Better yet, contact your congressman (of any Party, they all want to be re-elected) and tell them why this issue is important to you and how this will affect your vote in 2008.
World Population: 6,000,000,000+ US Population: 300,000,000
Over 95% of smart people are foreign-born.
"Pay them enough" reasoning is BS: the fact that I could sleep with the entire Swedish bikini team at once if I "paid them enough" is immaterial if I just plain cannot afford the price, OK?
We are already buying Japanese cars and Chinese TVs with your "pay enough" attitude.
Ask yourself, why are they moving to Canada and not India/China if low wages is all they are after?
Could they be moving to Canada because:
-it has a very similar social, economic, and political environment to the US which makes it good for business -Canada has 'open borders' for highly skilled and educated foreigners (yes, even Americans) -Canada has very strong labor laws protecting the immigrants: they have the same rights as the natives, can switch employers, won't be deported (in fact, "ratting out" a bad employer can them a permanent visa, as happened to a bunch of welders recently) -Canada believes in cultivating the best and the brightest, no matter where they were born
Face it, Canada is a mini-US, but with a more reasonable immigration policy. Canada is now the fastest growing economy in the entire G8 (the only one at over 3%), the Canadian dollar, the GDP, and the worker wealth.
I am pretty sure that the music industry wouldn't care about the pirates that don't have the money/wouldn't buy their music anyways.
However, a lot of the casual pirates in the United States, at least, do have the money and would buy the music if they could not get it in any other way (mostly rich college-age kids that have thousands of dollars in disposable income). Maybe they wouldn't buy all of the 10,000s of songs they downloaded, but even if they bought only 10% that's still over $1000 in lost music sales per student.
What causes it? Poverty, lack of education for females, and the religion (catholicism with its opposition to condoms/pills causes more kids to a degree).
Why are Mexicans poor? As usual, they are poor because of the political corruption, with Mexico being a de-facto dictatorship until quite recently.
This is not a fairy tale, this is Life, my friend.
I can tell that you are clueless about the subject, but you can change that. If you care, talk to some logistcs expert (supply chain, HR, a higher-up from a business office, a priest) at work , in church, someone perhaps in your family, and ask them how what you propose can be done, and at what cost it will be done.
Then decide for yourself if you would be willing to pay that cost.
I agree with you that it would be nice to get them to leave voluntarily, but I disargee that it can be done in a reasonable way.
Right now, the only way to get them to leave is to make it more miserable in America than in their own country. Since their country is probably one giant shithole, this would mean turning America into an even worse shithole. I don't think this is what anybody wants, do you?
Can it be done? Sure! Should it be done (by turning US of A into Nazi Germany or El Salvador)? Hell no!
I accept that other opinions exist, but that's not the point here. The point I am making is that these guys are apparently pushing out a vaporware at best or more likely a large-scale scam:
1) They fail to exhibit a schematic for the device. And no, this would not hurt their chances of getting a patent at least in US: they can get a provisional patent almost automatically, then spend a year improving their research.
2) They fail to submit to peer review of any kind. Again, it's in their interests to publish this as soon as they can, since this would also automatically establish their priority and give them a year to continue research and apply for a patent (and will not count as prior art for their patent for that one year).
3) They fail to do any kind of transparent demonstration of their claims. Now they won't even release a video that they filmed themselves! FTFA: "Well, 6pm London time has come and gone. However, Steorn's site now says that the video will go live at 6pm "Eastern Time.""
Well, if you really invented something like this, the thing to do would be to openly publish the specs, and openly exhibit the engine. Also, openly explain how you think the machine works instead of spewing mumbo-jumbo (if you don't know how, say you don't know).
What the scam artists do instead is allow only a very limited observation of the device, and ask for more money to 'develop' the idea. This is exactly what these guys also do: going to allow you to spectate the machine from the pre-defined angles only, and ask for venture capital to continue.
Great link, thanks. I did think he might try something along these lines since the rotation plane is actually more suitable for displaying it to traffic (perpendicular to the road and would work when the bike is stationary or moving slowly). Too bad TFA is not saying what exactly he does with the LEDs.
Simply 'bad' memories aren't really worth targetting. I think the real target are the memories of horrific, traumatic experiences that severely disrupt people's lives. These memories interfere with your abilities to function as a human being: think cocaine addiction in reverse!
Some people that go through rape, sustained torture, etc. can eventually put it past themselves and come out on top (though still 'changed,' e.g. John McCain). And some just cannot move on and need serious therapy.
Maybe he wants to use those blades to display '3-D' images with his LEDs?
I am not sure if this is what he does, maybe not, since it isn't that easy to figure out how to wire up enough LEDs in a line and update those based on their angular position. A mechanical engineering undergrad that can use microcontrollers?
No, linux is not on every desktop since it is harder to use and cannot run most windows-only programs. But most desktops in China and Russia do in fact run pirated Windows (this would be true for any other country where there is little danger of getting caught). In countries without any kind of penalty for copyright violations, retail Windows just cannot compete with pirated ('free') Windows.
My point is, we have no right to dictate to RIAA how and for what price they should sell their music, since it's THEIR music. If they wish to lose you or me as a customer, it's their right!
And saying 'lower the prices or I will pirate it' is not a good argument either; that would be like a rapist saying to the victim 'put out or I will rape you anyways.'
220 for parts, 80 to licenses, 100 in R&D, and 200 for the marketing/astroturfing hype... Sounds about right once you add the iMusicStore & the two-year Cingular lockin.
The thing is, ALL of the things I list will be unavoidable. Can the deportations be done? Absolutely, but it will cost us both our economy and our liberties. You would have to have a Gestapo to know who is who, and we will need to turn into El Salvador after we pay for all those stormtroopers, ID checkpoints, concentration camps, courts, and deportations).
I understand your frustration and I am not saying it's right for them to be here. All I am saying is that we have to be pragmatic, cool, and reasonable about any action we take.
It's dumb to hunt a deer with a nuke, if you know what I mean...
Slashdot Mirror
Better yet, contact your congressman (of any Party, they all want to be re-elected) and tell them why this issue is important to you and how this will affect your vote in 2008.
World Population: 6,000,000,000+
US Population: 300,000,000
Over 95% of smart people are foreign-born.
"Pay them enough" reasoning is BS: the fact that I could sleep with the entire Swedish bikini team at once if I "paid them enough" is immaterial if I just plain cannot afford the price, OK?
We are already buying Japanese cars and Chinese TVs with your "pay enough" attitude.
Ask yourself, why are they moving to Canada and not India/China if low wages is all they are after?
Could they be moving to Canada because:
-it has a very similar social, economic, and political environment to the US which makes it good for business
-Canada has 'open borders' for highly skilled and educated foreigners (yes, even Americans)
-Canada has very strong labor laws protecting the immigrants: they have the same rights as the natives, can switch employers, won't be deported (in fact, "ratting out" a bad employer can them a permanent visa, as happened to a bunch of welders recently)
-Canada believes in cultivating the best and the brightest, no matter where they were born
Face it, Canada is a mini-US, but with a more reasonable immigration policy. Canada is now the fastest growing economy in the entire G8 (the only one at over 3%), the Canadian dollar, the GDP, and the worker wealth.
I am pretty sure that the music industry wouldn't care about the pirates that don't have the money/wouldn't buy their music anyways.
However, a lot of the casual pirates in the United States, at least, do have the money and would buy the music if they could not get it in any other way (mostly rich college-age kids that have thousands of dollars in disposable income). Maybe they wouldn't buy all of the 10,000s of songs they downloaded, but even if they bought only 10% that's still over $1000 in lost music sales per student.
What causes it? Poverty, lack of education for females, and the religion (catholicism with its opposition to condoms/pills causes more kids to a degree).
Why are Mexicans poor? As usual, they are poor because of the political corruption, with Mexico being a de-facto dictatorship until quite recently.
Guess what? The companies don't care about people bitching as long as they keep watching.
What "services"? Suicide bombing?
This is not a fairy tale, this is Life, my friend.
I can tell that you are clueless about the subject, but you can change that. If you care, talk to some logistcs expert (supply chain, HR, a higher-up from a business office, a priest) at work , in church, someone perhaps in your family, and ask them how what you propose can be done, and at what cost it will be done.
Then decide for yourself if you would be willing to pay that cost.
I agree with you that it would be nice to get them to leave voluntarily, but I disargee that it can be done in a reasonable way.
Right now, the only way to get them to leave is to make it more miserable in America than in their own country. Since their country is probably one giant shithole, this would mean turning America into an even worse shithole. I don't think this is what anybody wants, do you?
Can it be done? Sure! Should it be done (by turning US of A into Nazi Germany or El Salvador)? Hell no!
You are mistaken. A picture of the 'device' is posted, the exhibit was pulled.
This will probably turn out to be some kind of a Blair-Witch-crap project to see how many illiterates they could sucker in...
I accept that other opinions exist, but that's not the point here. The point I am making is that these guys are apparently pushing out a vaporware at best or more likely a large-scale scam:
1) They fail to exhibit a schematic for the device. And no, this would not hurt their chances of getting a patent at least in US: they can get a provisional patent almost automatically, then spend a year improving their research.
2) They fail to submit to peer review of any kind. Again, it's in their interests to publish this as soon as they can, since this would also automatically establish their priority and give them a year to continue research and apply for a patent (and will not count as prior art for their patent for that one year).
3) They fail to do any kind of transparent demonstration of their claims. Now they won't even release a video that they filmed themselves! FTFA: "Well, 6pm London time has come and gone. However, Steorn's site now says that the video will go live at 6pm "Eastern Time.""
Well, if you really invented something like this, the thing to do would be to openly publish the specs, and openly exhibit the engine. Also, openly explain how you think the machine works instead of spewing mumbo-jumbo (if you don't know how, say you don't know).
What the scam artists do instead is allow only a very limited observation of the device, and ask for more money to 'develop' the idea. This is exactly what these guys also do: going to allow you to spectate the machine from the pre-defined angles only, and ask for venture capital to continue.
Gee Foo, thanks for ruining the joke.
Great link, thanks. I did think he might try something along these lines since the rotation plane is actually more suitable for displaying it to traffic (perpendicular to the road and would work when the bike is stationary or moving slowly). Too bad TFA is not saying what exactly he does with the LEDs.
Simply 'bad' memories aren't really worth targetting. I think the real target are the memories of horrific, traumatic experiences that severely disrupt people's lives. These memories interfere with your abilities to function as a human being: think cocaine addiction in reverse!
Some people that go through rape, sustained torture, etc. can eventually put it past themselves and come out on top (though still 'changed,' e.g. John McCain). And some just cannot move on and need serious therapy.
On a positive note, rape might now be downgraded to a misdemeanor.
Maybe he wants to use those blades to display '3-D' images with his LEDs?
I am not sure if this is what he does, maybe not, since it isn't that easy to figure out how to wire up enough LEDs in a line and update those based on their angular position. A mechanical engineering undergrad that can use microcontrollers?
So do they configure it with Enlightenment, KDE, Gnome, or IceWM?
Just 'cause the new user is sure as heck not going to be able to chose between those in Ubuntu.
No, linux is not on every desktop since it is harder to use and cannot run most windows-only programs.
But most desktops in China and Russia do in fact run pirated Windows (this would be true for any other country where there is little danger of getting caught). In countries without any kind of penalty for copyright violations, retail Windows just cannot compete with pirated ('free') Windows.
My point is, we have no right to dictate to RIAA how and for what price they should sell their music, since it's THEIR music. If they wish to lose you or me as a customer, it's their right!
And saying 'lower the prices or I will pirate it' is not a good argument either; that would be like a rapist saying to the victim 'put out or I will rape you anyways.'
You cannot compete with 'free,' especially if it costs you money to produce the product while you competitor just steals it from you.
220 for parts, 80 to licenses, 100 in R&D, and 200 for the marketing/astroturfing hype... Sounds about right once you add the iMusicStore & the two-year Cingular lockin.
Why iTunes? They probably want more people to download iTunes and try it out.
My reading of this was: if you don't have the ability to buy music from Apple, they don't want you as a phone customer either.
Twatters for twitters?
The thing is, ALL of the things I list will be unavoidable. Can the deportations be done? Absolutely, but it will cost us both our economy and our liberties. You would have to have a Gestapo to know who is who, and we will need to turn into El Salvador after we pay for all those stormtroopers, ID checkpoints, concentration camps, courts, and deportations).
I understand your frustration and I am not saying it's right for them to be here. All I am saying is that we have to be pragmatic, cool, and reasonable about any action we take.
It's dumb to hunt a deer with a nuke, if you know what I mean...
How do you know that you aren't a simulation for some real Joe Blow out there, hmm?