It may be world wide as well. Here in the US there's ASCAP, that legally extorts money from bar owners, even if the bands that play in them play only their own compositions.
One bar owner here in Springfield who had a folk music venue lost his business fighting ASCAP's extortion. And make no mistake, it's nothing short of legalized extortion.
You may or may not have noticed this, but there's no shortage of free content all over them thar intarwebs.
I pay AT&T $20 per month to access that "free" content. I don't pay anything to watch TV. There are people who just can't afford an internet connection. Nice taking away the poor's only form of entertainment.
Since 3D isn't panning out the only thing left is to eliminate broadcast.
Have you been drinking? What does 3D's dismal failure have to do with broadcast TV? The internet streams just fine over wifi to the notebook I'm typing on now, why would I need more bandwidth? I watch most TV over the internet, but I don't think the World Series was on the internet, and neither are the local news shows.
I'm completely against the "you must always pay for everything" mindset. Next thing you know, some corporation will find a way to charge you for breathing.
Well, it will come with Extended Copy Protection to ensure that no pirate material is used. It will come with a feature called "OtherOS" that it will remove after you've bought and paid for the TV. And of course it will keep all your private information on poorly locked down, internet-facing databases.
It also frightens me slightly that between you, betterunixthanunix, and k6mfw, not one of you can conceive of a person disagreeing with the/. groupthink for any reason other than being paid to do so, or "smoking crack".
This wasn't in response to a comment I disagreed with, it was in response to a comment wondering why interesting comments had been voted down. Modding down a comment simply because you disagree with it is usually bad form.
Could be a lot of things, although I doubt it's a bug. Could be someone with mod points is smoking crack, someone with mod points works for the DoJ, someone with mod points is a T - Party* Wikileaks (and OWS) hater, or one of the fools who mods someone down just because they're on his "freaks" list.
I'm sure it will straighten itself out when more folks moderate. Most good comments eventually get modded up.
However, both you and I should be modded offtopic, because we are (I wish the "no bonus" buttons worked).
* the T stands for Tard unless you're a T-Party member who belongs to the top 1%. T-Partiers are fools following the Koch brothers and working against America and their own interests.
Electric companies are a rather poor example since they're a government-enforced monopoly.
No different than a cable company, most of which have government sponsored monopolies. Yes, I would prefer to be able to choose between as many ISPs (and electric companies!) as I can cell phone companies, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
I have no idea who lays European fiber and cable. If I had my way, CWLP would run the local cable company. If my electric bill gets too high, or if there are a lot of outages, or custmer service turns bad, the Mayor loses his job. So we wind up with the lowest electric rates in the state, the best uptime, and the best customer service. I feel sorry for folks who are stuck with a corporate electric company.
Hell, I'm not sure who layed the cable in my own town.
"Spade" is far from obsolete. Rent "Gran Torino". Kowalski, who's an old non-PC curmudgeon, uses that exact slur against a group of young blacks (as well as calling his Asian friend Tran "zipperhead" and "gook", his Irish friend "Mick", and his Italian friend "dego").
Anyone who thinks "chink in the armor" is a Chinaman wearing chain mail is woefully ignorant; pathetically ignorant, especially since I don't know a single person who's predjudiced against the Chinese, although I know a lot of rednecks who hate blacks and call them "nigger", "coon", and "spade". Anyone who substitutes "kink" for "chink" is pitifully PC. What ever happened to "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me"? Especially when it's obvious that the "slur" doesn't have anything whatever to do with you?
This is incredibly stupid bullshit. I'm of Irish descent, and dammit, I'm proud to be a Mick! PC is one of the things about our society I detest.
Lawyers usually prefer to see cases resolved out of court, as there's more profit in a settlement than reaching a verdict. Plus, if you have a settlement you have a contract, but nobody knows for sure what a judge or jury will decide.
Minor nit: it;s Darl, not Darryl. And the world is full of like-minded sociaopaths like McBride; the RIAA and MPAA are full of them (as is every boardroom in every corporation).
I wonder if Microsoft or Apple are secretly funding this guy, like MS funded SCO?
I wouldn't want anyone to do it, which was the actual point. If it were a government tax rather than a bank fee, I could vote against whatever politician voted for that tax. An ATM fee? generaly you only pay the fee at your bank's competitor's ATM; you have no recourse whatever.
Why don't you use free ATMs?
I stopped using ATMs years ago, and that was one of the reasons. You're not always by your bank's ATM, especially if you opt for a smaller bank that doesn't fuck you over like the "too big to fail" banks do.
chink 1 (chngk) n. A narrow opening, such as a crack or fissure. tr.v. chinked, chinkÂing, chinks 1. To make narrow openings in. 2. To fill narrow openings in.
"Chink in the armor" has nothing whatever to do with the Chinese. You would refuse to use the word "spade" because it can also mean a black person, besides a certain type of digging tool?
Ever heard the phrase "call a spade a spade?" That phrasee has nothing to do with black people, just as "chink in the armor" has nothing to do with Chinese people.
Too bad the parent commenter doesn't have an account, the comment was insightful. Posting anonymously almost guarantees that the comment won't be seen. Pity.
Who would have ever thought that people who swallow bullshit corporate media propaganda that completely opposes reason and logic would have slashdot accounts? Anyone earning less than $300k per year in the tea party is, IMO, a complete moron.
I'm all in favour of net neutrality, but I'm sorry, no private company could possibly screw up things as bad as when the government gets involved and starts "regulating".
You want government vs "free" market? Let me tell you about Illinois electric companies. My provider, CWLP, is government owned and operated. Ten miles away they have the corporate Amerin.
My electric bills are half of Amerin customers. Amerin's customer service is abysmal, CWLP's is excellent. CWLP has the best uptime in the state, the lowest rates in the state, and is not only completely self-supporting, but eases our taxes here because it makes a profit that goes straight to the city government.
In March of 2006 two F2 (almost F3) tornados ripped through here and completely destroyed the electrical infrastructure in the southern part of town. My neighborhood didn't have a single pole left. My power was back on in a week. It was a couple of years before all evidence of the tornados was gone.
In June of that year an F1 passed through Cahokia, 100 miles south, where I used to live. They have Amerin. I visited my friend Jeff a month after that tornado, and the only evidence a tornado had been there was that he still didn't have any electricity, a FULL MONTH LATER. The poles and wires were up, but had no power.
See, Jeff has no recourse. He can't just switch to a different electric company and he can't vote against Amerin's CEO. So Amerin can fuck him over any way it wants; the only thing that keeps Amerin in check at all is the (how you put it) "regulating".
If I get bad customer service, frequent outages, or high bills the Mayor will lose his job next election.
Sorry, son, but you've swallowed toxic corporate bullshit. You believe a lie. Wake up.
Nobody would complain about FTP traffic being slowed during busy bursts to avoid interfering with voice traffic.
I don't know about nobody, but I'd complain. I'm on two-tier AT&T and paying extra for double speed. Throttle ME and I'll be as pissed off as if I'd bought a two pound bag of potatos and found that it only had a pound of potatos in it.
"You get what you pay for?" Not always. But you usually pay for what you get.
Pro NN: The End User will end up paying more for service? Prove it; I simply don't believe it. They're not fighting against giving you extra for what you pay now, they're for giving you less for what you pay now. The statement "Pro NN: The End User will end up paying more" is utter bullshit.
Anti NN: The End User will not have fare [did you mean "fair?"] access to other services? Why not? That makes no sense whatever; and in fact is the opposite of reality.
Pro NN: You cannot offer a service with a connection that included internet as a secondary option? Bullshit. It doesn't say you can't offer tiered speeds at different prices, it says you can't throttle Google (or cut it off completely) and let Bing stream full speed. It doesn't say Comcast can't offer both internet and cable, and it doesn't say AT&T can't offer two speeds at two prices.
Now without Net Neutrality a lot of companies wouldn't go too far to block too much just because it will piss off the customers and they switch.
To whom? Without NN I'd have the choice of AT&T without Skype, or Comcast without Hulu. Both choices are completely unaceptable. NN favors the end user, non-NN only favors ISPs.
Me too, but I think the GP was being sarcastic, especially with his nod to the Great American God Freem'Arkhet (described in the anti-Freem'Arkhet bible as "mammon").
The +5 funny might have tipped you off, as well.
Odd how the "free market" US has one or maybe two ISPs in any given town, while the "socialist" EU cities have multiple choices. But try to convince the T(ard) Party that maybe there are a few problems with their little green god and see how successful you are at it.
Apple's profits are meaningless as well, unless you own stock in Apple. Technology is about more than lucre. If you're more concerned about unit sales than the underlying tech and what a tool will do for you, IMO you're not much of a nerd. As it stands, an iPhone can't do much my $100 phone can't. But then, a brand new Lamborghini won't do anything my ten year old Chrysler can't. iPhones are to non-greedheads what Lamborghinis are; just status symbols.
Also, "buying shiny toys" isn't what being a nerd is about, either. It's about designing those shiny toys.
Slashdot Mirror
It may be world wide as well. Here in the US there's ASCAP, that legally extorts money from bar owners, even if the bands that play in them play only their own compositions.
One bar owner here in Springfield who had a folk music venue lost his business fighting ASCAP's extortion. And make no mistake, it's nothing short of legalized extortion.
You may or may not have noticed this, but there's no shortage of free content all over them thar intarwebs.
I pay AT&T $20 per month to access that "free" content. I don't pay anything to watch TV. There are people who just can't afford an internet connection. Nice taking away the poor's only form of entertainment.
Since 3D isn't panning out the only thing left is to eliminate broadcast.
Have you been drinking? What does 3D's dismal failure have to do with broadcast TV? The internet streams just fine over wifi to the notebook I'm typing on now, why would I need more bandwidth? I watch most TV over the internet, but I don't think the World Series was on the internet, and neither are the local news shows.
I'm completely against the "you must always pay for everything" mindset. Next thing you know, some corporation will find a way to charge you for breathing.
Well, it will come with Extended Copy Protection to ensure that no pirate material is used. It will come with a feature called "OtherOS" that it will remove after you've bought and paid for the TV. And of course it will keep all your private information on poorly locked down, internet-facing databases.
Can't wait to buy one.
It also frightens me slightly that between you, betterunixthanunix, and k6mfw, not one of you can conceive of a person disagreeing with the /. groupthink for any reason other than being paid to do so, or "smoking crack".
This wasn't in response to a comment I disagreed with, it was in response to a comment wondering why interesting comments had been voted down. Modding down a comment simply because you disagree with it is usually bad form.
I mean, how hard is it to get a damn warrant these days?
Not nearly as hard as amending the Constitution. Why go through the bother of a Constitutional amendment when you can simply ignore the Constitution?
Could be a lot of things, although I doubt it's a bug. Could be someone with mod points is smoking crack, someone with mod points works for the DoJ, someone with mod points is a T - Party* Wikileaks (and OWS) hater, or one of the fools who mods someone down just because they're on his "freaks" list.
I'm sure it will straighten itself out when more folks moderate. Most good comments eventually get modded up.
However, both you and I should be modded offtopic, because we are (I wish the "no bonus" buttons worked).
* the T stands for Tard unless you're a T-Party member who belongs to the top 1%. T-Partiers are fools following the Koch brothers and working against America and their own interests.
Electric companies are a rather poor example since they're a government-enforced monopoly.
No different than a cable company, most of which have government sponsored monopolies. Yes, I would prefer to be able to choose between as many ISPs (and electric companies!) as I can cell phone companies, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
I have no idea who lays European fiber and cable. If I had my way, CWLP would run the local cable company. If my electric bill gets too high, or if there are a lot of outages, or custmer service turns bad, the Mayor loses his job. So we wind up with the lowest electric rates in the state, the best uptime, and the best customer service. I feel sorry for folks who are stuck with a corporate electric company.
Hell, I'm not sure who layed the cable in my own town.
"Spade" is far from obsolete. Rent "Gran Torino". Kowalski, who's an old non-PC curmudgeon, uses that exact slur against a group of young blacks (as well as calling his Asian friend Tran "zipperhead" and "gook", his Irish friend "Mick", and his Italian friend "dego").
Anyone who thinks "chink in the armor" is a Chinaman wearing chain mail is woefully ignorant; pathetically ignorant, especially since I don't know a single person who's predjudiced against the Chinese, although I know a lot of rednecks who hate blacks and call them "nigger", "coon", and "spade". Anyone who substitutes "kink" for "chink" is pitifully PC. What ever happened to "sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me"? Especially when it's obvious that the "slur" doesn't have anything whatever to do with you?
This is incredibly stupid bullshit. I'm of Irish descent, and dammit, I'm proud to be a Mick! PC is one of the things about our society I detest.
Lawyers usually prefer to see cases resolved out of court, as there's more profit in a settlement than reaching a verdict. Plus, if you have a settlement you have a contract, but nobody knows for sure what a judge or jury will decide.
Minor nit: it;s Darl, not Darryl. And the world is full of like-minded sociaopaths like McBride; the RIAA and MPAA are full of them (as is every boardroom in every corporation).
I wonder if Microsoft or Apple are secretly funding this guy, like MS funded SCO?
Why would you want the government to do it?
I wouldn't want anyone to do it, which was the actual point. If it were a government tax rather than a bank fee, I could vote against whatever politician voted for that tax. An ATM fee? generaly you only pay the fee at your bank's competitor's ATM; you have no recourse whatever.
Why don't you use free ATMs?
I stopped using ATMs years ago, and that was one of the reasons. You're not always by your bank's ATM, especially if you opt for a smaller bank that doesn't fuck you over like the "too big to fail" banks do.
We don't have a free market when it comes to communication
That's why I put "free market" in quotes.
chink 1 (chngk)
n.
A narrow opening, such as a crack or fissure.
tr.v. chinked, chinkÂing, chinks
1. To make narrow openings in.
2. To fill narrow openings in.
"Chink in the armor" has nothing whatever to do with the Chinese. You would refuse to use the word "spade" because it can also mean a black person, besides a certain type of digging tool?
Ever heard the phrase "call a spade a spade?" That phrasee has nothing to do with black people, just as "chink in the armor" has nothing to do with Chinese people.
You can't seriously believe that Americans have control of their government.
One percent of Americans do.
Laws should not control these type of innovations. These people are so very short sited [sic] and have only desire to profit from nothingness.
Why does it seem that the right-wing anti-government drones can't handle homophones?
Prolly has loop holes... Too bad people just wanna...
*sigh*. You're the reason government is screwed; our education system is abysmal.
Too bad the parent commenter doesn't have an account, the comment was insightful. Posting anonymously almost guarantees that the comment won't be seen. Pity.
Who would have ever thought that people who swallow bullshit corporate media propaganda that completely opposes reason and logic would have slashdot accounts? Anyone earning less than $300k per year in the tea party is, IMO, a complete moron.
I'm all in favour of net neutrality, but I'm sorry, no private company could possibly screw up things as bad as when the government gets involved and starts "regulating".
You want government vs "free" market? Let me tell you about Illinois electric companies. My provider, CWLP, is government owned and operated. Ten miles away they have the corporate Amerin.
My electric bills are half of Amerin customers. Amerin's customer service is abysmal, CWLP's is excellent. CWLP has the best uptime in the state, the lowest rates in the state, and is not only completely self-supporting, but eases our taxes here because it makes a profit that goes straight to the city government.
In March of 2006 two F2 (almost F3) tornados ripped through here and completely destroyed the electrical infrastructure in the southern part of town. My neighborhood didn't have a single pole left. My power was back on in a week. It was a couple of years before all evidence of the tornados was gone.
In June of that year an F1 passed through Cahokia, 100 miles south, where I used to live. They have Amerin. I visited my friend Jeff a month after that tornado, and the only evidence a tornado had been there was that he still didn't have any electricity, a FULL MONTH LATER. The poles and wires were up, but had no power.
See, Jeff has no recourse. He can't just switch to a different electric company and he can't vote against Amerin's CEO. So Amerin can fuck him over any way it wants; the only thing that keeps Amerin in check at all is the (how you put it) "regulating".
If I get bad customer service, frequent outages, or high bills the Mayor will lose his job next election.
Sorry, son, but you've swallowed toxic corporate bullshit. You believe a lie. Wake up.
Nobody would complain about FTP traffic being slowed during busy bursts to avoid interfering with voice traffic.
I don't know about nobody, but I'd complain. I'm on two-tier AT&T and paying extra for double speed. Throttle ME and I'll be as pissed off as if I'd bought a two pound bag of potatos and found that it only had a pound of potatos in it.
"You get what you pay for?" Not always. But you usually pay for what you get.
Now without Net Neutrality a lot of companies wouldn't go too far to block too much just because it will piss off the customers and they switch.
To whom? Without NN I'd have the choice of AT&T without Skype, or Comcast without Hulu. Both choices are completely unaceptable. NN favors the end user, non-NN only favors ISPs.
Me too, but I think the GP was being sarcastic, especially with his nod to the Great American God Freem'Arkhet (described in the anti-Freem'Arkhet bible as "mammon").
The +5 funny might have tipped you off, as well.
Odd how the "free market" US has one or maybe two ISPs in any given town, while the "socialist" EU cities have multiple choices. But try to convince the T(ard) Party that maybe there are a few problems with their little green god and see how successful you are at it.
We're screwed, dude.
Oooh, kinky armor! Uh, do you mean "chink"? A chink in your armor can be deadly, a kink in your armor is only uncomfortable.
Apple's profits are meaningless as well, unless you own stock in Apple. Technology is about more than lucre. If you're more concerned about unit sales than the underlying tech and what a tool will do for you, IMO you're not much of a nerd. As it stands, an iPhone can't do much my $100 phone can't. But then, a brand new Lamborghini won't do anything my ten year old Chrysler can't. iPhones are to non-greedheads what Lamborghinis are; just status symbols.
Also, "buying shiny toys" isn't what being a nerd is about, either. It's about designing those shiny toys.