On top of everything else, we squandered our one chance to invade a "nonobvious" country: Pakistan, when the Taliban retreated back to their country of origin, under protection of the Pakistani secret police (ISI). Who just happened to be supplying Iraq, N. Korea and Iran with nuclear weapons. Shipped through Dubai. And invading India with terrorists. See the connections? If Bush had done what was necessary after the Qaeda planebombings, he'd have actually been making Pakistan choose between "going straight" or war with the US. Instead, he took us to war with all the other guys. And now we're totally screwed, at least twice over.
I don't think it's blue collar/manufacturing jobs people have to worry about. Those fled the country back in the 1980's. Now that many white collar jobs are leaving, what do you expect people to 'skill up' to now, CEO?
The whole CARB system is illogical if the stated purpose (reducing smog) is the real one. If the tailpipe emissions are acceptable, who cares what's under the hood? Oh yes, that's right, CARB does.
Personally I'm of the opinion that CARB has more to do with the auto industry lobby than anything else. If something smog related breaks in your 76' lincoln and the only option is an OEM unit that hasn't been available for at least a decade, chances are good that you'll be going car shopping.
Have you ever seen what a record contract looks like? Artists already make their living off of live performances, except for those who've managed to buy some of their songs back from the real owners (BMG/Epic/etc). This is not to say that file sharing doesn't indirectly affect performers but it's hardly their primary source of income.
Don't worry, thanks to our corporate welfare system it will be perfectly legal for you to back up those CD's by say, 2056 when the currently legislated copyright extensions runs out.
I remember, hell I have a whole collection of artifacts from 'the beforetime'. The time when people were willing and able to pay absurd prices for absurdly high quality goods.
Then came the age of plastic, and lo, those companies all went out of business. And begat the walmart. DO NOT ANGER THE WALMART!
The problem is that hard disks can fail too, sometimes in well under the 5 year mark. On that note, I'd like to say a special fuck you to the drive engineers at IBM, Maxtor, Hitachi and Western Digital. You know who you are, and you suck.
As for archival media, I think I agree with the periodic backups to unreliable storage media X. You may lose, but with multiple copies the odds are at least stacked in your favor. That, and you won't be hunting for 8" floppy drivers in 2048
Such as the inkjet cartridge division at HP? I'm sure it really costs them $50/8oz...because we're printing in gold leaf baby.
Someone mentioned Sony earlier, who is *legendary* for slapping a shiny logo on the worst grades of tiawanese and korean junktronics. Why yes that IS a FUNAI VCR you just bought, it just happens to say Sony on the cover.
Is it unusual for people to forget the ah...less than memorable things of the past in favor of the cream? I mean, if you tune in to TVLand you might see cult classics from the past, but you are unlikely to see 'My Mother The Car' or 'Holmes & Yoyo'.
Similarly, while I fondly remember Interstate 76 and UFO:Enemy Unknown, I have (almost) blocked out my tortured memories of Ultima 9
So does a Buick Roadmaster...oh wait, CAFE standards killed those ( http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/auto/cafe.html ). Minivans are classed as light trucks meaning that the fuel requirements and safety standards are relaxed by quite a lot...just like they are for SUV's. Oh my what a startling coincidence!
Full sized trucks are designed to carry rednecks and sheet rock. If you design a vehicle to be balanced with 1500lbs of cargo it sure as hell won't be balanced with a driver named Cletus and a case of MGD.
SUV's are a mild improvement over this, since they are designed as cleverly disguised station wagons, and therefore have a more balanced (but still quite top heavy) design.
Performance cars are fun, they might help you avoid an accident if the pavement is dry, but many are really worse than the SUV's in the wet. Not so much because their handling is worse, but that your handling expectations are so much more wrong.
You mean the rest of the Europeans who were sailing all over the place before any of those dorks? ( http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/history/vinlan d.htm )
Props to the polynesians tho, exploring the pacific in glorified rafts was quite a feat in 380AD.
Say I need to reinstall windows. Since my install CD contains Windows 2000 SP1, for however long I'm re-installing/patching my OS, I have an insecure PC. If my ISP blocks my access on that premise, I am f*cked.
Never mind that this entire situation is retarded, since I ought to be able to download the patches and install them offline, but the reality is that windowsupdate.com doesn't work like that. Even over broadband I'll probably spend the next 40 minutes downloading security patches, WTG Bill.
I have no real gripe with companies wanting to make a buck, but one of the larger problems is that media isn't protected for a reasonable lifetime. This means that (to take a fairly obscure example) quadrophonic music produced in the early 70's on 8 track is still illegal to copy, and will be until something like 2086.
If companies want protection for prior works, they should be responsible for maintaining the content. As it stands, anyone who tries to save this 'abandonware'is labeled a criminal, even though there is no legitamate source for it.
Speaking of rape, I'm sure you'd love to hear that your 18 year old son screwing the 16 year old cocktease down the street also = raping a 2 year old in the eyes of johnny law. It's also the same thing that makes possession of Traci Lords videos = child pornography.
RIMMER: You took your time. Where've you been? LISTER: I was in the AR machine. RIMMER: Again?? LISTER: What'd you mean again? RIMMER: Everyone knows you only use the AR machine to have sex. LISTER: That is not true. RIMMER: Yes, true. It's pathetic watching you grind away day after day.
It's like a dog that's missing it's masters leg. That groinal
attachment's supposed to have a lifetimes gurantee, you've worn it out
in nearly three weeks. LISTER: That is an outrageous scandalous piece of libel. I don't just
play the role play games. What about the sporting simulations? Like
zero-gee kick boxing and Wimbledon. RIMMER: You only play Wimbledon cos you're having it off with that jail
bait ball girl. LISTER: Is another total lie. She's not jail bait, she's seventeen. RIMMER: Lister, she's a computer sprite, and surely that's the point;
she's just a load of pixels. LISTER: Yeah, but what pixels!
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think it's blue collar/manufacturing jobs people have to worry about. Those fled the country back in the 1980's. Now that many white collar jobs are leaving, what do you expect people to 'skill up' to now, CEO?
The whole CARB system is illogical if the stated purpose (reducing smog) is the real one. If the tailpipe emissions are acceptable, who cares what's under the hood? Oh yes, that's right, CARB does. Personally I'm of the opinion that CARB has more to do with the auto industry lobby than anything else. If something smog related breaks in your 76' lincoln and the only option is an OEM unit that hasn't been available for at least a decade, chances are good that you'll be going car shopping.
Have you ever seen what a record contract looks like? Artists already make their living off of live performances, except for those who've managed to buy some of their songs back from the real owners (BMG/Epic/etc). This is not to say that file sharing doesn't indirectly affect performers but it's hardly their primary source of income.
Don't worry, thanks to our corporate welfare system it will be perfectly legal for you to back up those CD's by say, 2056 when the currently legislated copyright extensions runs out.
Did you realize that less than 10% of all PC owners have bought C# .NET edition? theft I say!
I remember, hell I have a whole collection of artifacts from 'the beforetime'. The time when people were willing and able to pay absurd prices for absurdly high quality goods. Then came the age of plastic, and lo, those companies all went out of business. And begat the walmart. DO NOT ANGER THE WALMART!
You are not of the body!
You've got a great job, Jim. All you have to do is sit back and let the machine do the work.
...
Our compliments to the M-5 unit, and regards to Captain Dunsel.
The problem is that hard disks can fail too, sometimes in well under the 5 year mark. On that note, I'd like to say a special fuck you to the drive engineers at IBM, Maxtor, Hitachi and Western Digital. You know who you are, and you suck.
As for archival media, I think I agree with the periodic backups to unreliable storage media X. You may lose, but with multiple copies the odds are at least stacked in your favor. That, and you won't be hunting for 8" floppy drivers in 2048
Such as the inkjet cartridge division at HP? I'm sure it really costs them $50/8oz...because we're printing in gold leaf baby.
Someone mentioned Sony earlier, who is *legendary* for slapping a shiny logo on the worst grades of tiawanese and korean junktronics. Why yes that IS a FUNAI VCR you just bought, it just happens to say Sony on the cover.
Is it unusual for people to forget the ah...less than memorable things of the past in favor of the cream? I mean, if you tune in to TVLand you might see cult classics from the past, but you are unlikely to see 'My Mother The Car' or 'Holmes & Yoyo'.
Similarly, while I fondly remember Interstate 76 and UFO:Enemy Unknown, I have (almost) blocked out my tortured memories of Ultima 9
So does a Buick Roadmaster...oh wait, CAFE standards killed those ( http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/auto/cafe.html ). Minivans are classed as light trucks meaning that the fuel requirements and safety standards are relaxed by quite a lot...just like they are for SUV's. Oh my what a startling coincidence!
Full sized trucks are designed to carry rednecks and sheet rock. If you design a vehicle to be balanced with 1500lbs of cargo it sure as hell won't be balanced with a driver named Cletus and a case of MGD.
SUV's are a mild improvement over this, since they are designed as cleverly disguised station wagons, and therefore have a more balanced (but still quite top heavy) design.
Performance cars are fun, they might help you avoid an accident if the pavement is dry, but many are really worse than the SUV's in the wet. Not so much because their handling is worse, but that your handling expectations are so much more wrong.
Can we all just drive what we want to drive now?
Bread and Circuses anyone?
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses )
You mean the rest of the Europeans who were sailing all over the place before any of those dorks? ( http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/history/vinlan d.htm )
Props to the polynesians tho, exploring the pacific in glorified rafts was quite a feat in 380AD.
Say I need to reinstall windows. Since my install CD contains Windows 2000 SP1, for however long I'm re-installing/patching my OS, I have an insecure PC. If my ISP blocks my access on that premise, I am f*cked. Never mind that this entire situation is retarded, since I ought to be able to download the patches and install them offline, but the reality is that windowsupdate.com doesn't work like that. Even over broadband I'll probably spend the next 40 minutes downloading security patches, WTG Bill.
I have no real gripe with companies wanting to make a buck, but one of the larger problems is that media isn't protected for a reasonable lifetime. This means that (to take a fairly obscure example) quadrophonic music produced in the early 70's on 8 track is still illegal to copy, and will be until something like 2086. If companies want protection for prior works, they should be responsible for maintaining the content. As it stands, anyone who tries to save this 'abandonware'is labeled a criminal, even though there is no legitamate source for it.
Speaking of rape, I'm sure you'd love to hear that your 18 year old son screwing the 16 year old cocktease down the street also = raping a 2 year old in the eyes of johnny law. It's also the same thing that makes possession of Traci Lords videos = child pornography.
Ain't the system great?
Does anyone else find it ironic that Texas is one of the states that severely caps monetary awards in most damage suits?
RIMMER: You took your time. Where've you been?
LISTER: I was in the AR machine.
RIMMER: Again??
LISTER: What'd you mean again?
RIMMER: Everyone knows you only use the AR machine to have sex.
LISTER: That is not true.
RIMMER: Yes, true. It's pathetic watching you grind away day after day.
It's like a dog that's missing it's masters leg. That groinal
attachment's supposed to have a lifetimes gurantee, you've worn it out
in nearly three weeks.
LISTER: That is an outrageous scandalous piece of libel. I don't just
play the role play games. What about the sporting simulations? Like
zero-gee kick boxing and Wimbledon.
RIMMER: You only play Wimbledon cos you're having it off with that jail
bait ball girl.
LISTER: Is another total lie. She's not jail bait, she's seventeen.
RIMMER: Lister, she's a computer sprite, and surely that's the point;
she's just a load of pixels.
LISTER: Yeah, but what pixels!
Wow, in another 4 years I'll be able to watch I Love Lucy in HD, complete with never before seen MPEG artifacts and audible (fuck you TBS) popup ads.