Quit voting exclusively for the big parties, nothing will change if you keep voting for them. Even if your preferred party doesn't get a single seat, keep voting for them, our campaign finance laws allocate funding based on popular vote, so every vote increases their chance at the next election. Over time great things can happen.
I disagree.
Throw the Libertarian party a tax deductable $20 donation. A party gets $1.75 in funding for your vote per year. A $20 donation will make more difference than your vote will, and frees up your vote to cast strategically.
I agree. As I said else where, the current governement can't work together. So collapsing the government and putting in a new one is entirely appropriate.
The problem is we are going to elect the same government we have now. There ought to be some laws in place that prevent the people who failed to work together from being the people who have to work together again.
Harper shouldn't be allowed to run for PM. Period. We need new blood.
I'm a little pissed that we're having another expensive election.
Meh, that's Harpers fault. When you have such a precarious minority you have to work with the other parties to get things done. Harper doesn't. The other parties have no recourse but to either do what he wants, or collapse the government, and Harper keeps counting on them to do what he wants because no one wants an election. Its complete bullshit, but I don't blame the other parties for getting sick of him and calling his bluff.
Sad thing is we're going to likely elect virtually exactly the same government we have now. Perhaps when a government falls to a vote of non-confidence there should be a law to prevent the same leader from running for the defeated party, term limits would help too. Canada has got a government that simply won't work together, and our only recourse is to have an election to get a new government. That part of the system works. The problem is we keep electing the same people into government. We need new blood. But there is no way to get it, because we elect the party not the person. And as long as Harper runs, there are enough conservatives to give the conservatives another minority and put him back into power.
The accomplishment being clicking on mobs until your finger falls off? Just saying. It's a time waster no matter how you play it. Not that there's anything wrong about that.
At a certain point, there is a genuine difficulty to do certain things that requires a certain amount of skill and intelligence.
Not all mmorpgs have this mind you... some are just mindless time sinks and nothing more.
What I don't get is when people don't accept that these tradeoffs are *possible*. That I can make a middle class wage and still enjoy my life in my postage stamp sized studio with my significant other.
There you go. You don't have kids. Add kids to the picture and its a whole different ballgame. I lived in a condo in the city too, until I had kids.
Its not just about schools.
Suddenly postage stamp sized studio simply isn't big enough, and you have to choose between taking on hundreds of thousands in additional debt to add a couple bedrooms and another bathroom...and the kids still won't be able to go outside unless you make a trip to the park down the block... or you can move out to the suburbs for the same price, and the kids can play outside in the back yard while you watch them from the kitchen...
And what do we really want for our kids? A place that bores the shit out of them so much that their choices are: "study like hell so they can leave" or "do drugs and fuck"?
Sounds more like small town america than the suburbs.
Seriously, I grew up in the suburbs. It wasn't that bad. There were malls and movie theatres and restaurants. And an hour or so on the bus would put us downtown... for concerts, nightclubs, etc. At 16 we got jobs and cars, and the trip downtown was under 45 minutes.
All that said, I agree with your sentiment regarding choice. I have no desire to dictate how you live your life.
But in my own experience, the choice between taking on massive additional debt or moving to the suburbs wasn't much of a choice at all. I simply couldn't afford enough space for a family downtown short of living in a complete shit hole in the worst part.
Obviously these people can afford the real estate because they're living there...
Vancouver was a lot more affordable not that long ago. Average people bought homes for average prices; say 10 years ago they bought place for $320k with 30k down and had a bearable 290k mortgage.
Now those homes are $800k, and they've got the mortgage down to say $180k. They can sell their place and move into a million dollar home with a $620k after paying off the mortgage, and maybe toss in 25k cash they've saved up as well for a downpayment of $645k; and they take on $355k mortgage which is expensive, but bearable at current rates with two working adults, especially if you've got one or no cars.
But young couples today... suppose they've got their 50,000k downpayment saved up. (which is honestly a HELL of a lot more than most couples can scrounge up unless they've got family helping out)
They can't come close to buying the home their counter parts from 10 years ago sold. They'd need a 750k mortgage for a hose that was worth $320 only 10 years before.
Basically, if you were in the market before the price jump you are doing just fine, and thus there are lots of perfectly average people who own property in Vancouver worth a million plus. But people growing up and entering the market, or looking at moving from another city that hasn't spiked... simply can't get in.
People will PAY EXTRA to cheat depriving themselves of any glory in accomplishment... for the empty bragging rights that come with having something you didn't earn, and which has no inherent real world value.
Yeah Vancouver has monthly passes too, which really should be considered in any assessment of transit. A 3 zone pass (which is what you generally need to get from the suburbs to down town) is $151/month.
I calculate my car expenses as "Car+Insurance+Repairs+Gas" not just "Gas" because doing it this way illustrates that owning a car is WAY more expensive than taking public transit
But that forumula almost presumes you can do without a car entirely, which most of us can't. So for most of us the car is present either way so that's a wash. The insurance drops if you downgrade it to pleasure from commuter, and repairs/gas go down in proportion to the mileage you drive. Its a bit more complex but more realistic.
The trouble with transit in vancouver is that its generally a LOT slower for most people, the skytrain works great if you happen to live and work near terminals... but as soon as you are bussing to it at each end a trip that takes an hour by car in rush hour, 30 minutes by car off peak... takes 2hrs by transit regardless.
My time is valuable.
Finally, the city is famous for rain. Most of us can't afford to show up for work looking like something the cat dragged in. And that makes public transit less desirable... umbrellas and boots, and water proof jackets only get you so far. Spend any length of time as a pedestrian and you'll want a change of clothes.
It also makes bike commuting nearly impossible, unless you are fortunate enough to be able to change and shower once you get to work.
Contrast with driving direct from garage to parkade and back. It may well cost more, but its faster, and a lot more comfortable.
I've got some vmware server stuff at home, and some Xen stuff at work, I wasn't happy with some of the vmware is doing, and if Xen is going down the crapper too...
How would the US react if other countries attempted to enforce their laws against people in the US?
And how is that happening in this case?
If China passed a law that required of its citizens/businesses not to deal with suppliers that openly supported Tibet, and it was found that some Chinese company dealt with some American company that had a pro-Tibet... and then china fined the chinese company.
That would be the equivalent situation. How would the US react? It wouldn't. Because the Chinese aren't doing anything to anyone in America.
At most the US would write a strongly worded letter to China about the inappropriateness of creating rules that disfavor certain American suppliers... which China would ignore or respond with "Mind your own business."
The roads will still disintigrate due to exposure to the elements and erosion even if nothing but honda insights ever drive on it.
And given the vast majority of goods are delivered via truck even a family with no vehicle at all has a vested interest in having the infrastructure in place and maintained.
It takes time for a person to adequately acculturate to the point where they can function independently in society. Or to demonstrate the commitment necessary to be a US citizen.
Seattle is a 2.5 hour drive from here, English is my first language, I'm educated and I'm in good health. I know american politics, geography, and history better than the average american. Oh... I get it... that's the problem.
It would indeed take some time to make the switch to a diet of twinkies and booze to put on enough weight and kill enough brain cells to properly acculturate, and demonstrate the commitment necessary to be a US citizen.
I kid, I kid.:p
But that said, in all seriousness, I'd visit more often if your border agents weren't such arrogant asses.
"Opponents urged the judge to reject the deal on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds and said it would give Google exclusive rights to digitize "orphan works" -- out-of-print books which remain under copyright but whose authors cannot be traced."
Except the part about only the author or direct relative renewing. If Steven King dies and leaves no heirs that shouldn't mean the books are all public domain within 5 years. I have no issue with a company renewing copyrights.
But it should still expire within 30 to 50 years of being published.
I bet there's hundreds of books that would be useful to me that could either not be found over here, out of print, or just plain overpriced that need some better system for handling them in this age.
I bet there are too.
However, having one corporate behemoth gain EXCLUSIVE rights to the works by paying a guild that doesn't actually necessarily even have rights to all the works in question is NOT THE SOLUTION.
I actually agree on both your points (that rsa was a preliminary target, and that physical access was required...). But that doesn't make it a sophisticated attack.
Indeed the fact that physical access was probably required points directly towards a low tech attach involving some old fashioned "social engineering".
1) But I have nothing against cookies themselves, and I want to be able to use them to keep settings on various sites, to allow session state, and a variety of other things. The technology isn't the problem.
2) Browser fingerprinting is reliable enough that even with cookies off people who want to track you can.
We already HAVE laws about this, isnt that why privacy policies are listed?
And the laws I want passed are to set a minimum threshold of rights that you can't sign away by clicking a box or disclaiming it in a fine print privacy policy.
Meh, I'm still unconvinced that the "extremely sophisticated attack" might be code for the "login to the company vpn was the same as his dog's name, which he posted on facebook..."
Or maybe a secretary who knew the passwords to the system got bribed...
An "Advanced Persistent Threat" really doesn't mean much when you break it down.
Most security breaches aren't all that sophisticated technically, and I'm cynical that they are making it sound much more impressive than it really was to try and preserve their credibility.
Only good things can come from competition in the Canadian wireless market and international companies are the best place to get that competition./soapbox
Right. Because there is no value whatsoever to sovereignty.
Don't be too eager to sell control of the countries critical infrastructure to another country. That's the sort of thing that can really bite you in the ass in the long run in all kinds of really nasty ways, even if it looks better in the short run.
Slashdot Mirror
~doubletake~
Wow! That's what I saw too. I'm actually surprised to discover it wasn't just me.
Pretty much. The poster is trans if I recall. So its understandable to feel flattered when someone gets you right.
Quit voting exclusively for the big parties, nothing will change if you keep voting for them. Even if your preferred party doesn't get a single seat, keep voting for them, our campaign finance laws allocate funding based on popular vote, so every vote increases their chance at the next election. Over time great things can happen.
I disagree.
Throw the Libertarian party a tax deductable $20 donation. A party gets $1.75 in funding for your vote per year. A $20 donation will make more difference than your vote will, and frees up your vote to cast strategically.
groklaw lays the bias on a little thick for my tastes, but overall I think they do good work.
I agree. As I said else where, the current governement can't work together. So collapsing the government and putting in a new one is entirely appropriate.
The problem is we are going to elect the same government we have now. There ought to be some laws in place that prevent the people who failed to work together from being the people who have to work together again.
Harper shouldn't be allowed to run for PM. Period. We need new blood.
I'm a little pissed that we're having another expensive election.
Meh, that's Harpers fault. When you have such a precarious minority you have to work with the other parties to get things done. Harper doesn't. The other parties have no recourse but to either do what he wants, or collapse the government, and Harper keeps counting on them to do what he wants because no one wants an election. Its complete bullshit, but I don't blame the other parties for getting sick of him and calling his bluff.
Sad thing is we're going to likely elect virtually exactly the same government we have now. Perhaps when a government falls to a vote of non-confidence there should be a law to prevent the same leader from running for the defeated party, term limits would help too. Canada has got a government that simply won't work together, and our only recourse is to have an election to get a new government. That part of the system works. The problem is we keep electing the same people into government. We need new blood. But there is no way to get it, because we elect the party not the person. And as long as Harper runs, there are enough conservatives to give the conservatives another minority and put him back into power.
The accomplishment being clicking on mobs until your finger falls off? Just saying. It's a time waster no matter how you play it. Not that there's anything wrong about that.
At a certain point, there is a genuine difficulty to do certain things that requires a certain amount of skill and intelligence.
Not all mmorpgs have this mind you... some are just mindless time sinks and nothing more.
What I don't get is when people don't accept that these tradeoffs are *possible*. That I can make a middle class wage and still enjoy my life in my postage stamp sized studio with my significant other.
There you go. You don't have kids. Add kids to the picture and its a whole different ballgame. I lived in a condo in the city too, until I had kids.
Its not just about schools.
Suddenly postage stamp sized studio simply isn't big enough, and you have to choose between taking on hundreds of thousands in additional debt to add a couple bedrooms and another bathroom...and the kids still won't be able to go outside unless you make a trip to the park down the block... or you can move out to the suburbs for the same price, and the kids can play outside in the back yard while you watch them from the kitchen...
And what do we really want for our kids? A place that bores the shit out of them so much that their choices are: "study like hell so they can leave" or "do drugs and fuck"?
Sounds more like small town america than the suburbs.
Seriously, I grew up in the suburbs. It wasn't that bad. There were malls and movie theatres and restaurants. And an hour or so on the bus would put us downtown... for concerts, nightclubs, etc. At 16 we got jobs and cars, and the trip downtown was under 45 minutes.
All that said, I agree with your sentiment regarding choice. I have no desire to dictate how you live your life.
But in my own experience, the choice between taking on massive additional debt or moving to the suburbs wasn't much of a choice at all. I simply couldn't afford enough space for a family downtown short of living in a complete shit hole in the worst part.
Obviously these people can afford the real estate because they're living there...
Vancouver was a lot more affordable not that long ago. Average people bought homes for average prices; say 10 years ago they bought place for $320k with 30k down and had a bearable 290k mortgage.
Now those homes are $800k, and they've got the mortgage down to say $180k. They can sell their place and move into a million dollar home with a $620k after paying off the mortgage, and maybe toss in 25k cash they've saved up as well for a downpayment of $645k; and they take on $355k mortgage which is expensive, but bearable at current rates with two working adults, especially if you've got one or no cars.
But young couples today... suppose they've got their 50,000k downpayment saved up. (which is honestly a HELL of a lot more than most couples can scrounge up unless they've got family helping out)
They can't come close to buying the home their counter parts from 10 years ago sold. They'd need a 750k mortgage for a hose that was worth $320 only 10 years before.
Basically, if you were in the market before the price jump you are doing just fine, and thus there are lots of perfectly average people who own property in Vancouver worth a million plus. But people growing up and entering the market, or looking at moving from another city that hasn't spiked... simply can't get in.
You've obviously never played MMORPG. :)
People will PAY EXTRA to cheat depriving themselves of any glory in accomplishment... for the empty bragging rights that come with having something you didn't earn, and which has no inherent real world value.
But they still do it in droves.
Yeah Vancouver has monthly passes too, which really should be considered in any assessment of transit. A 3 zone pass (which is what you generally need to get from the suburbs to down town) is $151/month.
I calculate my car expenses as "Car+Insurance+Repairs+Gas" not just "Gas" because doing it this way illustrates that owning a car is WAY more expensive than taking public transit
But that forumula almost presumes you can do without a car entirely, which most of us can't. So for most of us the car is present either way so that's a wash. The insurance drops if you downgrade it to pleasure from commuter, and repairs/gas go down in proportion to the mileage you drive. Its a bit more complex but more realistic.
The trouble with transit in vancouver is that its generally a LOT slower for most people, the skytrain works great if you happen to live and work near terminals... but as soon as you are bussing to it at each end a trip that takes an hour by car in rush hour, 30 minutes by car off peak... takes 2hrs by transit regardless.
My time is valuable.
Finally, the city is famous for rain. Most of us can't afford to show up for work looking like something the cat dragged in. And that makes public transit less desirable... umbrellas and boots, and water proof jackets only get you so far. Spend any length of time as a pedestrian and you'll want a change of clothes.
It also makes bike commuting nearly impossible, unless you are fortunate enough to be able to change and shower once you get to work.
Contrast with driving direct from garage to parkade and back. It may well cost more, but its faster, and a lot more comfortable.
So what is the best solution out there right now?
I've got some vmware server stuff at home, and some Xen stuff at work, I wasn't happy with some of the vmware is doing, and if Xen is going down the crapper too...
What is decent and getting better?
How would the US react if other countries attempted to enforce their laws against people in the US?
And how is that happening in this case?
If China passed a law that required of its citizens/businesses not to deal with suppliers that openly supported Tibet, and it was found that some Chinese company dealt with some American company that had a pro-Tibet ... and then china fined the chinese company.
That would be the equivalent situation.
How would the US react? It wouldn't. Because the Chinese aren't doing anything to anyone in America.
At most the US would write a strongly worded letter to China about the inappropriateness of creating rules that disfavor certain American suppliers... which China would ignore or respond with "Mind your own business."
The roads will still disintigrate due to exposure to the elements and erosion even if nothing but honda insights ever drive on it.
And given the vast majority of goods are delivered via truck even a family with no vehicle at all has a vested interest in having the infrastructure in place and maintained.
It takes time for a person to adequately acculturate to the point where they can function independently in society. Or to demonstrate the commitment necessary to be a US citizen.
Seattle is a 2.5 hour drive from here, English is my first language, I'm educated and I'm in good health. I know american politics, geography, and history better than the average american. Oh... I get it... that's the problem.
It would indeed take some time to make the switch to a diet of twinkies and booze to put on enough weight and kill enough brain cells to properly acculturate, and demonstrate the commitment necessary to be a US citizen.
I kid, I kid. :p
But that said, in all seriousness, I'd visit more often if your border agents weren't such arrogant asses.
ORLY?
"Opponents urged the judge to reject the deal on antitrust, copyright and privacy grounds and said it would give Google exclusive rights to digitize "orphan works" -- out-of-print books which remain under copyright but whose authors cannot be traced."
Mar 22, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110323/ts_alt_afp/usitcompanybooksinternetgoogle_20110323003301
It sounds like an exclusive rights deal to me.
I actually agree on both points.
Except the part about only the author or direct relative renewing. If Steven King dies and leaves no heirs that shouldn't mean the books are all public domain within 5 years. I have no issue with a company renewing copyrights.
But it should still expire within 30 to 50 years of being published.
I bet there's hundreds of books that would be useful to me that could either not be found over here, out of print, or just plain overpriced that need some better system for handling them in this age.
I bet there are too.
However, having one corporate behemoth gain EXCLUSIVE rights to the works by paying a guild that doesn't actually necessarily even have rights to all the works in question is NOT THE SOLUTION.
I actually am a programmer, and I appreciate your musical instrument analogy.
That's entirely fair.
I actually agree on both your points (that rsa was a preliminary target, and that physical access was required...). But that doesn't make it a sophisticated attack.
Indeed the fact that physical access was probably required points directly towards a low tech attach involving some old fashioned "social engineering".
cookies...
1) But I have nothing against cookies themselves, and I want to be able to use them to keep settings on various sites, to allow session state, and a variety of other things. The technology isn't the problem.
2) Browser fingerprinting is reliable enough that even with cookies off people who want to track you can.
We already HAVE laws about this, isnt that why privacy policies are listed?
And the laws I want passed are to set a minimum threshold of rights that you can't sign away by clicking a box or disclaiming it in a fine print privacy policy.
Meh, I'm still unconvinced that the "extremely sophisticated attack" might be code for the "login to the company vpn was the same as his dog's name, which he posted on facebook..."
Or maybe a secretary who knew the passwords to the system got bribed...
An "Advanced Persistent Threat" really doesn't mean much when you break it down.
Most security breaches aren't all that sophisticated technically, and I'm cynical that they are making it sound much more impressive than it really was to try and preserve their credibility.
The PS3 has some pretty neat hardware. Tell me, what other machine can I buy if I want to dig into Cell programming?
At this point, if you don't want to write software for the PS3, what do you really care about digging into cell programming for?
Only good things can come from competition in the Canadian wireless market and international companies are the best place to get that competition. /soapbox
Right. Because there is no value whatsoever to sovereignty.
Don't be too eager to sell control of the countries critical infrastructure to another country. That's the sort of thing that can really bite you in the ass in the long run in all kinds of really nasty ways, even if it looks better in the short run.
I said NORMAL person. :p