There is always the libertarian party - which is a party our Founding Fathers would most likely approve of (libertarianism is NOT about "anything goes" despite what many claim). However since they don't have a chance of being elected, I generally vote against the candidates most likely to beat the incumbents. Unfortunately that is usually the GOP, which at this point may as well merge with the Democratic party and name the newly formed party "Republicrat."
What we need is more people like Ron and Rand Paul in office - fiscally conservative, against a nanny state, and believe that government exists to protect the borders, punish evildoers, and maybe build roads (since roads are essential for national security).
We don't need a nanny state. Want to stuff your face with twinkies and hohos? You should have the right to do so and become a fatty without government telling you that you can't, and without my and everyone else having to pick up the tab when you fry your pancreas and become a diabetic.
Oh good! I was wondering when the season premier for Homeland Security Theater was going to be broadcast. This is yet!
In this episode, the knee-jerk reaction is to ban toner and ink cartridges, because like bottled water and cola, some Macgyver type will be able to whip together a fusion bomb in those few hours of flying, without anyone noticing!
Yet another ban for show rather than actual security. How about, gee, I dunno, profiling passengers? You know, be politically incorrect and actually practice forensic science for a change, and stop harassing and inconveniencing the rest of us?
Now technically as the movie can not demonstrate the ability to "promote the useful arts and sciences" under law it is not entitled to copyright protection.
The pr0n makers would them make the claim that it is useful for helping men "get it up" so they can service their wives. It's a weak argument but would likely be seen as legitimate. IMHO porn could be considered more "useful" than the latest remakes coming out of mainstream Hollywood.
No, I did not. Unless they are copy & pasting code in a product for distribution they are not violating copyright, therefore it would be permitted under copyright law.
The purest approach to avoid potential liability is to have one team reverse engineer it and write up an architectural document (and copying API class names and function names is not violating copyright btw) and then hand that over to a development team who in turn develops the interoperating or even competing product - but separate teams are not necessary. It's just a really great method because it removes not just the the temptation but also the ability to infringe upon copyright.
Reverse engineering (section 1201(f)). This exception permits circumvention, and the development of technological means for such circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability with other programs, to the extent that such acts are permitted under copyright law.
Well years ago I used to have progressive. I left them when I moved to People's Republik of Taxachusetts. I drove a ZR-1 which was considered a "Symbol 26" (highest risk) car and paid about $1400/yr for full coverage with a low deductible. (The car is no longer registered - not registering it again until I get the body fully restored and the LT-5 pulled and repainted. GM paint sucks ass!)
I've since driven trucks daily (cheap to insure) and now a Saab is my daily driver. Despite it being ranked as the safest car in its class. being extremely difficult to steal because of three separate anti-theft computers in it, and the fact that normally-resalable components need to be "divorced" from the car with a Tech 2 before installing and "marrying" it to another car, the turbocharger results in high insurance. I have zero violations and my rate was $1,260 per year last year (that was with a high deductible). Well, this year (with no violations and the only times I get pulled over is when I pull out of my office in the wee hours of the morning - police just checking to make sure I was authorised to be there) Progressive jacked my rate up to $1,900. I called them and asked them if the $700 increase was including the safe driver and repeat customer discounts. It was. When I pressed further about the increase, they admitted they jacked up rates across the board to increase profits.
Riiight. Alienate safe drivers and pushing them to the competition boost profits. Gotcha.
Well, I got on the phone with Geico - WITH the same coverage and a lower deductible I saved 42%. I decided to increase my coverage (and add a rider that would pay the difference betweeen book and a new car) and am still paying only slightly more with Geico than I did last year with Progressive. Progressive can kiss my ass.
So YMMV, batteries not included, etc.
You do have a point about going to an agent though. I have a friend who buys new Corvettes every few years and goes straight to the tuner for a custom tune, Corsa exhaust, and uninstall the black box and onstar and other insidious "features" and he has incurred speeding tickets. He has so many policies that when he gets violations he just goes to his agent and his agent reverses the surcharges before they even show up on the bill.
The last time I used an agent though, it was a bad experience. Someone actually backed into my ZR-1; I was parked on the last spot next to the grass at my old office space, and the duallie wheel tracks were clearly visible on the grass. I called my agent and they told me to call the insurance company. I called the insurance company, and they told me to call the agent (the insurance company was Arbella). I didn't have time to pursue the matter so I got disgusted and parked the car, and didn't have the funds to put it in a shop that will do the job right (my $$$ is tied up in investments). Grrrrr. I frigging hate insurance companies.
Really! The original source for the quote appears to be Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle Of Democracy (1770). So, in other words, he must be a prophet rather than an editorial making historical observation.
Last week when I was traveling an acquaintance who owns and runs a farm handed me this quote from the book "Somebody's Gotta Say It" (page 92) and I have to say that it is interesting.
I am not going to say whether or not I agree with it, nor what stage I think America is in right now, because I just want you to ponder it. What I will say is when I vote, I follow JFK's lead and vote where my conscience leads, with this principle: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." I didn't vote for how I could possibly line my pocket, or from a sense of entitlement, but based on what the government is chartered to do as our founding fathers intended.
Here is the quote:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back to bondage.
This just presents yet another reason to just wait for Blu-Ray or DVD and watch at home. Watching at home is often a superior experience anyhow, and here's why:
First off, ever notice that the projector for the pre-movie ads are always in perfect focus, while the movie itself is out of focus? I don't care whether the movie was recorded on film or a 4K camera, your 1080p television at home is going to deliver a better picture.
You usually have far superior seating at home.
My television is large enough such that if I want the same "immersive" experience I get at the theater (in my favorite seating location) I can move a chair up to 4-6' from the set and it will appear as large as the silver screen, plus since my television is never out of focus I won't get eyestrain.
24fps - can you say migraine-inducing FLICKER? It drives me nuts. At the theater movies look like stop action claymation to me. For me the 120Hz frame interpolation is a godsend. I have it enabled for all sources except gaming and PC.
Snacks: I have better food at my house. At the theater I never buy the snacks - allergen-filled fat-inducing addictive crap, vs. at home where I have almost no processed foods.
Adverts: Even on restrictive Blu-Ray, on most players there are ways to skip the ads. I'll sit through ads on television (it pays for the content, which I agree is a fair exchange for the "free" programming) but I'll not do so for a movie I purchased and legally own, or have legally rented.
I do go to the theater on occasion, but for the social aspect - to see movies with friends away from home. It's still a superior experience to watch the flicks at home.
Drawback: I no longer have my AV receiver hooked up, and I threw out my old speakers (I'm going to design new enclosures after I figure out which drivers to use, and have the enclosure built). So, by comparison to my current setup, the sound at the theater is vastly superior. I have to give them that.:)
'We accept responsibility for those errors, and apologize to our customers who received accidental data charges on their bills.'"
By 'accept responsibility' do they refer to the $24mil fine as merely the cost of doing business, or do they in fact plan to accept responsibility as in making the injured parties whole, by issuing refunds of past customers, and extending credits to current customers, cutting down their bills to pay back the illegal gains?
"gee, that is an awful nice handset you have there. It would be a damn shame if something were to happen to it. Perhaps you would be interested in our protection services?"
So, technically speaking, he cannot use any compressed file formats (since compression even without DRM is a form of encryption), use any operating system that does not store passwords in plain text, and so on? Heck, cable set top boxes are computers and use encryption, and most cars today have anywhere from 3 to 20 on-board computers, many of which use encryption to prevent availability of diagnostic tools for use by owners so therefore even driving a car would require use of a computer which utilizes encryption technology. No cellphone, as all of them use encryption, unless you can find an analog phone that still works, and an analog carrier.
Have fun in DOS, kid, and enjoy your land line (which would probably have to be an old analog pulse/rotary dial phone if these restrictions are to be taken literally)!
Gotta love the politicians we chose to put in charge of our legal system.:-(
I dunno. What do we have - Communist News Network, Faux News (to cover both extremes) and then there is MSN, which is completely irrelevant and may as well stand for Morons Snoring Now.
Of course then there is NPR, which no one listens to, and then NBC, CBS, and ABC, all of whom no one watches any more.
Whom to believe? They're all sensationalists and their goal is to sell viewers to advertisers. They'll rig gas tanks in trucks with explosives or completely fabricate stories if the revenue exceeds the cost of any fines or punitive damages they expect the worst case to incur.
News as we once knew it? It doesn't exist (or more correctly, I suspect, did it ever exist?). What we have now is both neo-con and moonbat propaganda and so the best news sources might very well be financial publications - or view multiple sources and try to decipher what the truth is.
There are (or were at the time) two different software platforms the cable companies could choose for the Scientific Atlantic DVRs. It's possible you didn't have the same one I had with Adelphia/Comcast as the provider (when Comcast took over they kept the Adelphia tech).
There are a lot of things I like better about the Motorola, but I liked that the ESATA ports on the Scientific Atlanta boxes were enabled by default. Every time I inquire Comcast about ESATA on the Motorola, they tell me the feature is "in testing" "in selected markets." What BS.
In response to declining Buggy Whip demand, one of the major buggy whip distributors have announced they are withholding shipments of buggy whips, instead of adapting to the market.
"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
I would run one in a heartbeat - especially since I now live in a city where Comcast has deployed Motorola rather than Scientific Atlanta. (on Scientific Atlanta the ESATA ports are enabled, and on Motorola they are disabled). I like having the ability to keep an entire season of certain shows on the PVR/DVR to re-watch at my leisure.
However, there is a problem; most CableCard-capable PVRs available on the market, at least last time I looked into them, did not support OpenCable Host Device services, so watching On Demand content isn't (or wasn't) possible. Also, aside from client apps on a PC or Mac, management of viewing, recording, and deleting content on a Tivo requires about 3x as many clicks as does the cable company's PVR. The Tivo still doesn't(?) support OCAP:
Both models will do up to 1080p output and have single multistream CableCARD slots and eSATA jacks for storage expansion; the $299 Premiere will do 45 hours of HD recording on the 320GB internal drive, while the $499 XL will do 150 on 1TB and adds in THX certification. The bad news? There's still no support for tru2way, so you still won't have access to your cable company's video on demand service -- although one of the screenshots has a Comcast logo on it, so we're intrigued.
You can also get text notifications of your usage, or just install and log into the myWireless app if you have an iPhone. Or, just watch the "usage" screen on any cellphone made in recent years, and reset it each monthly cycle.
The data from the study shows a 42% increase in water damage for the iPhone 4 over the 3GS.
. . . and there you have it: the ultimate question is "how much has the incident rate of water damage to smartphones increased with the introduction of the iPhone 4?"
. . . and here I was, thinking that the ultimate question would have been about a deeper philosophical issue. I guess we learn something new every day!:-D
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There is always the libertarian party - which is a party our Founding Fathers would most likely approve of (libertarianism is NOT about "anything goes" despite what many claim). However since they don't have a chance of being elected, I generally vote against the candidates most likely to beat the incumbents. Unfortunately that is usually the GOP, which at this point may as well merge with the Democratic party and name the newly formed party "Republicrat."
What we need is more people like Ron and Rand Paul in office - fiscally conservative, against a nanny state, and believe that government exists to protect the borders, punish evildoers, and maybe build roads (since roads are essential for national security).
We don't need a nanny state. Want to stuff your face with twinkies and hohos? You should have the right to do so and become a fatty without government telling you that you can't, and without my and everyone else having to pick up the tab when you fry your pancreas and become a diabetic.
However, what you failed to mention was that the copy is a 300% enlargement.
My solution is to drive. :-)
Oh good! I was wondering when the season premier for Homeland Security Theater was going to be broadcast. This is yet!
In this episode, the knee-jerk reaction is to ban toner and ink cartridges, because like bottled water and cola, some Macgyver type will be able to whip together a fusion bomb in those few hours of flying, without anyone noticing!
Yet another ban for show rather than actual security. How about, gee, I dunno, profiling passengers? You know, be politically incorrect and actually practice forensic science for a change, and stop harassing and inconveniencing the rest of us?
No gang bangs though?
Solution: Why not raise our import tariff rates to match that of our so-called trading partners?
The pr0n makers would them make the claim that it is useful for helping men "get it up" so they can service their wives. It's a weak argument but would likely be seen as legitimate. IMHO porn could be considered more "useful" than the latest remakes coming out of mainstream Hollywood.
No, I did not. Unless they are copy & pasting code in a product for distribution they are not violating copyright, therefore it would be permitted under copyright law.
The purest approach to avoid potential liability is to have one team reverse engineer it and write up an architectural document (and copying API class names and function names is not violating copyright btw) and then hand that over to a development team who in turn develops the interoperating or even competing product - but separate teams are not necessary. It's just a really great method because it removes not just the the temptation but also the ability to infringe upon copyright.
Wrong.
Source: http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf
Well years ago I used to have progressive. I left them when I moved to People's Republik of Taxachusetts. I drove a ZR-1 which was considered a "Symbol 26" (highest risk) car and paid about $1400/yr for full coverage with a low deductible. (The car is no longer registered - not registering it again until I get the body fully restored and the LT-5 pulled and repainted. GM paint sucks ass!)
I've since driven trucks daily (cheap to insure) and now a Saab is my daily driver. Despite it being ranked as the safest car in its class. being extremely difficult to steal because of three separate anti-theft computers in it, and the fact that normally-resalable components need to be "divorced" from the car with a Tech 2 before installing and "marrying" it to another car, the turbocharger results in high insurance. I have zero violations and my rate was $1,260 per year last year (that was with a high deductible). Well, this year (with no violations and the only times I get pulled over is when I pull out of my office in the wee hours of the morning - police just checking to make sure I was authorised to be there) Progressive jacked my rate up to $1,900. I called them and asked them if the $700 increase was including the safe driver and repeat customer discounts. It was. When I pressed further about the increase, they admitted they jacked up rates across the board to increase profits.
Riiight. Alienate safe drivers and pushing them to the competition boost profits. Gotcha.
Well, I got on the phone with Geico - WITH the same coverage and a lower deductible I saved 42%. I decided to increase my coverage (and add a rider that would pay the difference betweeen book and a new car) and am still paying only slightly more with Geico than I did last year with Progressive. Progressive can kiss my ass.
So YMMV, batteries not included, etc.
You do have a point about going to an agent though. I have a friend who buys new Corvettes every few years and goes straight to the tuner for a custom tune, Corsa exhaust, and uninstall the black box and onstar and other insidious "features" and he has incurred speeding tickets. He has so many policies that when he gets violations he just goes to his agent and his agent reverses the surcharges before they even show up on the bill.
The last time I used an agent though, it was a bad experience. Someone actually backed into my ZR-1; I was parked on the last spot next to the grass at my old office space, and the duallie wheel tracks were clearly visible on the grass. I called my agent and they told me to call the insurance company. I called the insurance company, and they told me to call the agent (the insurance company was Arbella). I didn't have time to pursue the matter so I got disgusted and parked the car, and didn't have the funds to put it in a shop that will do the job right (my $$$ is tied up in investments). Grrrrr. I frigging hate insurance companies.
Wasn't his visor wideband, in that he could see FIR through UV?
Really! The original source for the quote appears to be Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle Of Democracy (1770). So, in other words, he must be a prophet rather than an editorial making historical observation.
Last week when I was traveling an acquaintance who owns and runs a farm handed me this quote from the book "Somebody's Gotta Say It" (page 92) and I have to say that it is interesting.
I am not going to say whether or not I agree with it, nor what stage I think America is in right now, because I just want you to ponder it. What I will say is when I vote, I follow JFK's lead and vote where my conscience leads, with this principle: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." I didn't vote for how I could possibly line my pocket, or from a sense of entitlement, but based on what the government is chartered to do as our founding fathers intended.
Here is the quote:
Right or wrong, it's a great quote to ponder.
This just presents yet another reason to just wait for Blu-Ray or DVD and watch at home. Watching at home is often a superior experience anyhow, and here's why:
First off, ever notice that the projector for the pre-movie ads are always in perfect focus, while the movie itself is out of focus? I don't care whether the movie was recorded on film or a 4K camera, your 1080p television at home is going to deliver a better picture.
You usually have far superior seating at home.
My television is large enough such that if I want the same "immersive" experience I get at the theater (in my favorite seating location) I can move a chair up to 4-6' from the set and it will appear as large as the silver screen, plus since my television is never out of focus I won't get eyestrain.
24fps - can you say migraine-inducing FLICKER? It drives me nuts. At the theater movies look like stop action claymation to me. For me the 120Hz frame interpolation is a godsend. I have it enabled for all sources except gaming and PC.
Snacks: I have better food at my house. At the theater I never buy the snacks - allergen-filled fat-inducing addictive crap, vs. at home where I have almost no processed foods.
Adverts: Even on restrictive Blu-Ray, on most players there are ways to skip the ads. I'll sit through ads on television (it pays for the content, which I agree is a fair exchange for the "free" programming) but I'll not do so for a movie I purchased and legally own, or have legally rented.
I do go to the theater on occasion, but for the social aspect - to see movies with friends away from home. It's still a superior experience to watch the flicks at home.
Drawback: I no longer have my AV receiver hooked up, and I threw out my old speakers (I'm going to design new enclosures after I figure out which drivers to use, and have the enclosure built). So, by comparison to my current setup, the sound at the theater is vastly superior. I have to give them that. :)
By 'accept responsibility' do they refer to the $24mil fine as merely the cost of doing business, or do they in fact plan to accept responsibility as in making the injured parties whole, by issuing refunds of past customers, and extending credits to current customers, cutting down their bills to pay back the illegal gains?
Easy!
"gee, that is an awful nice handset you have there. It would be a damn shame if something were to happen to it. Perhaps you would be interested in our protection services?"
So, technically speaking, he cannot use any compressed file formats (since compression even without DRM is a form of encryption), use any operating system that does not store passwords in plain text, and so on? Heck, cable set top boxes are computers and use encryption, and most cars today have anywhere from 3 to 20 on-board computers, many of which use encryption to prevent availability of diagnostic tools for use by owners so therefore even driving a car would require use of a computer which utilizes encryption technology. No cellphone, as all of them use encryption, unless you can find an analog phone that still works, and an analog carrier.
Have fun in DOS, kid, and enjoy your land line (which would probably have to be an old analog pulse/rotary dial phone if these restrictions are to be taken literally)!
Gotta love the politicians we chose to put in charge of our legal system. :-(
I dunno. What do we have - Communist News Network, Faux News (to cover both extremes) and then there is MSN, which is completely irrelevant and may as well stand for Morons Snoring Now.
Of course then there is NPR, which no one listens to, and then NBC, CBS, and ABC, all of whom no one watches any more.
Whom to believe? They're all sensationalists and their goal is to sell viewers to advertisers. They'll rig gas tanks in trucks with explosives or completely fabricate stories if the revenue exceeds the cost of any fines or punitive damages they expect the worst case to incur.
News as we once knew it? It doesn't exist (or more correctly, I suspect, did it ever exist?). What we have now is both neo-con and moonbat propaganda and so the best news sources might very well be financial publications - or view multiple sources and try to decipher what the truth is.
I hate the RMA process - in PC-based appliance manufacturing RMAs on DOA or infant mortality components is the single largest time sink.
Another time sink is configuration management - there is GLPI but are there any better solutions out there?
There are (or were at the time) two different software platforms the cable companies could choose for the Scientific Atlantic DVRs. It's possible you didn't have the same one I had with Adelphia/Comcast as the provider (when Comcast took over they kept the Adelphia tech).
There are a lot of things I like better about the Motorola, but I liked that the ESATA ports on the Scientific Atlanta boxes were enabled by default. Every time I inquire Comcast about ESATA on the Motorola, they tell me the feature is "in testing" "in selected markets." What BS.
In response to declining Buggy Whip demand, one of the major buggy whip distributors have announced they are withholding shipments of buggy whips, instead of adapting to the market.
"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."
I would run one in a heartbeat - especially since I now live in a city where Comcast has deployed Motorola rather than Scientific Atlanta. (on Scientific Atlanta the ESATA ports are enabled, and on Motorola they are disabled). I like having the ability to keep an entire season of certain shows on the PVR/DVR to re-watch at my leisure.
However, there is a problem; most CableCard-capable PVRs available on the market, at least last time I looked into them, did not support OpenCable Host Device services, so watching On Demand content isn't (or wasn't) possible. Also, aside from client apps on a PC or Mac, management of viewing, recording, and deleting content on a Tivo requires about 3x as many clicks as does the cable company's PVR. The Tivo still doesn't(?) support OCAP:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/02/dnptivo-premiere-and-premiere-xl-usher-in-a-brand-new-interface/
How is telling someone that permanent marker is easily removed from the screen with isopropyl possibly "redundant?"
You can also get text notifications of your usage, or just install and log into the myWireless app if you have an iPhone. Or, just watch the "usage" screen on any cellphone made in recent years, and reset it each monthly cycle.
This is just another case of NannyStateism.
. . . and there you have it: the ultimate question is "how much has the incident rate of water damage to smartphones increased with the introduction of the iPhone 4?"
. . . and here I was, thinking that the ultimate question would have been about a deeper philosophical issue. I guess we learn something new every day! :-D