I did a search for "amateur pictures" on Google images, and let me tell you, I am in favor of allowing THAT kind of phototography in public places in NYC. In fact, I think there is a definite shortage of amateur photography taking place.
He made money by entering a market where the only real costs of manufacture are the initial R&D. As he is able to "value price" a product at ~£200 (windows) that has a per-unit cost of only a few pence (cd, booklet, box), he is a billionaire.
Those R&D costs are probably astronomical for a product like Windows. And don't forget the cost of support, infrastructure, real estate, localization, marketing, testing, security, etc... It's not like they just do some R&D and then there are zero expenses aside from manufacturing.
covering the ass of the very unprofessional police officer who made this stupid arrest
Can you explain why the officer is unprofessional and stupid for arresting someone for breaking the law? Maybe you flunked civics class -- it's not his duty to interpret the law, only to enforce it. If the law on the books says it's illegal to audio-record police officers, then he is obligated to enforce that law. Maybe you should call the law stupid instead.
I have one of these. They work great. Granted it works on a blacklist instead of a whitelist, but the blacklist gets populated pretty quickly and I've found that I don't need to add entries very often at all. You can hook up an answering machine, and any "blocked" calls can get sent directly to the answering machine without ever ringing the phone. You can block with wildcards, so entire area codes, certain prefixes, ranges, etc.. It's really very nice. I paid like $100 for mine.
Cash-back, airline miles, and other incentives are actually profit
I wouldn't exactly call this "profit" since you're buying goods/services to get it. You're never raising your net worth. It's more like "discount". I get 1% cash back on all my CC purchases. I wouldn't call that a 1% return, I would call it a 1% discount.
Not really. It's just that now the bobby pins are used to pick handcuff locks, the lipstick is a cleverly disguised crack pipe, and the tranquilizers are a prescription for ADD
As proven on Mythbusters, almost everything is dirtier than a toilet seat
The fallacy here is that having bacteria does not necessarily make something "dirty" (unhealthy). There's probably more bacteria in my stomach right now that my toilet seat. Does that mean I wouldn't want to get food in my stomach? There's good bacteria, chaotic neutral bacteria, and chaotic evil bacteria.
I can't believe in this day and age someone would recommend starting with vi/vim. It's such an archaic modality. I'm not saying you can't be productive in vi (I used to be extremely proficient) or shouldn't know how to use it for emergencies, it just makes the entire system seem antiquated and stupid if you tell people that's how to code stuff in Linux. "Here's this crappy text-based editor, and then you can use these other command line tools to compile and then debug your program in text mode. Linux is pretty advanced!"
Yeah. It's technically illegal for those flea-market bozos to be selling pirate booty for profit, and normally I would side with the wronged, but the RIAA loses all support/sympathy from me when they make up these bullshit figures. It just reaffirms that they are liars and con-men. They were price-fixing quite happily for years and years, screwing America, and then call shenanigans on a bunch of two-bit flea market pirates and then lie about the numbers. I vowed long ago never to pay for another piece of music from them and this really only serves to strengthen my resolve in the matter.
Well, if Privacy International says it's so, then it must be so!
I mean, they're Privacy International for cripe's sake. That's at least 20% better than just Privacy National. Just because I had never heard of them until today is irrelevant.
The only thing that makes something a "fact" is that people believe it. Therefore, "fact" is predicated entirely on humans' beliefs. Also, outside of human consciousness "fact" doesn't even exist. It's like the tree falling in the forest. If nobody is there to hear it, it doesn't make a sound because it doesn't even exist. From every person's perspective and consciousness, only the things they believe or know are the things that exist. since we don't share any collective consciousness.
It's certainly possible to "know" something without proof that can be communicated in some fashion to another person. For instance, I know I dreamed about robots last night. Can I "prove" it? Since I can't "prove" it does that mean I don't actually "know" that I dreamed about robots? It's entirely possible this guy has had an experience that proves to him beyond any doubt that God exists. He knows it. It doesn't matter if he can prove it to anyone else, if he believes it, then it's true from his perspective. Just because you are not privy to his "proof" does not make it not true. As soon as you believe something, you know it, and vice-versa. Fact and belief are intertwined. See Moore's Paradox.
I don't know if I would call that sticking it to them. Gateway is a billion dollar company. So the cost of lawyers (and maybe computer $$ if they lose) is maybe like 0.000000000001% of their annual revenue. This poor sap's $1000 computer is probably like 50% of his annual revenue. So I think the majority of the hurt will be on H. S. Dropout if he loses. If he wins, I doubt Gateway will care much.
Slashdot Mirror
Technically, toilet paper has 6 sides.
I did a search for "amateur pictures" on Google images, and let me tell you, I am in favor of allowing THAT kind of phototography in public places in NYC. In fact, I think there is a definite shortage of amateur photography taking place.
an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores
Huh? Does that word mean something different in Englandland?
I have a better idea. How about we pay $50 and we can have the privilege of sitting and watching 40 hours of uninterrupted commercials.
Once you've gone black, you never go back.
they shouldn't have based their business model on making easy-to-immitate games
He made money by entering a market where the only real costs of manufacture are the initial R&D. As he is able to "value price" a product at ~£200 (windows) that has a per-unit cost of only a few pence (cd, booklet, box), he is a billionaire.
Those R&D costs are probably astronomical for a product like Windows. And don't forget the cost of support, infrastructure, real estate, localization, marketing, testing, security, etc... It's not like they just do some R&D and then there are zero expenses aside from manufacturing.
Songs can't be set as ringtones
Praise Jesus!
covering the ass of the very unprofessional police officer who made this stupid arrest
Can you explain why the officer is unprofessional and stupid for arresting someone for breaking the law? Maybe you flunked civics class -- it's not his duty to interpret the law, only to enforce it. If the law on the books says it's illegal to audio-record police officers, then he is obligated to enforce that law. Maybe you should call the law stupid instead.
Nothing lasts forever.
You've never had my wife's cooking
I have one of these. They work great. Granted it works on a blacklist instead of a whitelist, but the blacklist gets populated pretty quickly and I've found that I don't need to add entries very often at all. You can hook up an answering machine, and any "blocked" calls can get sent directly to the answering machine without ever ringing the phone. You can block with wildcards, so entire area codes, certain prefixes, ranges, etc.. It's really very nice. I paid like $100 for mine.
Cash-back, airline miles, and other incentives are actually profit
I wouldn't exactly call this "profit" since you're buying goods/services to get it. You're never raising your net worth. It's more like "discount". I get 1% cash back on all my CC purchases. I wouldn't call that a 1% return, I would call it a 1% discount.
My how times have changed
Not really. It's just that now the bobby pins are used to pick handcuff locks, the lipstick is a cleverly disguised crack pipe, and the tranquilizers are a prescription for ADD
As proven on Mythbusters, almost everything is dirtier than a toilet seat
The fallacy here is that having bacteria does not necessarily make something "dirty" (unhealthy). There's probably more bacteria in my stomach right now that my toilet seat. Does that mean I wouldn't want to get food in my stomach? There's good bacteria, chaotic neutral bacteria, and chaotic evil bacteria.
0b4m4, u r like totally teh r0x0r! U r in my computerz stealing my votez!!
I would like to see laws put into place that allows whales to harvest 255 humans every year for their sadistic pagan rituals.
I can't believe in this day and age someone would recommend starting with vi/vim. It's such an archaic modality. I'm not saying you can't be productive in vi (I used to be extremely proficient) or shouldn't know how to use it for emergencies, it just makes the entire system seem antiquated and stupid if you tell people that's how to code stuff in Linux. "Here's this crappy text-based editor, and then you can use these other command line tools to compile and then debug your program in text mode. Linux is pretty advanced!"
If you had bothered to RTFA, it's only the audio portion of the recording that is illegal.
I'm thinking the local pub will receive about $35,000 in funding over the next year or so...
Yeah. It's technically illegal for those flea-market bozos to be selling pirate booty for profit, and normally I would side with the wronged, but the RIAA loses all support/sympathy from me when they make up these bullshit figures. It just reaffirms that they are liars and con-men. They were price-fixing quite happily for years and years, screwing America, and then call shenanigans on a bunch of two-bit flea market pirates and then lie about the numbers. I vowed long ago never to pay for another piece of music from them and this really only serves to strengthen my resolve in the matter.
Maybe they should just buy a ton of crappy Compaqs, peel off the Compaq sticker, and slap on an Apple sticker.
Well, if Privacy International says it's so, then it must be so!
I mean, they're Privacy International for cripe's sake. That's at least 20% better than just Privacy National. Just because I had never heard of them until today is irrelevant.
The only thing that makes something a "fact" is that people believe it. Therefore, "fact" is predicated entirely on humans' beliefs. Also, outside of human consciousness "fact" doesn't even exist. It's like the tree falling in the forest. If nobody is there to hear it, it doesn't make a sound because it doesn't even exist. From every person's perspective and consciousness, only the things they believe or know are the things that exist. since we don't share any collective consciousness.
It's certainly possible to "know" something without proof that can be communicated in some fashion to another person. For instance, I know I dreamed about robots last night. Can I "prove" it? Since I can't "prove" it does that mean I don't actually "know" that I dreamed about robots? It's entirely possible this guy has had an experience that proves to him beyond any doubt that God exists. He knows it. It doesn't matter if he can prove it to anyone else, if he believes it, then it's true from his perspective. Just because you are not privy to his "proof" does not make it not true. As soon as you believe something, you know it, and vice-versa. Fact and belief are intertwined. See Moore's Paradox.
I don't know if I would call that sticking it to them. Gateway is a billion dollar company. So the cost of lawyers (and maybe computer $$ if they lose) is maybe like 0.000000000001% of their annual revenue. This poor sap's $1000 computer is probably like 50% of his annual revenue. So I think the majority of the hurt will be on H. S. Dropout if he loses. If he wins, I doubt Gateway will care much.