moderation's insight though... he only got a Score: 2, lol. So much for the foresight of crowd sourcing.
3G is the equivalent of the Electric Car in one way, you are always trying to find a place to plug in... in this case, to Wifi. 3G = contract + overages + throttling. Most 3G users I know are always asking for the company Wifi password after they see the bill.
The tablet is expensive enough. At home and work, I have Wifi. I suppose not being able to use it in a car is the only thing I have to weigh against a 3G bill. For my DroidX, yeah, I'm not doing without 3G which means no Maps while driving, no Pandora, etc etc.
Besides, I grandfathered into an unlimited 3G plan on my phone, plus I have tethering. I have mobile wifi where-ever I go. Why would I ever need a second 3G device?
...with your tongue? *BUZZZZZ!*