Smoking anything is bad for you, and I'll be the first one to agree that weed is not a "one size fits all" solution. When I tell people I meet in social settings that I don't partake because I don't like how it makes me feel, it's annoying when they say something like "Oh, that's because you never had ________ before." No, it's because it doesn't work with my body chemistry....but you've known me for five minutes, please tell me what's good for me and what isn't.
I also think you can overindulge to where you're dumb and lazy, just like any number of things out there (alcohol, turkey, carbon monoxide, etc.). When I said that I didn't think it should be controlled, that didn't imply that I felt that people shouldn't be moderate in their use. It's powerful medicine and shouldn't be abused...but even if it is, the cumulative effects are nowhere near as bad as the legal alternatives.
I stopped enjoying being stoned in my early 20s. At some point it started to crank my anxiety up from its usual manageable level to "OMG SOMEONE PLEASE CUT MY HEAD OFF AND THROW IT OUT A WINDOW."
That being said, I think it's great stuff and should be completely unregulated...as in, no laws, no tax, no nothing. The US really stepped in shit when we bought the whole "Devil Weed" myth.
Whatever happened to the one overt act or probable cause? I would be more worried about a kid that didnt draw stuff in their school notebooks that could be taken out of context.
Taught myself BASIC to build simple roleplaying games (all written out by hand, some worked) then moved on to LOGO in 5th grade. Got yelled at for teaching everyone the DRIVE command (using arrow keys to move the turtle around). Got bored with LOGO and switched back to BASIC to write slightly more complicated roleplaying games in sixth grade. (Same as before, hand coded...more of those worked.)
Didn't mess with computers for couple of years till my dad got an Amiga. Learned enough on that to keep up with him. Switched to Macs when he married my stepmother (she worked for Adobe.) Learned enough on those to do what I needed to do (lots of writing and checking out the early Internet).
Other interests intervened till I was in my early 30s, Then I got a cheap PC and started hacking because it was fun. Still doing that to this day.
I'm not a super-tech savvy guy (i.e. never had a job in the field) but I know a lot more than a lot of my friends just through curiosity and boredom. I can fix most problems I encounter and get what I need done, and know how to research what I don't know.
I'm not going to supply links, but the following gives a pretty good idea of what shaped me-
The Strawberry Statement by James Kunen
Be Here Now by Ram Dass
The Secret Life of Plants by Tompkins and Bird
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn
How to Talk Dirty and Influence People by Lenny Bruce
Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
Seize the Time by Bobby Seale
Plus various books by the following-
Anais Nin
Tom Robbins
Gurdijeff
Carlos Castaneda
I average around four books a month, 50-50 between ebooks.and print. Potboilers, textbooks, classics- doesn't matter. I get most of my ideas from reading...since I like to write and sound smart, it works out.
1. When traffic is non-existent and it's a four way stop, I will slow down in case I need to yield to someone who has the right of way. I always stop if cross traffic doesn't have a stop sign.
2. Uhhh....Lisa Frank? I got nothing.
3. I always yield to pedestrians. I'm a big guy (6' and 230 lb), and the one and only time I hit a ped was because they jaywalked straight off of a bus into a blind spot. I felt bad, they flew about seven feet and ended up wedged under the car in front of me with a black eye...but for the life of me I don't know why someone 2/3 my size would decide to play IRL Frogger at 2 PM in downtown SF. Takes all kinds.
4. Never seen it myself, so...
5....two extra meters? Did they veer over the double yellow into oncoming traffic? I hate it when drivers overreact...just stay in your lane and don't pull any funny stuff, and I'll try to do the same.
6. I don't cut off peds (see above) but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't see other cyclists do it. A lot. Not only is it rude, it's dangerous.
7. I stop for red lights out of common courtesy just as much as safety.
8. Guilty as charged, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. What I consider riding defensively would look like something else entirely to most people, but when I'm splitting lanes and weaving through gridlock I'm paying very close attention to everything that's going on around me.
And now, my two cents.
More often than not bike lanes in the US have achieved exactly the opposite of what they were meant to. Squeezing more cars into a smaller area to create an arbitrary 24" wide comfort zone doesn't fix anything...in fact, most bike routes I've seen are so poorly thought out that I usually avoid them altogether. Urban riding is no joke, and there's no room for complacency or entitlement. You're playing in fucking traffic, a couple lines painted on the street are not going to keep you safe if you ride like an asshole and piss off everyone around you. Leaving the car at home is a start, but that doesn't mean much if you aren't being mindful and setting a bad example.
Helmets are a good idea and should be promoted as such, especially to kids. Helmet laws for adults are just another source of municipal revenue....nothing more, nothing less. After all, if the cops were that concerned about my personal safety and welfare, then they ought to understand why I'm not okay with being confronted by anyone who's heavily armed. But that's just me.
Bike culture has come a long way in the US, but it's never going to be like Europe. And that's okay.
I haven't tried Gnome 3 or Win8 yet. iOS is okay, and Unity seems like a OSX/NeXT ripoff. I keep things simple...as few icons as possible and a plain black desktop is what I like to look at.
To answer the question- I don't hate new GUIs, I just don't use them.
I'm a "I know I don't do it right but I'm proficient enough for my needs" typist. With no training whatsoever I can hit 40 wpm on my Model M (with minimal peeking at the keyboard) once I get warmed up....if I actually bothered to learn how to type correctly who knows how fast I'd be.
...it doesn't sound like you're ready to make a complete break.
I've been known to ignore the web for months at a time. Once in a while I get bored and decide to reconnect with the world in a more tangible way. Or I'm traveling and don't want to deal with the hassle of public computers. I'll still check my email whenever it's convenient, but I spent a good portion of my life not being constantly available so I don't mind flexing my autonomy occasionally.
Whatever the reason, it's never stressful. In fact, I usually feel more relaxed because I feel like I'm making better use of my free time by accomplishing things I would put off otherwise.
Don't bring up bad memories. The day I drove in to work, flipped on KMET (94.7) and heard New Age music coming out of my speakers was one of the saddest days of my life.
I remember that all too well...it was almost as surreal as a Dr. D show, except not as funny. Happened around 1986 or so, I was 13 and a fan of the Mighty Met and Doctor D.
Fortunately the Doctor switched over to KLSX, which was another amazing station. One that I truly missed when I moved to the Bay Area in 1989.
Assigning value to a stencil on someone else's property...sure, makes prefect sense. People who do work of this nature (graffiti, street art, whatever) don't get bent out of shape when their illegal spots get painted over.
I dealt with SF city bureaucracy on a daily basis- specifically, as a researcher in civil and criminal court- for six years, and I got to do things that I'm fairly sure were entirely against policy...for example, when I had to do copy jobs that exceeded 500 pages, I would hand over my ID and get a pass to go in the back to do my work. They do this so the public viewing area won't get clogged with photocopiers, fileboxes and what not.
So far, so good...here's where I start to question their judgment. Now, I don't know if it's because I have an honest face (I'd like to think so) but I was allowed to go pull my own files out of the stacks. This saves the clerks time, because sometimes I would need to pull dozens of volumes to get the documents I needed. This is probably legal, but for obvious reasons it's not a very good idea.
When we were finished with the files, we were supposed to put them on a cart and either leave them in the station with a note on them saying "Not done yet, please leave these alone" or to wheel them back to the returns area so they could be refiled in the stacks.
However, oftentimes I would be asked by the clerks if I could, you know...do them a favor and put my files away when I was done viewing them. Again, there's probably no rule saying that this isn't allowed, but you'd be surprised at how easy it is to screw up a relatively simple numerical filing system....hell, the clerks did it all the time. Fortunately for everyone involved, I can count and was familiar enough with where everything went- every time you pull a file, it gets replaced with a card that has your name on it so they can yell at you if it turns up missing. Since I never got yelled at, I'll assume I wasn't part of the problem.
In retrospect, it seems really irresponsible on the part of the clerks that allowed me to do this even though it was convenient for everyone concerned and I demonstrated that I was trustworthy (and smart) enough to be left to my own devices...but it made me realize that it's not inconceivable for someone to go in there with a photocopier and a job sheet and throw one hell of a monkey wrench into the SF Superior Court filing system.
He must have forgotten where he was. After all, in Canada (and most of the free Western world) I'm pretty sure you can get a straight answer to the question "Why am I being detained?" from law enforcement without a preliminary beating about the head and shoulders.
The DHS doesn't give a shit about individual civil liberties or rights...effectively they behave as if they were the American Stasi, and should be viewed as such.
One of the legal support companies I worked for in the late 90s was notorious for the "Can you do this on your way home?" kind of jobs that would involve me having to race to the courthouse at the last minute or do a stakeout when I should have been at home or at the bar.
The straw that broke the camel's back was being dispatched a filing at 5:30 pm that had to be in a dropbox at the US District Court across town by 6:00 that had been booked at 2:30 and had been sitting on a counter in the mail room at the law firm since 4 pm. When I came in the next day and informed them that I wasn't going to cover the dispatcher's ass anymore, I was told that my job was contingent upon doing whatever I was told. I responded that since I was on salary, expecting me to do drop dead work after hours for no compensation was off the table and that any lack of planning or competence on their part did not constitute an emergency or cause for charity on my part.
.
After about fifteen minutes of going back and forth and getting nowhere I handed them my pager and my paperwork and told them that if I was getting such a great deal, they would have no problem finding a qualified replacement on short notice.
In short, I should have negotiated a better deal when I was hired and gotten it in writing but I was offered what seemed like a good salary...for a 9 to 5 position. Pig in a poke, I guess.
...that they took Sparks off the market (well, the caffeinated version that was worth a damn, I certainly never drank it because it tasted good) and replaced it with 4Loko, which at 12% is twice as strong as original Sparks in a can twice the size (24 oz).
I'm no lightweight when it comes to drinking, but one of these packs a punch and two is pushing your luck. Three 4Lokos is the equivalent of drinking a 12 pack of 6% beer and a few Red Bulls, so it's real easy to get lulled into thinking "I only had three of these things, I can't be that fucked up."
Still, I don't see why they should be illegal. Clearly labeled, yes...but banned? Definitely not.
Ignorance is Bliss, it's been said, and I find the corollary, "Understanding is Unhappiness", to be the cause of typical liberal cynicism.
I'd also note that all the happy conservatives I've met are those who are deliberately ignorant, or just plain without conscience.
Or "If I didn't know any better, I'd be better off."
What about durable, lightweight, reflective roof sheeting you put up in the spring? Simply roll it out at the same time you change out the storm windows for screens.
No doubt it would be tricky to apply to residences with hip roofs and gables in windy areas, but this could easily work for flat rooftops on apartments and commercial buildings with tarred surfaces.
The entertainment industry would do well to look forward and embracing new technology and distribution methods as opposed to looking back and demanding that the old paradigms be maintained at any cost.
And there's plenty of examples to point to that originally met great resistance but turned out to be a good thing in the long run. Videotape didn't kill movies, they made them more accessible and leveled the playing field for aspiring filmmakers to hone their craft. Cassettes weren't the death blow to the music industry, they ended up being a cheap medium to put more product out there for the record companies to profit from.
Time and again, it has been proven that the problem is not in technology, but shortsightedness. The *AA's continued resistance to making lossless movies and music available online is simply another example of the entertainment industry ignoring the winds of change to preserve their hegemony, and it's proving to be a losing battle for everyone concerned.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and apparently so do a large segment of tech savvy consumers. If the entertainment industry refuses to adapt, we will all have to bear the costs of their hubris.
My wife loses hers soon because the Movie Industry is laying off heavily.
Sorry to hear that, but if you think she's getting laid off because people are downloading what they can't afford to buy (ten dollars for a non-matinee ticket?) then you've had a little too much Kool Aid.
If the actors and executives voluntarily took a pay cut and redistributed the wealth a little bit so people could keep their jobs and possibly float the studios through this recession, I wouldn't see the film industry as being ridiculously top-heavy and greedy. I might even give some credence to the MPAA screaming "We're getting robbed blind!" every time they get near a reporter.
For the record, I'm not trying to be an apologist for people who choose to download copyrighted material, but at the same time I don't make any excuses for the business model the entertainment industry is fighting tooth and nail to preserve either.
...why don't you put your money where your mouth is? Take your site down (in case you didn't know it's at http://www.sonypictures.com/), then I'll pay attention to what you have to say.
Until then, you would do well by keeping your mouth shut whenever there's a microphone or a reporter in the room.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyone that thinks "fullalbumname.zip" is an acceptable title for something linked on a public blog or site needs a check up from the neck up.
Smoking anything is bad for you, and I'll be the first one to agree that weed is not a "one size fits all" solution. When I tell people I meet in social settings that I don't partake because I don't like how it makes me feel, it's annoying when they say something like "Oh, that's because you never had ________ before." No, it's because it doesn't work with my body chemistry....but you've known me for five minutes, please tell me what's good for me and what isn't.
I also think you can overindulge to where you're dumb and lazy, just like any number of things out there (alcohol, turkey, carbon monoxide, etc.). When I said that I didn't think it should be controlled, that didn't imply that I felt that people shouldn't be moderate in their use. It's powerful medicine and shouldn't be abused...but even if it is, the cumulative effects are nowhere near as bad as the legal alternatives.
I stopped enjoying being stoned in my early 20s. At some point it started to crank my anxiety up from its usual manageable level to "OMG SOMEONE PLEASE CUT MY HEAD OFF AND THROW IT OUT A WINDOW."
That being said, I think it's great stuff and should be completely unregulated...as in, no laws, no tax, no nothing. The US really stepped in shit when we bought the whole "Devil Weed" myth.
When cops act like assholes.
Whatever happened to the one overt act or probable cause? I would be more worried about a kid that didnt draw stuff in their school notebooks that could be taken out of context.
Taught myself BASIC to build simple roleplaying games (all written out by hand, some worked) then moved on to LOGO in 5th grade. Got yelled at for teaching everyone the DRIVE command (using arrow keys to move the turtle around). Got bored with LOGO and switched back to BASIC to write slightly more complicated roleplaying games in sixth grade. (Same as before, hand coded...more of those worked.)
Didn't mess with computers for couple of years till my dad got an Amiga. Learned enough on that to keep up with him. Switched to Macs when he married my stepmother (she worked for Adobe.) Learned enough on those to do what I needed to do (lots of writing and checking out the early Internet).
Other interests intervened till I was in my early 30s, Then I got a cheap PC and started hacking because it was fun. Still doing that to this day.
I'm not a super-tech savvy guy (i.e. never had a job in the field) but I know a lot more than a lot of my friends just through curiosity and boredom. I can fix most problems I encounter and get what I need done, and know how to research what I don't know.
I'm not going to supply links, but the following gives a pretty good idea of what shaped me-
The Strawberry Statement by James Kunen
Be Here Now by Ram Dass
The Secret Life of Plants by Tompkins and Bird
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn
How to Talk Dirty and Influence People by Lenny Bruce
Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
Seize the Time by Bobby Seale
Plus various books by the following-
Anais Nin
Tom Robbins
Gurdijeff
Carlos Castaneda
I average around four books a month, 50-50 between ebooks.and print. Potboilers, textbooks, classics- doesn't matter. I get most of my ideas from reading...since I like to write and sound smart, it works out.
I'll respond in order, one through eight-
1. When traffic is non-existent and it's a four way stop, I will slow down in case I need to yield to someone who has the right of way. I always stop if cross traffic doesn't have a stop sign.
2. Uhhh....Lisa Frank? I got nothing.
3. I always yield to pedestrians. I'm a big guy (6' and 230 lb), and the one and only time I hit a ped was because they jaywalked straight off of a bus into a blind spot. I felt bad, they flew about seven feet and ended up wedged under the car in front of me with a black eye...but for the life of me I don't know why someone 2/3 my size would decide to play IRL Frogger at 2 PM in downtown SF. Takes all kinds.
4. Never seen it myself, so...
5. ...two extra meters? Did they veer over the double yellow into oncoming traffic? I hate it when drivers overreact...just stay in your lane and don't pull any funny stuff, and I'll try to do the same.
6. I don't cut off peds (see above) but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't see other cyclists do it. A lot. Not only is it rude, it's dangerous.
7. I stop for red lights out of common courtesy just as much as safety.
8. Guilty as charged, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. What I consider riding defensively would look like something else entirely to most people, but when I'm splitting lanes and weaving through gridlock I'm paying very close attention to everything that's going on around me.
And now, my two cents.
More often than not bike lanes in the US have achieved exactly the opposite of what they were meant to. Squeezing more cars into a smaller area to create an arbitrary 24" wide comfort zone doesn't fix anything...in fact, most bike routes I've seen are so poorly thought out that I usually avoid them altogether. Urban riding is no joke, and there's no room for complacency or entitlement. You're playing in fucking traffic, a couple lines painted on the street are not going to keep you safe if you ride like an asshole and piss off everyone around you. Leaving the car at home is a start, but that doesn't mean much if you aren't being mindful and setting a bad example.
Helmets are a good idea and should be promoted as such, especially to kids. Helmet laws for adults are just another source of municipal revenue....nothing more, nothing less. After all, if the cops were that concerned about my personal safety and welfare, then they ought to understand why I'm not okay with being confronted by anyone who's heavily armed. But that's just me.
Bike culture has come a long way in the US, but it's never going to be like Europe. And that's okay.
Yet they'll gladly buy iPhones.
But I'm not ruling it out because I've been having a hell of a time getting my Linux desktop (Ubuntu 11 something or other) to play nice with gtkpod.
I haven't tried Gnome 3 or Win8 yet. iOS is okay, and Unity seems like a OSX/NeXT ripoff. I keep things simple...as few icons as possible and a plain black desktop is what I like to look at.
To answer the question- I don't hate new GUIs, I just don't use them.
And since they were a jackass anyway I don't feel like it was a bad thing.
Beyond that, Facebook seems to be relying on the "more bells and whistles" approach...and if you're like me and crave simplicity, it's not helping.
I'm a "I know I don't do it right but I'm proficient enough for my needs" typist. With no training whatsoever I can hit 40 wpm on my Model M (with minimal peeking at the keyboard) once I get warmed up....if I actually bothered to learn how to type correctly who knows how fast I'd be.
...it doesn't sound like you're ready to make a complete break.
I've been known to ignore the web for months at a time. Once in a while I get bored and decide to reconnect with the world in a more tangible way. Or I'm traveling and don't want to deal with the hassle of public computers. I'll still check my email whenever it's convenient, but I spent a good portion of my life not being constantly available so I don't mind flexing my autonomy occasionally.
Whatever the reason, it's never stressful. In fact, I usually feel more relaxed because I feel like I'm making better use of my free time by accomplishing things I would put off otherwise.
Don't bring up bad memories. The day I drove in to work, flipped on KMET (94.7) and heard New Age music coming out of my speakers was one of the saddest days of my life.
I remember that all too well...it was almost as surreal as a Dr. D show, except not as funny. Happened around 1986 or so, I was 13 and a fan of the Mighty Met and Doctor D.
Fortunately the Doctor switched over to KLSX, which was another amazing station. One that I truly missed when I moved to the Bay Area in 1989.
Assigning value to a stencil on someone else's property...sure, makes prefect sense. People who do work of this nature (graffiti, street art, whatever) don't get bent out of shape when their illegal spots get painted over.
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
I dealt with SF city bureaucracy on a daily basis- specifically, as a researcher in civil and criminal court- for six years, and I got to do things that I'm fairly sure were entirely against policy...for example, when I had to do copy jobs that exceeded 500 pages, I would hand over my ID and get a pass to go in the back to do my work. They do this so the public viewing area won't get clogged with photocopiers, fileboxes and what not.
So far, so good...here's where I start to question their judgment. Now, I don't know if it's because I have an honest face (I'd like to think so) but I was allowed to go pull my own files out of the stacks. This saves the clerks time, because sometimes I would need to pull dozens of volumes to get the documents I needed. This is probably legal, but for obvious reasons it's not a very good idea.
When we were finished with the files, we were supposed to put them on a cart and either leave them in the station with a note on them saying "Not done yet, please leave these alone" or to wheel them back to the returns area so they could be refiled in the stacks.
However, oftentimes I would be asked by the clerks if I could, you know...do them a favor and put my files away when I was done viewing them. Again, there's probably no rule saying that this isn't allowed, but you'd be surprised at how easy it is to screw up a relatively simple numerical filing system....hell, the clerks did it all the time. Fortunately for everyone involved, I can count and was familiar enough with where everything went- every time you pull a file, it gets replaced with a card that has your name on it so they can yell at you if it turns up missing. Since I never got yelled at, I'll assume I wasn't part of the problem.
In retrospect, it seems really irresponsible on the part of the clerks that allowed me to do this even though it was convenient for everyone concerned and I demonstrated that I was trustworthy (and smart) enough to be left to my own devices...but it made me realize that it's not inconceivable for someone to go in there with a photocopier and a job sheet and throw one hell of a monkey wrench into the SF Superior Court filing system.
He must have forgotten where he was. After all, in Canada (and most of the free Western world) I'm pretty sure you can get a straight answer to the question "Why am I being detained?" from law enforcement without a preliminary beating about the head and shoulders.
The DHS doesn't give a shit about individual civil liberties or rights...effectively they behave as if they were the American Stasi, and should be viewed as such.
One of the legal support companies I worked for in the late 90s was notorious for the "Can you do this on your way home?" kind of jobs that would involve me having to race to the courthouse at the last minute or do a stakeout when I should have been at home or at the bar.
The straw that broke the camel's back was being dispatched a filing at 5:30 pm that had to be in a dropbox at the US District Court across town by 6:00 that had been booked at 2:30 and had been sitting on a counter in the mail room at the law firm since 4 pm. When I came in the next day and informed them that I wasn't going to cover the dispatcher's ass anymore, I was told that my job was contingent upon doing whatever I was told. I responded that since I was on salary, expecting me to do drop dead work after hours for no compensation was off the table and that any lack of planning or competence on their part did not constitute an emergency or cause for charity on my part.
.
After about fifteen minutes of going back and forth and getting nowhere I handed them my pager and my paperwork and told them that if I was getting such a great deal, they would have no problem finding a qualified replacement on short notice.
In short, I should have negotiated a better deal when I was hired and gotten it in writing but I was offered what seemed like a good salary...for a 9 to 5 position. Pig in a poke, I guess.
...that they took Sparks off the market (well, the caffeinated version that was worth a damn, I certainly never drank it because it tasted good) and replaced it with 4Loko, which at 12% is twice as strong as original Sparks in a can twice the size (24 oz).
I'm no lightweight when it comes to drinking, but one of these packs a punch and two is pushing your luck. Three 4Lokos is the equivalent of drinking a 12 pack of 6% beer and a few Red Bulls, so it's real easy to get lulled into thinking "I only had three of these things, I can't be that fucked up."
Still, I don't see why they should be illegal. Clearly labeled, yes...but banned? Definitely not.
Ignorance is Bliss, it's been said, and I find the corollary, "Understanding is Unhappiness", to be the cause of typical liberal cynicism. I'd also note that all the happy conservatives I've met are those who are deliberately ignorant, or just plain without conscience.
Or "If I didn't know any better, I'd be better off."
What about durable, lightweight, reflective roof sheeting you put up in the spring? Simply roll it out at the same time you change out the storm windows for screens.
No doubt it would be tricky to apply to residences with hip roofs and gables in windy areas, but this could easily work for flat rooftops on apartments and commercial buildings with tarred surfaces.
"Hello, loan department? Stephen Chu just told me that I need to get into the roof-painting business pronto."
The entertainment industry would do well to look forward and embracing new technology and distribution methods as opposed to looking back and demanding that the old paradigms be maintained at any cost.
And there's plenty of examples to point to that originally met great resistance but turned out to be a good thing in the long run. Videotape didn't kill movies, they made them more accessible and leveled the playing field for aspiring filmmakers to hone their craft. Cassettes weren't the death blow to the music industry, they ended up being a cheap medium to put more product out there for the record companies to profit from.
Time and again, it has been proven that the problem is not in technology, but shortsightedness. The *AA's continued resistance to making lossless movies and music available online is simply another example of the entertainment industry ignoring the winds of change to preserve their hegemony, and it's proving to be a losing battle for everyone concerned.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and apparently so do a large segment of tech savvy consumers. If the entertainment industry refuses to adapt, we will all have to bear the costs of their hubris.
My wife loses hers soon because the Movie Industry is laying off heavily.
Sorry to hear that, but if you think she's getting laid off because people are downloading what they can't afford to buy (ten dollars for a non-matinee ticket?) then you've had a little too much Kool Aid.
If the actors and executives voluntarily took a pay cut and redistributed the wealth a little bit so people could keep their jobs and possibly float the studios through this recession, I wouldn't see the film industry as being ridiculously top-heavy and greedy. I might even give some credence to the MPAA screaming "We're getting robbed blind!" every time they get near a reporter.
For the record, I'm not trying to be an apologist for people who choose to download copyrighted material, but at the same time I don't make any excuses for the business model the entertainment industry is fighting tooth and nail to preserve either.
Something to think about.
...why don't you put your money where your mouth is? Take your site down (in case you didn't know it's at http://www.sonypictures.com/), then I'll pay attention to what you have to say.
Until then, you would do well by keeping your mouth shut whenever there's a microphone or a reporter in the room.