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I was going to make a left turn in about fifty feet ahead, where I was about to make a delivery for my job. I had an illuminated delivery sign on my vehicle. It was a quiet road in a 50K zone. I was doing about 30-40KMPH and about to turn any second. He was like a foot off of my bumper. I don't just cower to the side of the road like a bitch every time some asshole tailgates me and high beams me. He wasn't an emergency vehicle, he was a rich prick in a BMW menacing what he thought was some person weaker/younger/less aggressive than him. I was completely withing my legal rights, moral rights and he doesnt' have a fuckin leg to stand on. If you drove for a living it would make sense.
I'm surprised that you would ask why you don't just pull over to the side, in the city, every time a person tailgates you. You need to assert your legal right to the road and the motherfucker behind you needs to obey the correct following distance.
There isn't a situation in existence where the person couldn't have handled things differently, but we need to respect each other out there. Part of that is standing up to bullies, on the road, at work, anywhere. Now because this guy couldn't show basic respect for a working person on the road, and then attacked me with his fuckin douchemobile, and didn't even ask me if I was allright, but instead floored it and rammed me again, I have zero qualms about bleeding him dry. |
I guess little people, or dwarfs. Some people of short stature but with proportional bodies. Maybe also the exact copy of someone, but proportionally smaller. Could have been a self-depricating name for a man's third leg...though I guess that'd make it a stub.
Maybe have misspelled Mickey's girlfriend's name if you're into toons (it was capitalized, but I don't know if that's just how you confer respect on those you refer to as "midgets"...though that logic makes for the biggest condescension....big letters for small people, y'know?)
But to be fair, that begs the question, why look away? Do you find midgets ugly? I'd be looking away in the most technical sense, I'm tall...and I guess because at the back of my mind I knew you meant the Mini car, I just naturally imagined myself in the backseat, it being spacious yet still cramped for...you know...midget sex or whatever.
All that to say, if that's your bag, I didn't mean to call you out, and I didn't mean to imply you were into that...I guess from the length this reply has bulked up to...I had just hoped it'd be a sex joke, if not simply a joke as well...I mean come on man! You're freaking driving! Why would you look away when the car in front of you puts on the breaks? Can you drive into sunsets? Or do you just hate the sight of them? I know people look away when they're behind me, but I don't drive so they aren't risking much...maybe they're just opting for the safer route, all things considered.
I don't know who took your upvote away, but I downvoted my comment and upvoted yours so everything is ok in the world, regardless of who we fuck, how we drive and where we comment. Thank you and goodnight! |
I hate to be (no wait, I love to be) pedantic, but it isn't a VIRUS . It doesn't self-replicate from one point to another. It isn't given from one site to another.
This is a vulnerability. Somebody wrote some computer code and forgot to check a value and just took it as it would always be correct. Somebody found this vulnerability. Then people exploited it to find things in memory from the servers that were using this code. Another group found it and now it is getting patched.
FFS, even NY Times, HuffPo, and Wall Street Journal were all getting this shit wrong. |
A lot of speculators here and everywhere like to spread the message "actually, let's just do nothing, NSA will be able to see everything anyway".
This is unbelievably misleading. The methods NSA would need to use to foil widespread encryption are more detectable, more intrusive, more illegal, and very very importantly, more expensive than just blindly copying plaintext.
It's not about stopping NSA being able to operate at all, it's about making it too expensive for spy agencies to operate mass surveilance. |
First of all, I explicitly stated that it was only for my use case when I said "most of what I use". Secondly, you countered my "use case" with your own "use case" that is probably shared by less than 5% of the population.
No, you were mocking the statement expressed by people. "But Apples just work, and if they don't they have excellent customer service. Wait fuck"
>I never said apple "sucks", I was stating that apple does not just work with EVERYTHING and implying that for the average person entering an ecosystem for the first time, windows is less restricting, which is true.
Less restricting about hardware I guess... which is how segfaults happen.
>I will admit that Microsoft also pulls some shaddy shit. But, If you have an iPhone, thunderbolt drives or monitors, or an "airport time capsule " then great....it would be absolutely stupid of you to try and buy a laptop that's not readily compatible with those products, BUT those products are proprietary products from apple. That was my criticism. If you are entering the apple ecosystem, it kind of forces you to stay within the apple ecosystem if you want that convenience.
That convenience is the "just works" I was mentioning.
>I honestly like using Ubuntu, because it syncs all of my accounts, has virtual desktops, has snap windows (which OSX's omission drove me crazy while trying to do web Dev on an iMac") and gives me a terminal where I have complete flexibility and control over my system. Do I get that luxury? No, because Microsoft has locked me into their ecosystem. I am a .NET developer, and although Mac can be a great development workstation, OSX server is one of the worst server solutions on the market and most of the people who develop on a Mac would agree deploying to a LAMP stack is a much better idea.
Who said anything about OSX server? That is great if you want to run an IPSec VPN, but for webdev MAMP (which I mentioned explicitly already). I used to love snapping, but I pretty much fullscreen everything on anything smaller than a 27". If it weren't for Adobe products I might not be on a macbook actually. I have been using Linux for over a decade, but always when back to Windows (until a few years ago) for better performance with Adobe products.
>As for .NET development, windows has provided visual studios which literally does everything for you. Nu-get package management, SQL Server Management, code scaffolding, version control with subversion, git or TFS, all your standard IDE functionality, and testing deployment are all done with visual studio. And although I hate the fact that .NET locks you into windows server for deployment, its development environment is incredibly convenient.
I hear their stack trace is nice. I remember doing some security testing on a site and I guess anything that returned a 500 was sent to the developers... with the code I input. One of them used outlook and I just heard cursing from a cubicle across the room. I guess whatever I did crashed outlook, but not the site, which was good.
>I honestly like the flexibility of a Linux server with nginx or apache over a windows server with IIS, but that's not what I'm paid to work with.
You can always turn down jobs. I had some decent offers for Java dev positions when I first moved to Minneapolis. I don't like working in Java though, even if I took classes in high school and college for it.
> |
I'm hijacking this top comment to warn everyone about the Better Business Bureau (BBB). [They are a total scam]( Firstly, they are a private company. They have no affiliation with government agencies, and cannot regulate or enforce anything . When you start a business, you will be approached by the BBB. They will ask you for money. If you don't pay for their "license agreement", you get a C grade. If you do pay, you start with an A grade. If you aren't a member, they cannot "provide services" which means they will not defend your interests, and your grade will not improve, and in fact will get suspiciously lower because of "complaints." If you are a member, when anyone complains about your business, all they will do is approach the company with the grievance, the company will explain their side, and that's all. The BBB will say something to the effect of "company X explained the problem and said that customer Y violated the TOS" or "company X tried to resolve the problem but customer Y refused" and will close the case, without lowering their precious A grade. Notice how all BBB-registered businesses all have A-grades. If you file a complaint against a non-registered business, they will lower their grade, and say, "oh, they're not a member, they've got a bad history." |
Honestly, THAT is exactly why I NEVER felt bad when I sold Service Plans (see Premium Extended Warranty) on Macbooks while I worked for Future Shop (Canadian Best Buy Branch) for about two years.
I knew the customer service in my particular store was good, I trusted my store director, managers and the tech team, and I knew the counterpart Apple Care plan was just gonna be shit down the road.
Anyone with this sort of problem walking into my store would have had their board replaced or the laptop exchanged for a brand new (newer) one in compliance with the plan. Yes, it was pricey as hell. Yes, I was commissioned much more on the plan than the actual laptop sale, but now I see this happen and remember all the fools saying cmon bro, it's an Apple, it doesn't need warranty. Lol.
(it was around 399$ for a 4-year plan, covering any repairs not cosmetic or from physical damage, replacement in the event of part unavailability or cost exceding 2/3 of the market price at the time of repair (not time of purchase), included any service to the machine not software related, including dust-cleaning, and was done by certified apple technicians, actually more trained than the "Geniuses" over at the Apple Store) |
Is there any proof that 2011 macbooks have been failing at a higher rate than other computers? This could just be a side effect of Apple selling a very limited product line, where every issue is magnified by a hundred because they only sell 7 different laptops at a time as opposed to any other company which sells 100s of laptops at a time.
I'm sure there are much more Mercedes cars that break than Ferraris, but that is just because there are so much more of them.
Is any tech able to report that they get a higher influx of 2011 macbooks with GPU problems compared to other macbooks? |
My experience in the UK was the complete opposite.
A few weeks ago my screen started corrupting. Googling 2011 MBP display issues brought me to a thread on the apple support forum. (5000+ posts 1,000,000+ views) I immediately recognised the symptoms others were reporting in the forum.
My first communication was with Apple. I phoned the tech support line, risking the £30 charge which they never asked for. The guy ran me through a series of diagnostic tests, fixing hard drive errors etc. he came to the conclusion that I had a hardware fault.
Since it was a hardware issue I was booked into a slot with a 'genius' at my local store - fortunately only a 10 minute walk away.
I dropped the laptop off, and they did a couple of tests and said that there was a fault with the graphics card. The replacement cost was £400, however they were waiving this under some apple repair plan.
Two days later and I picked it up. 4 days later and it seems the fault has gone, for now. |
I had a similar problem with my 2007 MBP. Logic board blew up. Never purchased apple care. They diagnosed the fault and gave extended 4 year warranty on the 2007 MBPs. I took it in a month after the warranty expired. Got told there was nothing they can do. Me being stupid, I had my half written dissertation on there with no backup. I just spent the next 2 weeks ringing apple 5 times a day until they fixed it for free.
Finally got through to a guy who got my MPB fixed for free... would have been 1500+ if I had to pay myself. |
Part 1 : Inadequate pasting? Hahaha you mean over adequate (/s) pasting.
Look at this, and just feel the disgust I feel.
That's how apple applies thermal paste. It's a small wonder these things function for ONE year, let alone 2. :P
I mean jesus fuck, would it kill them to apply it correctly? especially since their company markets themselves as a high quality brand? really?!
The point of thermal paste is to fill the microscopic pits in metal and provide perfect surface contact.
type 1: (Metal | metal) is the most efficient way of heat transfer.
type 2: (Metal | thermal paste | metal) is the second most efficient way.
type 3: (Metal | air | metal) is the least efficient way to transfer heat.
So, the thermal paste takes up the gap that microscopic imperfections in the metal on the heat sink, and on the chip will make when the two surfaces are married to one another.
OVERapplying thermal paste DOWNGRADES the efficiency of the entire system, by forcing all contact to be type 2, which is less efficient than type 1. The trick is to apply just enough thermal paste to turn type 3 into type 2, while PRESERVING as much type 1 contact as possible.
Apple's OWN support documents incorrectly state that you should smear a Jabba-the-hutt-sized glob of thermal paste over anything that even remotely produces heat. [This is from APPLE's repair manual]( Look at how awful that is, and then laugh at me because I paid close to $3000 for a maxed out machine that has that monstrosity inside it :(
Part 2: Of heatsinks, and why the 2011 model is so bad at this...
the normal core temp of the 6750m running at stock clock and stock voltage with the Core i7 running at full Bore (for example, during a render) is a chucklefucking 103ºC as the stock configuration peak GPU temp!!!! And that' insane. (while that Core i7 will fluctuate between 95-98ºC) This was not a problem when the Macbook Pro's had dual core CPU's and older, less powerful GPU's. But with a quad core machine, and some pretty powerful (for its time) graphics from AMD, you're pushing the limits of what a T configuration heat sink can handle.
Its' the fault of the T-configuration heat sink that was used in the non retina macbook pros. [It's not a great design]( It was adequate for Dual Core + GPU but no way in hell should you try cooling a quad core CPU with that! The CPU heat goes to the GPU, which is my theory on why the 2011 model has so many GPU failures.
Compare this with the current rMBP design - [see here]( which is cool. Razer basically copied the concept, and then added a third heat pipe, and split the heat pipes even more to handle the higher TDP of Nvidia's GTX 870m. So, it looks like apple has learned their lesson, and made a better heat sink for retina macbook pros. To give you an idea of how effective the new design is... the Razer Blade Pro NEVER throttles, and at peak usage,CPU temperature settle in the 85ºC range, while GPU temperature maxed out at 90ºC [Source: Anandtech]( Compare that with the macbook pro temperatures that are achieved WITH throttling, and you'll see why I say the heat sink design apple used sucks .
Also, despite the heat sink redesign, [Apple STILL sucks at applying thermal paste.]( Jesus fuck is that so hard?
There is NO excuse for treating current customers like shit. Apple should own up to this and fix/replace these machines at no cost to their customers. If they don't, they'll honestly lose me as a customer for my next purchase. |
typically the way the retina screens are made they are glued into place rather then the normal screws. And its not simply a screen and bracket + some wires for the Mic and web cam behind the screen its got a few loose sheets to help reflect light, if you loose them or damage them that's it you need to swap the whole lot. Its a job I tried and never want to do it again. Also its unlikly to ever look brand new as its very likly the casing for the LCD will bend when being taken apart. |
No, it was a faulty battery.
Also, running it to a low % every time you use it is far better for the battery than topping it off (using maybe 30% and recharging).
FYI, not running it down is likely impacting or will impact your battery life. |
First of all, I explicitly stated that it was only for my use case when I said "most of what I use". Secondly, you countered my "use case" with your own "use case" that is probably shared by less than 5% of the population. I never said apple "sucks", I was stating that apple does not just work with EVERYTHING and implying that for the average person entering an ecosystem for the first time, windows is less restricting, which is true. There are a wider range of products from a wider range manufacturers designed to work with windows. I will admit that Microsoft also pulls some shaddy shit. But, If you have an iPhone, thunderbolt drives or monitors, or an "airport time capsule " then great....it would be absolutely stupid of you to try and buy a laptop that's not readily compatible with those products, BUT those products are proprietary products from apple. That was my criticism. If you are entering the apple ecosystem, it kind of forces you to stay within the apple ecosystem if you want that convenience.
I honestly like using Ubuntu, because it syncs all of my accounts, has virtual desktops, has snap windows (which OSX's omission drove me crazy while trying to do web Dev on an iMac") and gives me a terminal where I have complete flexibility and control over my system. Do I get that luxury? No, because Microsoft has locked me into their ecosystem. I am a .NET developer, and although Mac can be a great development workstation, OSX server is one of the worst server solutions on the market and most of the people who develop on a Mac would agree deploying to a LAMP stack is a much better idea.
As for .NET development, windows has provided visual studios which literally does everything for you. Nu-get package management, SQL Server Management, code scaffolding, version control with subversion, git or TFS, all your standard IDE functionality, and testing deployment are all done with visual studio. And although I hate the fact that .NET locks you into windows server for deployment, its development environment is incredibly convenient.
I honestly like the flexibility of a Linux server with nginx or apache over a windows server with IIS, but that's not what I'm paid to work with. |
This will probably get buried but it could help send a message to Apple about quality control with their products.
I recently purchased a 15in Macbook Pro (retina) and three days into having it the speakers sounded very muddied watching netflix with lots of dialogue and a song by Rhye made the noise noticeable.
Fast-forward to my interaction with Apple:
I scheduled an apt and showed the genius my issue. He replicated the issue with the same Rhye song on one of the 15in pros on display. This issue affects ALL computers of the same model.
The genius said the issue has never come up before but there are plenty of apple forum posts with similar complaints.
He basically told me that the computer is functioning within its parameters and that I was just out of luck.
I asked if I could at least get a discount on an external speaker and spoke with a manager and they couldn't do anything for me.
I left the store furious and called Apple Support immediately. After close to an hour of being passed around with technicians, I spoke with a supervisor and he told me to go to Apple's website and pick out a speaker I liked and he would have it to me by the next Monday.
I was initially timid and wanted to respect his kindness so I picked one that was only 100 dollars. I changed my mind and emailed him 20 minutes later and just asked for a 300 dollar bluetooth speaker because I knew it wasn't going to affect the company.
I share all of this to say: if you have a 2014 15in Macbook Pro, listen to (this song)[ at full volume and if you hear distortion, CALL APPLE. Tell them your issue and demand an external speaker. Hell, ask for the most expensive one they have! With where they set this precedent, we have the potential to send a relatively loud message. |
At the moment there are no developed ROMs over on xda-developers.com, so currently no
(it does not run them natively, you would have to install a new Android distribution that someone made on their own)
Also, even though it's "unlocked", that just means it is not carrier-specific. The bootloader (which needs to be altered in order to install a different ROM) is still locked and the people over at /r/Android don't forsee that fact changing, given Amazon's track record with their "Android" devices. |
It's a 19 page ruling.
>For the foregoing reasons, Facebook’s motion to dismiss is GRANTED in part and
DENIED in part. The motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ Wiretap Act claim and CIPA section 631
claim is DENIED, and the motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ CIPA section 632 claim and section
17200 claim is GRANTED. Facebook’s request to strike plaintiffs’ prayer for injunctive
relief is DENIED
This most recent motion was just a partial denial of Facebook's motion to dismiss.
Now, mind you, this is just the beginning, IF anything happens, which is highly unlikely, it'll probably amount to $0 for anyone but the plaintiff and his lawyers.
EDIT: Additionally, it appears that this ruling would only only apply to Californians, as it's dealing with CIPA. The case does deal with nationwide (not worldwide) users, but, it's a long fucking read, and this is doc #43 in the case, and it's Christmas, and IANAL. |
Here's something not a lot of people (at least many of my friends) realized:
The Facebook app has many permissions that it asks you to allow, and naturally you usually don't read them before pressing accept. Then a little while back they introduced the Messenger app which was REQUIRED if you wanted to message friends through Facebook. The catch with this new app was that they required everyone to install an app on their phones that had a ridiculously absurd set of permissions. Some of these included scanning your text messages, scanning your voice calls, and having the ability to send/receive text messages without your consent. |
They should have a system to simplify TOS, make them easier to read. They could make a program where you set what you think is acceptable and what is a dealbreaker, and the program makes some kind of |
Years ago, a Sprint rep promised me a 24% discount if I renewed my contract. I did, and signed the contract when I got it (without reading - shame on me). First bill, I was only getting 12%. I called, and that rep essentially said "tough luck," then hung on on me when I finally got belligerent about their other rep lying to me.
It took months of calling, escalating, and bitching, but I finally got a regional manager to credit my account for 24 months of the 12% difference. The day my contract was up, I left and didn't look back. |
The short answer is yes. Bribes are very common. There is also a big problem with nepotism and a general economy of favors within the elite. Not to mention billions in funds that have gone missing in just about every administration.
More importantly, there are thousands of human rights complaints that will likely never go answered. Between 1000 and 4000 Colombian citizens have been killed by the army and then framed to look like FARC terrorists. You can read more about it if you just google "Colombia false positives". There are also numerous issues regarding the assassination of union leaders (some allegedly funded by Coca Cola) and various other abuses. |
White privilege implies that all hindrances suffered by people of color are related to race. However, privileges awarded to groups of people based on class is often left out of the discussion. There are privileges awarded to the middle and upper class that are not awarded to the lower class. White privilege also fails to recognize diversity within groups of people. It fails to recognize the linguistic barriers of whites who do not speak the dominant language. It also fails to recognize the differences in racial groups (Asian, Latino, African American, etc.). It assumes that all people of color are in similar situations. That is to say that Latinos, Blacks, Asians, etc. all face the same struggles in relation to white privilege. |
Could someone explain something to me? I want to know why we need the government to step in and reclassify broadband when we could use any of the consumer protection agencies and businesses to protect the end user. As I understand it, the government wants broadband classified under Title II, but wouldn't that eventually mean that they could more easily wiretap and censor our communications? Now I'm not one of those paranoid people that fears listening devices in my cheese, or wears a tin-foil hat. But after all the Snowden leaks, the last thing we need to be doing is giving the Gov more access to our data.
While I am fully in support of network neutrality as a necessary thing, I also kind of feel like the major bandwidth hogs like netflix and others should pay an "excessive use fee". I mean, if we are okay with AT&T taking away our unlimited data, then charging us a boatload for using more than 10Gb of data, the same thing should really apply here. I feel like there is a lot of wrongdoing going on here. ISP's are keeping profits higher by not pushing for infrastructure and tech advancement which hurts the entire market in general. Streaming content services are overusing their "unlimited" connections and creating excess strain on the network that should have been upgraded by now. And all of this will eventually come out of the end users pocket. If Netflix (and I just use them as the largest example here) were to pay more in connection fees, I would gladly pay them a couple of dollars more to cover that. But as it stands, they are killing network traffic and somebody has to pay for that. Sadly, I would pay more to simply have the government step away from the internet. Let consumer protection handle this, it's not a thing for the FCC. Plus, there will likely be more taxes on internet with the FCC, which seems more like a money making scheme than an honest decision. We have all seen the fake advertisement with the packages to use facebook, xbox online, and Netflix. That kind of thing could be fought off by the Bureau of Consumer Protection and other organizations. |
If we make an analogy with the postal service I think it might make some sense. With the post office, I can pay $9.95 to send you a package that you'll get tomorrow. For $4.95, I can send you the same package that you'll get in 3 days. And for $1.95, I can send you the same package that you'll get in about a week. The longer it stays in transit the more likely it is to get damaged, so for $9.95 I can probably guarantee you'll get it but for $1.95, it might show up broken or get lost somewhere along the way.
What net neutrality prevents is for ISPs - like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and Time Warner - from telling other companies - like Netflix - that they can pay the ISP some amount of money to ensure their data gets through on time and without damage, like the $9.95 shipping. If they don't pay, then it's like that cheap $1.95 shipping where things get broken.
This is bad enough, but it gets worse. If an ISP can demand that from big established companies like Netflix, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, they can also demand it from upstarts you haven't heard of. What do you think are the odds that those little guys can pay $9.95 for shipping? Right, so their data gets broken, mangled, and just all around takes a while to show up. That kind of experience for a user of the upstart's site is enough to cause them to stop using it, thinking the upstart is too slow. In reality, it's not the upstart that's slow it's the person's ISP that is slowing down that traffic.
So getting rid of net neutrality would make it harder for new businesses and websites to gain traction. Which means it not only lets ISPs charge businesses extra money to allow their traffic on their lines, it means it consolidates the Internet by making it harder for new sites to start thus making the big sites of today more permanent.
And if we consider this case where Netflix needs to pay Comcast some extra money, Verizon some extra money, Time Warner some extra money, AT&T some extra money... man, you think Netflix is still going to charge you only $8/mo? Nope, that'll just get rolled over onto the customer because like all taxes, they're paid by consumers not by businesses.
What Net Neutrality would do is make it so that ISPs can't create multiple "shipping" options. They have one level of priority, it doesn't matter who sends the data or where it's going. (In reality, Comcast can still have 25, 50, and 105Mbps subscriptions, it's not demanding that they have only one speed but it's a prioritization issue where they can't say that Netflix's data is less important than NBC's data.)
The final super tricky part of this is that you can throttle some data so much that it becomes unusable. While that's technically not blocking it, it is effectively blocking it. So if Comcast didn't want you reading anything on /r/cordcutters, they could throttle that so much that it won't load in any reasonable amount of time. If they did that, it's very very close to censorship. |
Here is the bill:
So it basically removes any and all regulations, even previous ones (Prior to Net Neutrality) that were in place. This bill effectively hands over the internet to Comcast. The name "Internet Freedom Act" was recycled because its the same bill that was proposed before Net Neutrality by John McCain in 2010, by Marsha Blackburn in 2014, and now again by Marsha Blackburn this week. There is some subtext in the bill that would allow the FCC to step in if Comcast stops delivering data to the NSA, among other things:
> (b) Exception.--This section does not apply to any regulations that
the Federal Communications Commission determines necessary--
>> (1) to prevent damage to the national security of the
United States; |
Sure, but unlike people downvoting me I had to live for some time with only one eye in industrial setting. Objects facing you with small areas and moving on head level are fucking nightmare with one eye. It gets better when you adjust, but still not perfect. |
What qualifications does that role require?
Honestly, I'm not sure. I began as a quality assurance tester and gradually and naturally worked my way into different positions. I didn't go to University, but I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort on self studies, reading between 1-4 books per month and practicing my skills at home. And I was lucky.
I would say having a positive attitude, being honest and friendly, and constantly working on interpersonal skills is the most important. Acquiring technical knowledge and skills is relatively easy compared to learning how to be a "good person" who people enjoy working with. Good companies will pay attention to a person's personality and attitude. Few companies hire assholes, no matter how knowledgable or skilled they are. |
I wouldn't buy it for the games. Audiosurf is fun and runs well (if it takes a while to load), but the first released SDK didn't allow access to the 3D acceleration hardware so development has been slow--or that's what I've read last. If you're more adventurous and want to leave the marketplace, there are some here ( I haven't tried this, so no promises. |
Comment golf? |
I almost gave it a free try until I read these two paragraphs:
"If your license to Use Memory Box Products or Services expires, is terminated, is not renewed, or is otherwise discontinued for any reason, Memory Box and the Memory Box Affiliates may, without notice, delete or deny you access to any of your Backup Data that may remain in their possession or control.
You agree that if i) you mark a file to no longer be backed-up, ii) you delete a file from your computer, iii) move a file to a location on your computer that is not marked for back-up, iv) you delete a computer from your Memory Box Products or Services account, v) your computer is unable to access Memory Box, or vi) you terminate or allow your trial or license to terminate, non-renew, or otherwise lapse for any reason, that the files you have marked, deleted, moved or stored on a deleted, inaccessible, or unlicensed computer may not be available to you should you wish to restore them." |
I approve of the sentiment, but the facts just don't line up. Shakespeare wrote plays for the masses in order to make money, Dickens was paid by the word and was considering largely giving up writing before the comercial success of A Christmas Carol, Anthony Burgess admits to disliking A Clockwork Orange and only writing it for the money. Virtually every Rennaissance artist-- Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Botticelli-- had a wealth patron that supported them. Not to mention the works of art that require large amounts of money-- while I love Primer, the vast majority of great movies, The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, need large budgets to be made. Even in music, a century ago Mahler wrote his 8th symphony, called the symphony of a thousand, because it requires hundreds of instrumentalists to perform.
Should art be purely commercial? No. But if art were never made with commercial interests in mind we would be missing a huge corpus of human culture. |
Most industrious of you to avoid that symbol (not sub it out). All in all, an apt post I wish I could upboat again. Your history also displays your ability to adapt. |
On the other hand massive telcos are current in control of most of the pipes to the internet. Without government regulation we are relying solely on them competing to maintain net neutrality. Currently this is working. However AT&T and Comcast scare me more than our government.
Yet they also have their dirty giant paws in our government so any legislation that passes concerning net neutrality will most assuredly have a large amount of filth from them all over it. |
Once apon a time FTP servers would have been better for large file transfers than HTTP due to tiny amounts of RAM and CPU power, and difference in optimizations between the two as a result. Nowadays there's no real difference.
For small files, however, FTP is terrible. With several round trips between client and server before each transfer can be initiated, your effective transfer rate drops to a few percent of your possible rate when transfering lots of small files on a high latency connection. |
When the chips are tested there is a bell curve produced because some will preform better than others even though their whole development process was essentially the same. Even with a 99% consistency not all chips are made equal and several markets have to be targeted for each batch. Chipmakers basically take the low preforming chips and sell them cheap, they take the majority of the chips (mid-range) and market them for average consumer use and they sell the top performers to the highest bidder.
They make the bulk of their money on the mid-range chips and they lose the bulk of their money on the crappy ones, the high end chips are just gravy and to be honest I doubt the average consumer is even told about them as they probably go to the government. The chipmakers don't intentionally gimp anything because it is hard enough for them to pump out a consistent product as it is. What chipmakers really want is a product that is always the same and always as high preforming as possible because then they can have the highest quality range in the market.
Variety means they have to spend more on marketing to chip-users, researching what chips-users can actually do with lame ass chips so they can market them and overall spending a ton of money trying to figure out what caused any development errors in the first place. Most of the money goes to finding and fixing errors because again having the best most consistent product around allows them to make the most money.
Sure there is a market for low end chips but let the other guys with their lame ass production process fill that need. You want to set the bar for what is used by the most people and you want to set it higher than any of your competitors can reach so you do your best to make every chip as good as it possibly can be by the time you release it.
I am not lying when I say that each division and subdivision at big chipmakers are often graded in how effective they are at making a top notch product. People will either get reprimanded or a large bonus for a 0.1% deviation from normal production quality rates for their group depending on which way it goes. If you bump quality by a 1% a year then you'd be getting maybe 6-10% bonus at some places and even more if you are on a researching-sciency-equations-and-stuff-on-white-board type team. The stakes are even higher in the research sectors and process development (low yield) factories where they develop the cutting edge stuff. The groups in these places are graded on how much they've improved each week or month or whatever. Even though the stuff they produce does get bought their real product is the process. These troopers make the process that they high yield plants will depend on in coming production cycles so it behooves a company to make those processes as great as possible before they leave the production area. If you want to see the smartest people at Intel or IBM or SolarWorld or whoever else deals with semiconductors then you go to their development factories because down to the lowest level worker they determine how the game will be played industry wide. Some of those places will have people with masters degrees doing even the most menial work just because it is the best way to refine everything they do.
For example in these places if a group increases quality by 0.1% one month and stagnates the next then they'd better increase by 0.2% next time or they will be considered ineffective. It is not like you need a final product to test quality either, each step of these multi thousand step development processes have their own checks and balances. A boss will always know exactly where a team stands on a given group of wafers or chips or whatever it is they make within a few hours of it leaving their little unit.
Lets say a group of chips effectively gets broken down three groups (for simplicities sake), well they are going to want each group to be as good as possible. So they have 1.2Ghz, 1.8 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz chips, it would not make any business sense to gimp half the 1.6 Ghz chips and sell them as 1.4 Ghz and then ask consumers to pay $50 to upgrade to full potential when they probably could simply have sold it at $200 more to begin with. Heck even if they could have sold it for $50 more to begin with it doesn't make sense to gimp the chip because there will always be more demand for the better chip in the first place. It isn't like they'd have too many 1.6Ghz chips which no one will buy so they have to sell them at 1.4Ghz and trick people later.
Most people are not even going to hear about a $50 software chip upgrade from intel and most who do won't even buy into it. The company simply came up with this solution to appease a few customers a bit longer. They want these people to be happy with their computers until the next set of chips comes out. I mean it pisses everyone off when they buy a new computer and the next week something better is out. Well this way the person looking to upgrade soon will spend $50 and be satisfied until the next best thing comes out. Again these software upgrades are hardly going to make intel any money at all, I bet the group that developed it won't even turn a profit because most people won't know or even care in the slightest. |
I wasn't going to look up reports myself but here we go;
The verdict here seems to be that MSE struggles to keep up with other free alternatives, it's main points are the usability and light weight, it doesn't intrude. Personally I have always seen it like the Windows firewall, it's a nice addon that works without much hassle but it's nothing more than a little comfort. If you want real protection you need to get a good firewall and a good anti virus program, there are plenty of good free ones. |
UPBOATS! Journalism works. It can and should be one of the major fronts used to amplify the voice of the people. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. WE THE PEOPLE need to get to squeakin'. (Before we get detained indefinitely.) |
I'm sorry that it came off as an arrogant generalization but I meant it as just a rant on how even my own parents, who have been voting for different things within government, don't even know what's going on. It's concerning. I don't really know how to approach them with this issue as whenever I do try to give my two cense on anything political, I'm shoved aside and they just know that I go to some reddit website, which makes my opinion less credible that the foxnews media bullshit they get sucked into. I just want to inform them and break their bad habits of where they acquire their information but as this is coming from some dang 18 year old hooligan, it doesn't have much affect. I have shown them different websites that they could go to for more straightforward, unbiased websites but their excuse is it's not convenient. I added some of them to their "favorites" and even wrote them friendly reminders about not believing everything thats on the tv but as soon as I come back from college I have to start all over again because they go back to their old ways. |
I would love to believe this. But the social consciousness will shift and people will look the other way despite the video evidence of the injustice that we all already know goes on.
Hell, there are comedy bits about police brutality going on in the past and how "nobody knew about it". Now Youtube probably has over a thousand hours of footage of it but most people have been slowly conditioned to find it perfectly tolerable. |
It's used in conjunction with a botnet.
>A botnet is a collection of compromised computers, each of which is known as a 'bot', connected to the Internet. When a computer is compromised by an attacker, there is often code within the malware that commands it to become part of a botnet. The "botmaster" or "bot herder" controls these compromised computers via standards-based network protocols such as IRC and
Wikipedia |
Arguments? OK. Here we go:
Even IE9 and IE10 still lack many HTML5 and CSS3 features. Every other browser, even Opera, is far away. Why is that a problem? Well, complex, modern websites will try to use the newest possible features and (as it has been for years now) IE will have a fallback option which will typically be half baked due to limited time and resources. So what that means for you, as a user, is that you will not receive optimal - the best - experience. And it doesn't only mean visual aspects.
[caniuse.com]( provides list of all modern browser features with their compability. Just check how many times IE is not included.
Want to have real difference presented? Check [this website]( in Chrome, Safari or newest Firefox and then in IE.
As I said, this example is visual but there are many features in HTML5 that are purely technical, back-end stuff and IE is missing them too. 'Can I use' will help you verify how important are those.
Microsoft is persistent in making their own implementation of things. Most of webkit experimental features in CSS, starting with -webkit- snippet, are based on what W3C (World Wide Web Consortium, organisation responsible for a shape of web) is planning, and therefore they end up working as they are even if browser is updated to newer version and supports final CSS3 feature.
For example: in Chrome we had -webkit-box-shadow property to make shadows behind block objects (box, image etc.). W3C called it simply box-shadow.
IE makes the same box shadow with the property that is IE exlusive: filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.DropShadow(color='#000000',offX='20',offY='20');
What that means for end user? Developers have limited resources and there are so many variables you can't test everything out on every possible computer/browser configuration. So most developers ignore IE unique filters because they have no meaning in other browsers. Developer writes box-shadow: 0px 0px 5px #000000 to make black 5px wide shadow and have it working out of the box in Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome + on all smartphones and tablets that are not Windows based. IE is left without shadow at all which makes design inconsistent. Now, developer could spend 1 more hour and use images for shadow, making HTML code harder to read (nested divs - you have to put one element for shadow, and then put another element inside for box, and then next for text inside the box etc. instead of box + text). That doesn't make big different to end-user because you see the same thing but if you are handicapped and use screen reader, nested elements complicate things. Also, the code worse in terms of search engine optimization because Google tends to read 20-30% of the website code only. If you have code increased by 10% due to nested divs then you loose keywords. |
I don't think I'll feel any "safer" just because a website is simply telling me that they aren't tracking. It'll end up like sending a "X-Dont-Show-Ads" header that no one would comply with.
If DNT compliance becomes a law We might end up sites that forces users of DNT to pay for content. |
Well you aren't paying to replace the artist's resources (in the sense that it's depleted), but you're paying in order to use their product - in the same way you have to pay a baker to eat his bread.
Besides, money is still spent making the music and getting it to you - instruments, mics, producers, studio sessions, marketing, promotion, management, etc. The money you spend goes to paying for these things. So you aren't necessarily repleting their resources, but you are giving them the monetary means to keep doing what they do. |
Because I think Inman did libel FunnyJunk, and that Carreon was just doing his job as an attorney by representing his client in the letter to Inman. Inman then elevated the disagreement by taking it to the Internet in an immature and hurtful manner, and also in a way that he should have reasonably foreseen that would have incited the masses against both FunnyJunk and FunnyJunk's lawyer. Inman's libel and subsequent actions (he could have just had his lawyer respond with a more civilized fuck you) have consistently done nothing but to incite the anger of the ignorant masses and encourage them to anonymously attack his rivals who have an honest dispute against Inman. Inman is using his media position to attack other people, particularly people who were just doing their job (Carreon).
In short, Inman is an asshole and I hope the court finds his original libel and subsequent actions tortiously and severely harmed Carreon, holding him directly responsible for both actual and punitive damages. Yes, I want it to have a chilling affect and I want it to set precedent. I don't think assholes should be allowed to abuse their position of media personalities to (with a unacknowledged smirk) inspire people to anonymously attack others.
You don't have to agree with me, but at least I'm not going to get 1,000 of people to harass you because you don't. |
I actually think both sides of the story are pretty well represented. In fact, it seems to me that Carreon has engaged with the media far more than Inman and has had his actual words/comments used way more than Inman has.
Secondly, this guy is doing a really really crappy job. First of all, he was hired by FunnyJunk yet he clearly did minimal work to actually get to know his client.
>Carreon was told that all Oatmeal comics had been taken off the FunnyJunk site, even though they hadn't. "If I had known... no demand would have gone out," he says.
Sounds like he barely did any due diligence and just accepted everything at face value without any investigation. The fact that he did not even take the time to verify one of the most crucial points of the lawsuit (that FunnyJunk had taken down all material) shows that he is a shitty lawyer.
Secondly, he has decided to get personally involved which IMO, no lawyer should do because it prevents them from looking at a case in an objective manner. I find it funny that Carreon keeps saying that Inman drew a picture of his (Carreon's) engaging in bestiality when in reality Inman stated that the the woman in the drawing was FunnyJunk's mother. This just shows how Carreon is now unable to even accept facts or think clearly, and therefore is a shitty lawyer that should have his reputation ruined. |
Oatmeal got pissed about funnyjunk hosting his comics. A year later, funnyjunk tried to sue (??!!). Oatmeal posted this gigantic [FUCK YOU!]( and raised money for Cancer patients and Bears. The Interwebs cheered. Now Funnyjunk's lawyer is trying to [sue the charities that got the money]( claiming that the money should be his. |
Being a Funnyjunker I just want to say to keep in mind Funnyjunkers aren't as intellectual as most of the users here but none of us agree with what was done by admin to handle the oatmeal situation. Oatmeal was right in every way and we agreed with him but admin decided it was a good idea to cause a huge shitstorm and sue him on no grounds whatsoever and now the whole site is demonized by the rest of the internet, |
Can we fix education period? We have a plague of teachers who don't want to teach, combined with students who don't want to learn, all leading up to school boards who don't care what is actually "taught" in their schools. Sure, they can make generalized claims of "Well our students are taught advanced mathematical skills.", but how far does that actually go? Does the student actually understand what they are doing, or are they simply going through the motions to get a 2.0 GPA so they can graduate?
In my sophomore year of high school, Computer Architecture was offered as a class. Being the techie I am, I naturally signed up for this class before the prior school year had even ended. In my excitement, I spent the entire summer Googling Computer Architecture, and other related subjects. In that 3-month period, I learned almost the entire basis of electronics design. I purchased an Arduino, and a textbook for a college-level course titled Introduction to Logic Design, in addition to countless trips to Radioshack for everything from a soldering iron, to something out of every parts drawer. By the end of the summer, I had an understanding of TTL logic, every base electronic component, digital logic design, and could draw out a logically, and electrically correct schematic for a simple ALU. Obviously, I thought I was going to nail this class.
To my dismay, the furthest into "Computer Architecture" we ever got was the existence of registers, and what they do in the CPU. No electronics. No digital logic. Nothing. The majority of the class time was spent watching educational videos on how to pass the [Comptia A+ Certification]( while the "teacher" facilitated the class, and handed out the tests. |
The FBI didn't intend to poke around his private e-mail, because they didn't know it was his private e-mail.
He used a pseudonym to set up the account. They obtained a subpena/warrant for an e-mail account that Broadwell had access to and was sending the harassment e-mail from. They noticed there's another IP address, that didn't belong to Broadwell accessing the account as well. They traced the other IP address (because it might be the source of the harassment instead of Broadwell) and realized it belonged to Petraeus. At this point, some IT geeks at the FBI field office in Tampa Bay who thought they were doing a routine harassment investigation is shitting their pant thinking: Who is this woman and why is she accessing the same e-mail account as the Director of the CIA? Did she hacked his account? They informed higher up at the FBI.
The investigation was fast tracked, a harassment case became a potential national security breach. But soon, they went through the e-mails and realized they stumbled upon an affair because the e-mail was filled with explicit sex talks. They interviewed Broadwell, and she admitted to it. They interviewed Petraeus and he admitted to it. Since no national security was breached, they though it was a personnel issue and only informed Patraeus's boss. Pataeus's boss asked him to resign, he does. Shit storm ensued. |
I hear what you're saying... but think about how many results I'll get searching "Facebook" on Reddit. |
Prediction - Warner Bros, MGM, Universal, Disney etc. are thinking "man, Netflix sure is making a lot of money off our movies... we should start are own movie streaming service." Next thing you know each production company/rights-holder has their own streaming service. Nobody wants to pay for such a limited selection, and instead hit up their local RedBox. After a while the RedBox movie selection seems too limited, and consumer demand causes Blockbuster movie stores to start cropping up again. Meanwhile, EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music Group start having similar thoughts, and pull their music from Spotify to create their own music streaming servies; and of course nobody is willing to subscribe to such fragmented services. This, coupled with the hipster movement, results in small-time record stores opening up across the US. However, they are in obscure parts of town you've probably never heard of, and can't find on a map, so Napster starts making a comeback. - but their torrent library is soon riddled with viruses and DJ Khaled is yelling his name over every song. Not finding any songs you like, you say "screw it, I'm going to rent a move at Blockbuster," but find that all the copies of Game of Thrones, Season 3 are rented. So you go back home and get on Reddit. |
In case you're interested about my background in this context:
I code ecological and social network models for work.
I married into a Korean family some years ago.
Here was my response to something else you've said:
You don't understand the internal conflicts and loyalties in North Korea.
>NK is still China's proxy and won't bite, literally, the hand that feeds it.
NK is technically a food exporter,because crazy maoism. China eats that food.
>As we have watched China's patience with NK run short in the latest round of bluster, NK has predictably backed down.
The public stuff is a war of attrition between rogue generals and kim dynasty. Basically he says something threatening until a general brandishes a weapon, then NATO+SK image it well enough to disable with EM warfare. That general loses face, new kim prince solidifies power. They calmed down when they set off their Manchurian candidate White supremacist sleeper cells in the US this April.
The part you should recognize is that Koreans are still a single ethnic group, China seized their sacred turf in the cold war, so they have the most to fear from reunification. The Chinese still have a habit of kidnapping Korean brides. That type of thing always leads to conflict.
The kim dynasty would gain nothing through military action with the south. They could gain control of their creation story mountain by going to war with imperialist China. |
It's not a technology problem at all, it's a social problem. People will not keep them quiet, or be yammering on them all the fucking time. That shitty little kid is going to want to watch a crappy show on mom's phone. That's loud and annoying. Someone fuckface has to call their honey bunny to gush about something. Some morons needs to listen to their sweet jams without head phones. Another jerkoff will let their badass ringtone song play all the goddamn way through. Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. Someone's popular with the texts! |
The size of the US mortgage market gained about $5 Trillion from 2000 to 2007 to a total size of around $10 Trillion. Almost $8 Trillion was loaned to banks under TARP (with only 1/10 of that authorized by congress) Why did the Fed need to cover almost the entire outstanding debt in the mortgage market? All single family dwellings in the US didn't need to be paid in full at once. No, it was the highly leveraged speculation of large institutions that had to be covered. |
It's incredible that a post regarding justice porn result in the exact same post from dozens of commenters. It's all not good enough for them and the system is collapsing even though the system clearly worked this time. This is an article about someone being punished because they did terrible things in the private sector. For some reason, people find it a great place to respond about other markets with zero proof of price fixing, just whining about high prices as if the goods and services private companies are offering don't have a right to sell it at a price in which the customer demands. |
I can see why google doesnt want to do this, for practical reasons.
If they do this for one site, it sets precedent for others to hammer away at competing sites and creates an environment of hostility and distrust within google, which will hurt their advertising.
For example, I run a business, we use google adwords and we pay to get preferential rankings for a set number of hours (yes, they do this)
Now let's say I have a competitor who doesn't feel that they should pay for such a service, and decide to google bomb themselves to the top of the rankings. However, there I am near the top.
What to do? Simple. DMCA the shit out of me. Then suddenly, poof, I'm removed from google's search because I "violated" someone's copyright.
TPB has lists of files that can be infringing (they do have legitimate files too, though let's not kid ourselves, they're the minority)
However. TPB itself, and its listing on google's search is not infringing on someone's copyright. If say, someone made a clone of TPB and used to to deliver viruses, TPB could say to google that it's not legit and harmful, and a breach of copyright.
TPB could also be de-listed if say their homepage linked directly to files they hosted. They do not host any files, nor do they technically have direct links (magnet links are not direct links)
However, if google decides to comply with a bullshit DMCA and block TPB, they send the signal that they are now open to bow to third party pressure to alter their search service, the most widely used search service on the internet, and the largest advertising spot on the internet. To businesses like mine, this means I could now be wiped off the internet's biggest search engine because someone doesn't like me and will start firing off DMCA's at google to delist me.
Even if google never does it again. it creates uncertainty and doubt. Which is bad for their public image, and you better bet Microsoft would jump in and blow it way out of proportion and give their horrendous "scroogled" campaign some legitimacy. "google can at any time remove you from their search! bing doesnt do that LIE LIE LIE "
So yeah, google has a good reason not to do this, even if it is TPB. Which some people may see as "bad" (I personally do not.) |
if you mistype and end up at thpiratebay.com, you end up downloading trojans and popups galore. a LOT of people just go to google (because it's their start page, or they know exactly what the google page looks like) and type in the site they are looking for. reason being, google autocorrects your typos and you can 99% of the time guarantee the first link is the site you are looking for. they also don't need to remember if it's .com or .net or .org or some weird country TLD (delicio.us). |
I don't think the word "theft" means what you think it means.
>theft n.
>the generic term for all crimes in which a person intentionally and fraudulently takes personal property of another without permission or consent and with the intent to convert it to the taker's use (including potential sale). In many states, if the value of the property taken is low (for example, less than $500) the crime is "petty theft," but it is "grand theft" for larger amounts, designated misdemeanor, or felony, respectively. Theft is synonymous with "larceny." Although robbery (taking by force), burglary (taken by entering unlawfully), and embezzlement (stealing from an employer) are all commonly thought of as theft, they are distinguished by the means and methods used, and are separately designated as those types of crimes in criminal charges and statutory punishments.
copying does not remove/take any property from the owner.
It can become Copyright Infringement, but only if you perform, display, reproduce or distribute it.
>Copyright holders frequently refer to copyright infringement as theft. In copyright law, infringement does not refer to theft of physical objects that take away the owner's possession, but an instance where a person exercises one of the exclusive rights of the copyright holder without authorization. Courts have distinguished between copyright infringement and theft holding. For instance, in the United States Supreme Court case Dowling v. United States (1985), bootleg phonorecords did not constitute stolen property. Instead, "interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud. The Copyright Act even employs a separate term of art to define one who misappropriates a copyright: '[...] an infringer of the copyright.'" The court said that in the case of copyright infringement, the province guaranteed to the copyright holder by copyright law—certain exclusive rights—is invaded, but no control, physical or otherwise, is taken over the copyright, nor is the copyright holder wholly deprived of using the copyrighted work or exercising the exclusive rights held. |
But... most of those people, if they couldn't copy your song, wouldn't buy it from you. They just wouldn't listen to it.
Which is fair and all, but you still don't get that dollar you feel you're entitled to.
There's a strong impulse among content producers to view every unauthorised copy of your content as a loss, "That's a dollar that could have been in my pocket!", but... most of those 'thefts' wouldn't have been sales. They wouldn't have been anything to you, those people would have spent that time watching TV or something instead.
Piracy takes a group of people who wouldn't have paid for your music and wouldn't have listened to your music and turns them into a group who hasn't paid for your music but HAS listened to it. Some of those people will remember your name and buy a CD a year later that they would otherwise walk past, and some people who would have bought a song download it instead... Which is unfair and annoys you, but it isn't obvious that this causes an overall financial loss. |
this is a logical fallacy.
years ago - music and software in general were not something you could copy easily . back then, people paid for two things - listening to an artist's live performance and the actual copy of the material. the reason the material was worth money is because it was hard to get.
the experience of live performance however, is still worth money as you cannot duplicate it.
now, as an artist - you had two things to sell - your new creation, and the experience of watching you live (a whole new creation in itself). the only way to get the value of your creation was through distribution - and this is where the music/movies/games industry comes in. they were willing to pay much less than the creation's worth, but pay you for every copy they sell. allying with the distribution industry was the only way to get the full worth of your product. this does not mean the copies of your song are your property - it's just a business model that worked very well, just like any other service that has demand.
think about it - you don't care about the kids playing your songs to their friends (basically making duplicates of your song) or if a copy of your song makes it by second hand to 100 more people. the only reason you care about people copying your art is because this is not how it used to work.
many other services just like this died out during the years (take shoe makers for example, industry killed those by copying shoes, and 3d printers will kill that industry unless lobbyists will outlaw 3d printers, and they will.)
the music industry is dying. distribution of art by proxy is no longer necessary. as technology progresses more and more service suppliers will die out and that's OK. it's okay because it's not going to do anything to the actual artists.
here's what you can (and should ) do to earn what you deserve for your creations - start a kickstarter project! set the kickstarter to whatever sum you think you deserve for your art, if it's worth it - you'll get your money and won't have to worry about illegal copies later on.
the distribution fight was never your fight - it's the last cry of a dying monopoly, doomed to end as technology moves on. |
Exactly. I pirate everything. I used to buy tons of movies but not anymore. When I got a new home theater system with surround and blu-ray I bought a few BRs to really show it off and realized how annoying the disc intros and menus are and just started pirating BR rips instead. I'm not deluded enough to realize that if I wasn't pirating the content I'd be buying some of it. Granted, not all of it. Some things I just do because its there and easy and I wouldn't pay for it otherwise but there is still plenty I would have paid for if I couldn't pirate it. A comparison was made above to having some machine that just duplicated any object it's not theft but at the same time if you were hell bent on having that car you just deprived them of a sale while stealing their years of R&D and engineering to develop that car. |
if it helps, it looks that way from the inside too. the only difference is we're IN the cage...
currently for most americans the idea of violent revolution seems abhorrent. most consider the ideal that we can change the system by changing out some of the players to be valid. most think they are alone, a sole bastion of reason in a sea of unconscious sheep, they vote for someone they WANT in office but that person doesn't win so they feel it must be because of all the other people in the country. they don't realize the deck was stacked all along, they have been gerrymandered such that they views can never crystalize while still others are ostensibly denied the right to vote (you can't overtly deny the right to vote, but if you bury it behind red tape you can make it nearly impossible and the people will just not vote but still feel that it was possible if they wanted) |
Yes, I know that the vague definition has to do with something other than what you pay for it. I'm asking what that something is. What makes "liberated" software liberated?
Anyway, since my other post, I looked it up and the purpose of it -is- what they're talking about when they say free software, however they don't see (and say others don't see) the term "open source" as meaning quite the same thing.
From their site:
>This is a matter of freedom, not price, so think of “free speech,” not “free beer.”
Ok, problem with this? Analogies to real world things don't help me. Talk to me in computer terms, not vague, nebulous concepts that don't have anything to do with programming or how software is used (ex.: what the fuck is a "cloud"? Oh, it's just a server. FFS). :P And if you do want to use such an analogy? The purpose might not be to get free beer, but you still get your beer for free in the process. So if you use that line on people who have no understanding of it, you're just going to confuse the issue.
Anyway.
This one was confusing, because if a program doesn't run... isn't it just broken? It seems like you don't even need to state this one:
>The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
But then I read some explanation:
>The freedom to run the program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system, for any kind of overall job and purpose, without being required to communicate about it with the developer or any other specific entity.
Ok. Apparently the obvious is not a given. There are scenarios where you could get screwed if you don't spell that one out.
Anyway. I guess the way I would |
Fun fact!
My family lives in the midwest (I moved away a few years ago to the "south" in a major metro area) and since there is so much land and so little population, things like cable and fiber just aren't typical. My parents have a 1.5mbps "broadband" DSL connection that is up about 60-70% of the time. That's as good as it gets there. There just isn't infrastructure in a lot of more rural areas. And it's not like they're particularly remote, either. They're about 5 minutes from a town of 1k+ and 25 minutes from a city of around 200k+. So, for those that live further from civilization, the odds of having anything that might qualify as broadband drops fast.
And don't bring up satellite connections. I spent a good chunk of my life doing support for people in rural areas for computers and such and satellite connections are seriously horrible. Most carriers tend to limit downstream severely (I'm talking like 200 megs per day) and drop your connection to dial-up speeds if you surpass it.
So, |
Bell Aliant***
Bell Aliant is the result of Aliant forming a partnership with Bell Canada. Bell Canada has bandwidth caps, and are generally regarded as a terrible ISP by most Canadians (I have no experience with them, so I have no comment).
While they are still the parent company of Bell Aliant, Bell Aliant continues to be operated independently. They have their own policies and procedures, their own set of plans, their own executive completely separate from Bell Canada. The only thing they really hand over completely to Bell Canada is their mobility section (Bell Aliant no longer deals with cell phone plans, that's all Bell Canada now) |
It depends though doesn't it? It depends on how you define the "field". If you compare every new tablet to the iPad in a the iPad does this but this doesn't etc. and not doing the same thing both ways... Then there will never be a better iPad than the iPad.
That's the way most reviews go, an iPad review sort of stands on it's own. "Oh look the new iPad does this that the old iPad didn't." None of them go like, oh look the surface can actually multitask, you can chat and watch a video at the same time but the new iPad still can't do that. |
I don't give the author's statement any credibility - we have to clean Yontoo from customers' PCs all the time. It looks like malware. It gets detected as malware. It gets removed as malware. |
It's not really interesting. Typical actually of a business to not adopt right away to the latest and greatest. Windows 7 is stable, secure, and known to be a really good OS. That doesn't mean 8 / 8.1 isn't, but a business would rather use an OS that has a known reputation for being what I listed above. |
In places other than the US, sure.
edit: [source]( since people seem to think this is somehow not true. |
My first experience with an iPod Touch was just a month ago, after my girlfriend got one for christmas.
I once had an iPod Classic and tried to just use the latest version of the third-party software I used back then. Didn't recognize the device though, so I sighed and installed iTunes.
Okay, yeah, this is the iPod's name, oh, there's a firmware update? Well, why not? Can't take that long. iPod is in Recovery Mode? Oh, Windows 7 can't seem to find the drivers for an iPod in Recovery Mode. Let's just go to the Device Manager and download tho... What, the single iPod is two unknown devices? And Windows 7 can't find any drivers automatically? Okay, let's google this. Well, there's a folder with drivers on my computer, that's nice. Wait, three files for two devices? And no combination works? Well, this search result suggests there's a way to put the iPod out of Recovery Mode. Doesn't work either, great. This guy had a problem similar to mine, let's try re-installing all that Apple-software-shit. [35 minutes later] Still doesn't work? Let's try again. Now it works? WHAT THE FUCK APPLE!? Okay, great, firmware is updated. Now, that's my computer, so I don't want to sync anything. Let me just manually select the folders I want to import in Windows Explorer and drag them right into there. Why isn't it doing anything? WAAAAAAAAAAAARHG! |
I'm a big apple supporter.. I love all my apple shit, and I love converting my tech-retarded family to the apple eco system to make my life easier since I'm the one that does all the support.
Setting up an airport and apple tv for my parents who are in the 70s over the phone took only a couple minutes. Setting up their router over the phone before it was an apple router was HELL. Their android tablet that they got from someone for xmas was HELL. Their phone, another android, SO complicated for them...
Got them ipads, an airport, and apple tv and it took no time whatsoever. I almost cried with happiness - so that's how much I heart the stuff.
I also have a blackberry and nexus. (web content job.) - so I'm semi-techy..
Anyways- I hate IOS7. I hate it so much. I hate how in safari the bottom bar disappears now and makes it weird to reactivate. (The bottom bar has the directional pads.)
I hate the bright white system backgrounds. Oh my GOD do I hate it. Reading emails in bed when I'm just waking up is no longer an option, too annoyingly white. I hate how you have to have location services on to get the weather in the new notifications center. I hate the new notifications center, and I hate how the weather is a weird one or two line sentence, with no pictures, or ability to check the highs and lows without opening an app..
However, once jailbroken, there's nothing I can't do with any of my idevices that I can't do on my blackberry or my nexus. and now I LOVE the devices again, but I've changed much of it. |
I recently had an experience with apple care and apple support that still gets me a bit rilled up. They went from great customer service to absolutely terrible in my opinion. This is going to be a massive wall of texts.
I had a broken monitor. My laptop took a tumble. I kinda knew I was screwed but played it hoping someone would doing something human for me about it. It's less than a year old and a 15" retina display sells for over 600 dollars.
In the end I made a total of 6 trips to the apple store (3 different stores total, in 2 states). First time I went I was turned away. I didn't have an appointment. This was annoying but I assumed it was because they were busy and it was just after christmas. I got an appointment for the next day and finally talked to someone. I was helped for about 15 mins by a nice tech, who then took the computer in back for a hardware inspection. He came back and said he would just wait to hear from them. A half hour later when we was done with his next customer he finally went back to check on my laptop. It didn't even matter what I said happened to it, Apple would not cover it. Well, I had to fly home in a couple of days so I couldn't get it fixed at that store. So I tried going to another apple store near where I live. I was again turned away, at 10:05, from an apple store for not having an appointment. The thing is, I was under the impression that they always had a swing person around to deal with the drop-ins. The next appointment for the store was FIVE DAYS OUT. I'm a grad student, can't wait that long.
I then went to a third party, non-authorized repair, and they wouldn't touch my computer. They said apple should cover it and that I should go back to them. That was confusing. So I scheduled an appointment 2 days out at another apple store about 45 mins away. I left in a snow for the store so I misjudged time. I was early by a half hour, all the techs were "in a meeting" so I sat and waited for a half hour. During this time I observed most of the lower level techs dealing with iphone issues, but mostly their time was spent scheduling all of the people coming in. In fact, it was pretty obvious that most of the employees efforts were spent trying to shoehorn people into apples queueing system for appointments. I also overheard them talking about how to accommodate computer hardware walk-ins. I then realized that the position I thought was gone was still around but the apple stores are so overworked and poorly organized that it effectively doesn't exist anymore at large stores.
After waiting, the techs came out of their meeting, instantly went to all the customers who came in after me. 5 mins after my appointment was scheduled the one tech who wasn't in the meeting and was talking with other employees at the same (as well as helping a few straggling people needing help, he wasn't totally sitting on his ass) finally invites me to the counter. I know whats going to happen, I think. But before he can help me he does a quick look and asks me to log in. Then, another customer says "hey!, my dad wants to ask you a question!" I spend the next 5 mins staring at the guy waiting for him help me, while he is helping someone over the phone who couldn't be bothered to come in. It seems obvious that the techs can't say no for a call for help, even if it means being extreemly rude to another customer. When he is finally done with the other customer he then says "ok, lets first run a system update. Just kidding!". That was the point when I felt myself break inside.
But here is the best part, he takes my computer in back, 30 seconds later he comes back and can point to the ding on the computer that voids apple care. He then says they don't have the part but can get it repaired in 4 days. I explain how long I've been at this and all the apple stores I've been to, and ask if there was anyway to hurry up. He says maybe, mumbles to himself while he works on the computer for a few mins, then mumbles something I think to me, but he was already 10 feet away and walking into the back. He comes back half an hour later and says he can get me repaired at the second store I went to a couple days earlier. During the half hour waiting, I had no idea what he was doing, he never explained what was going on. I even had other techs walk up and ask if someone was helping me. When he finally came back I let him finish the paperwork and he asks if I need anything else, I tell him I want to talk to the manager.
I go over the whole story with the manager, how at every point apple was very nice as they totally screwed me over and cost me an arm and a leg. I explained how I had been ignore and disrespected by apple employees (not too much detail, because I know most of their behavior is out of their hands). He was apologetic, and understanding. I explained my frustration with just trying to contact apple. I thank him for listening and he thanks me for feedback.
I take my computer to the 2nd store again with the piece of paper that I will sign saying I will agree to the cost of the repair. It takes about 5 mins of 2 employees trying to manage the schedule before they can even ask me my name ( because it was done with an ipad, not because they were actively ignoring me.) But the best part comes when I get the new tech. He says, oh, I'll just redo your paperwork and we can get started on the repairs. After 5 days (a day longer than the 3rd store) I get a call to pick up my computer andI ask how much it's going to be at the end. I was then told it was covered. I was shocked, I picked up my computer ASAP so they wouldn't spot the mistake and left.
I then looked over the form that I was re-issued at the store, the cost was zeroed out. I thought maybe someone had been nice to me. A couple of days later I get an email from the 3rd apple store telling me my replacement part was in and that if I could bring in my computer again. Apple hadn't been nice, they had been incompetent at every turn of customer service, I just happened to bounce around enough that they screwed up their own paper work. In every interaction I had with the reps/check-in people that I ended up getting the run around I always asked "so you can't help my right now?" and it was obvious by their instant response of "I didn't say that!" that they couldn't parse words or add nuance and had to lie to my face instead. The couldn't help me, they couldn't help themselves, they can't really help anyone but Apple. |
Completely agree. There's still a lot of yellow press out there, and lets not even talk about things like Fox News. People have been believing bullshit (that was proven wrong) for as long as history records it.
We haven't broken the Internet, we broke the mass media system, originally intended to inform us so we could decide how to feel and what to do, now it just tells us what our feelings should be, and how we should act about things. It's easier, less effort, and you don't actually need to think to do the "right thing" (so you don't feel as dumb).
And we all love it, or at least follow it begrudgingly. I mean even I, who considers myself someone who likes to question and think about everything, and knowing that media is trying to manipulate me, noticed that certain things easily swayed me to one side blindly. |
gay pedos," really?
mostly photos of boys does not equal all boys -- "About 250 children - mostly boys from the US - appeared on the site."
pedophilia diagnoses emphasize the importance of the power and age difference as more important than the gender. The adult gender preference is not a reliable predictor of a child gender preference.
while a predominance of photos of one gender may attract those who only get aroused by that gender, it may also be due to other reasons such as it being easier to persuade one gender to take naughty selfies than the other.
Not defending these folk, but equating "gay" with "pedophila" undermines your comment. These people would be just as scummy if they were bi, straight, or just opportunistically exploiting any young person while being a completely chaste adult. |
I will admit getting everything set up the way you want it can take a bit longer for the initial setup since some things are hard to find and because it is so different it will take you months to get used to the changes and relearn everything.
And you accept this? awk and sed have not changed much since the mid eighties or so.
>The main ones are the average users who are so entrenched into doing things the same way they always have been.
Time is money. I get that zero output for the first month, ramping up to two hundred percent output at three months pays off.
That simply is not a correct view, however. The flexibility and power in the old simple tools like awk and sed are not matched in any graphical user interface. There's a reason why those tools have not changed much in the last forty years.
Dismissing old tools because you lack the skill to use them efficiently while claiming the new tools will double productivity in a few months seems artificial, to me.
Sometimes you need a sledge hammer. The time you spend developing your sledge hammer skills will serve you the rest of your working life. The time you spend learning how to fly the space shuttle is useless as soon as the space shuttle is decommissioned. |
I can understand why people dislike the Win 8 start menu but do people not use shortcuts?
If you press windows key + 'Q' you can pull up the search bar. From that bar you can get to any program you want just by searching the name. It can be as fast and easy as using the regular start menu. |
Ill be honest, I haven't used 8 more than a few minutes and I hated it. I also hated 7 coming from XP, but love it now. There always seems to be a period of loathing for me coming to a new Win OS version. |
The thing with removing second-click functionality is that it is based around the core concept that windows should be touch-friendly. Second-click actions, in this new world of touch, should be relegated to a sub-view because if the user is accessing them via touch then they have no second-click and those options are entirely hidden to them.
The problem, of course, is directly related to the fact that Microsoft is mixing the mouse and the touch paradigms into one (bad) interface. This makes for a lot of really bad UI because, well, Microsoft painted themselves into a corner.
I do not think it is actually possible to design a UI which caters comfortably to both mouse-users and touch-screens. |
I think this is what frustrated a lot of people in the first place. In the Win 8 RC there was an option to allow the classic interface. The general consensus was that this would please the average and power user but then they removed it in the GA.
I think this is why," the jamming the metro interface down your throat" crowd complained so much to the "fan boys."
If they had left this simple option in the GA it would have allowed Windows 8 on a tablet be a tablet with a desktop option and Windows 8 on a desktop have tablet options.
Businesses that relied on the desktop features had to hold out releases or use exploits to work the way they have since NT. Applications to restore a feature in the RC became necessary in those environments. This causes the Windows 8 market share to drop because demand is for PC manufacturers to install Windows 7 OEMs.
What is interesting is that this was a terrible business decision because by not leaving out the classic option it could have satisfied everyone: introducing a new interface for tablets, increasing OS efficiency for the power user over what Windows 7 delivered and breaking the stigma that only every other Windows release is worth using.
Instead you have less options which is the opposite of what a good OS should deliver. What's worse is that you have "fan boys" and average users arguing that having less options is alright and power users mostly saying "meh, I'll work around it" because it doesn't matter with some knowledge of hot keys and system variables.
What does matter is market share and Microsoft had a self fulfilling prophecy to satisfy and they did...
Now by adding the start menu back I actually think this kind of thread will diminish because there is nothing to bicker over anymore...except the every other stigma...we have to wait for more releases to see whether it can be overcome. |
I dont even know how you managed to do that.
To install the 8.1 update you had to go into the app store and explicitly download it. It's a fucking 4 gig download that progresses in the background ONLY after you explicitly tell it to start and it asks you if you want to proceed. Then after it's done downloading you had to go and tell it to start the upgrade. During the first steps it has to unpack it which takes a while and you can stop it. After all those deliberate steps THEN you lose control and it WARNS you before you start. |
I kind of agree with you, but I also kind of disagree.
I had to upgrade to Windows 8 (I was running pirated Windows 7, and I could pick up 8 dirt cheap). I hated metro, I cursed at it, the full screen aps just confused me and I had to Google how to shut down. Initially it felt very clunky with keyboard and mouse. I was too lazy to do any of the modding stuff so I got used to it and now I find it easy to use and dislike Windows 7.
But that being said less adaptable people might not be able to pick it up so "quickly" (it took me a month) |
no you see ball licking and self serving are two different principles as far as I'm concerned. one is omfg (insert celebrity here) is doing an ama lololol horse sized ducks, the other is what you would expect once the pr firms figure out there's a willing and able demographic just salivating at the chops for a chance to "talk" to a star of some worth. you called it ball licking, but your description is what I would expect from a large demo of people wanting to get an qna with anyone remotely famous. |
Honestly, you and I are one in a shitton of people who are living out their lives. I'm all for more privacy and for the surveillance states to be dismantled, but I know there are plenty more people doing stuff that's much more likely to piss someone off than I am. In America, it has been said we do something that could be construed as a felony at least once a day without our knowledge, which has more legal sway than spinning our daily routines. I lead an honest life and keep myself out of trouble. If someone wants to rehash my past, they'll find some decent material, but they can find someone to make an example out of with much less effort than me. It's fucked the way things are, but I don't let it get me down and I could really care less, until someone starts infringing on me personally instead of the current general population setup. |
THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SARCASM (Obvious sarcasm will be in italics for NSA identification, just so you NSA folks understand this isn't threats, or plans of action, or anything other then stated opinions)
That said, according to your price above we should set up a kickstarter for you so we can raise 500 Mill and you can bludgeon every member of congress and the house that refuses to take this seriously or who has been bought and payed for by big business...
...oh wait who am i kidding that would probably take more money then the internet could manage due to you most likely getting arrested and then the money getting used to bail you out repeatedly, ending in you being disappeared to Gitmo as a "threat to national security".
So nvm, guess we should all just bend over a bit more and wait for the FCC to finally remove the condoms from the monopoly-enforced cocks they have been stroking that will soon be raping us...
Seriously, the state of rights and freedoms in this country are deteriorating so quickly that i wouldn't be surprised if anyone who openly questions the government or corporations will be silenced/disappeared on a regular basis within the next decade...
(sry for the long rant but after "Companies being treated as people", the "Patriot" Act, Iraq, "Money from corporations = free speech", SOPA/PIPA, the NSA shit and now this, I've just about had it with US politics as a system, lets face it, we as a nation are too uncaring to rebel at this point, we are just fat, apathetic sheep and are slowly being sent over a cliff one at a time. People assume that they cant do anything about it, or don't want to bother with the consequences of taking action, and therefore they put it off as something they cant change. Make me depressed just thinking about it...) |
First, I am not defending nor supporting AT&T's actions, but let me supply some information about this that I personally see day in and day out with my job.
This was not a harmful nor traditional breach. AT&T and said Vendor knew what had happened, what was accessed, and who did it, unlike the PF Chang's breach which was serious due to they did not know who did it, where it came from, what was accessed, etc. These employees of said Vendor were given direct access to the system, probably to fix an issue that was occurring (yes, even AT&T has support contracts with vendors like IBM, Dell, and so on), while with the PF Chang's breach, who ever breached the system was probably not given access to where Credit Card information was stored. What was accessed on AT&T's system was how to unlock cell phones to use on other networks. What was accessed on PF Chang's server was way more serious and needed immediate action.
SO, with that being said, nothing customer related was accessed and it was contained from the start. |
The freedom of speech and expression is universal. It's a fundamental human right.
England has it in its Bill of Rights, which is a document, older than the US itself. The Netherlands (our country) has it in its constitution. I reckon most, if not all, western countries have this in their constitutions.
It's part of the European Convention on Human Rights which is binding for all European nations that are part of it (all of EU) regardless of their national laws.
The US is no way special or interesting in it having it in its constitution.
Also, every nation has caveats and limitations to the free speech, such as inciting violence or hatred. |
By your current logic, owning a PC is copyright infringement. Because the question was "Are torrent sites actually classed as illegal?", and I said I hope not. Torrent is simply a way of sharing data. It is not copyright infringement unless you torrent data that hosts copyright-infringing data.
Now next up, your so far expressed understanding of the copyright discussion is about as deep as dipping your toes in the ocean.
First of all, lemme ask you: How is it theft? You do realize theft suggests the original is gone. That's not how data works, so your logic is immediately sketchy right away.
Secondly, lemme ask you: What if the product is nonexistent or unreasonably cumbersome to obtain where you are? Because frankly, pretty much all the entertainment I've wanted is behind a number of dumb steps at best, requiring a subscription for a number of streaming services to catch all of them and a VPN to be able to watch them at all, and then I still only get a subpar product most of the time. Worse yet, it often isn't available at all for at least months, if at all, without importing it (which is expensive again and frankly takes so long that I'd rather go get something else).
Thirdly, what if the product is only available in a format that's subpar to what you'd get from pirating? I watch a lot of anime, and ultimately I need to pirate it to get a viewing experience that, quite frankly, doesn't suck an awful lot of dick. Most dubbing of Japanese anime turns out horrible. And this is telling nothing of shows that air in online streaming services at a low resolution and bitrate, looking less like a TV show and more like a bunch of smeared colors.
In other words, rather than your dumbass logic of it being because I'm being too cheap, the simple truth is...
a. I want to buy it.
b. They don't want my money apparently.
c. And the ones that do only offer me the product in a poor viewing experience.
d. Also, it's only gonna be available six months after it actually aired, and being the internet it's long past its time of relevance. Woo. |
NotAllTorrents](
The argument wasn't limited solely to torrents that would actually infringe on copyright. Torrenting != stealing (even without invoking [this often cited thingy]( And let's be honest, even if a decent sized of torrent traffic is about getting a free copy of something you'd otherwise need to pay for, there's enough completely legal stuff circling around various sites for your implication to be false.
Even sites that are world famous for having torrents of everything do contain traces of totally legitimate stuff. I know I've gotten last year's SXSW songs from ThePirateBay (the second time around, because it was quicker), and then there's [this thingy from /r/books a few months back]( Saying torrents are bad because all they're for is stealing is inherently wrong and over-generalizes things, and saying that they shouldn't be legal because of that is... well, not really informed. |
I work in healthcare, and we are already using this technology as a way for physicians to transmit patient data over the internet. We call it Direct messaging. Essentially STMP messages encrypted with a public/private key infrastructure. The current deployments also support XDA messages.
Look up the Direct Project, it was an open source initiative to create a national standard for this technology in the healthcare space years ago (I was a member). The thing is, ITS OPEN SOURCE ALREADY. Don't pay someone for it, go and set up your own networks! Use aggregators like Thunderbird as the client. Don't pay someone for something you can do for free! |
The Supreme Court doesn't make the rules, they interpret them.
Don't get mad at the Supreme Court for interpreting the rules as they are written. You have beef with the legislature. The Supreme Court is bound by what the law is , not what the law should be . They review (1) the law as it is written and (2) whether or not it is constitutional. That is all.
If it's constitutional, which it technically is because the Constitution does not speak to this specifically in any respect, then the Court is powerless to impose their views. |
You're not addressing my initial point and you're arguing against a straw man. I never said the Supreme Court was without flaw. In fact, that's a nonsensical statement. It doesn't make logical sense to say that a body that issued concurring and dissenting opinions could be "wrong" or "right," because they said drastically conflicting things in the same breath.
My initial point is that it's the height of arrogance to say that they "got the ruling wrong" because they "don't understand." If only the justices of the fucking Supreme Court could be blessed with the legal wisdom of some random redditors, they could make better informed decisions. |
Hilarious amount of butthurt and missinformed nonsense in this thread.
Let me give a little history lesson to those of you who were apparently born after 2010 and have no idea how mobile industry has developed:
Microsoft has been in mobile bussiness since early 2000s, long before anyone heard about Android or iPhone, or in fact, long before average person had any idea what smartphone even is. They've developed hundreds of their own patents in that time.
Google ripped of their patents when creating Android and started giving it away for free to hardware vendors.
Google then went and bought Motorola for 12 fucking billion $ to have enough patent cushion to prevent them from being sued.
Microsoft, in a brilliant move (you can have moral objections, but as far as business goes its a sheer stroke of genius), starts targeting Android-based hardware vendors with a lawsuit-protection racket.
For every Android device out there, the vendors have to pay Microsoft. If vendors don't pay, they'll be sued. Rumours are, its 5-10$. Off every device. Think for a second just how much money they make of this. As such, MS doesn't bother with additionally suing Google, because that would ruin their little scheme.
Google is helpless to stop it. While Motorola gave them a bit of a cushion, they can't sue Microsoft because they'd be ripped to shreds in open court battle.
Vendors can't stop it because they're basically in the wrong. They're using Microsoft patented technology on their phones. You can't exactly hide that shit. |
This is exactly why money needs to be out of politics. The biggest problem right now are lobbyists, not any special interest they support. Cut off the hand that feeds this perversion of Democracy. |
I mean the "crony" in crony capitalism is superfluous.
In short, "crony" capitalism is the inevitable result of any capitalist system. It is capitalism, so calling it "crony" is just pure apologetics. The term is politically motivated, and used so that people think cronyism is an avoidable irregularity. However, economists as far back as Adam Smith recognized this as an inherent quality in capitalist-state relations.
The |
The decryption key for what?
If e.g. a bank in Switzerland (random example) has a website that uses HTTPS, and someone in the UK uses HTTPS to connect to that website, then any snooping government would need the private keys from that bank .
In this example, only the bank has the HTTPS private key. Not the certification authority, not any government, not any ISP. Just the bank itself.
So no, they can't "just ask the decryption key" unless the party you're having an HTTPS connection with, is cooperating. But in that case, why ask for the HTTPS private key? Why not just ask for the data itself?
Also, the article itself is complete bullshit. Read the comment further up for an explanation:
The |
BT are a dreadful company.
About 5 years ago I moved into a new build property. The landlord of this property hadn't sorted out the cable for internet properly. So when I rang BT up I explained this to them, and they said this would not be an issue and they would sort it when they get here, probably by putting an overhead connection in, as otherwise it'd require digging up the garden again.
A month passes by, and they come. I did not mind this wait, it's expected. One guy turns up and asks us where the port is so he can run the standard tests/set up the connection. Obviously there wasn't any and I told him that BT had told me what they were going to do.
On the phone to them, I was called a liar and that they had no records of me telling them what I needed. Unfortunately at this point, we had to get a BT line because there was no alternative in the area. So we had to carry on. They set it up again, but because it was going into a busy time I was told I had to wait 2 months for someone to come out. We moved in September, and this was nearly the end of October.
Fast Forward until the date they're meant to come, and I get a phone call saying it wouldn't be possible to do today and that I wouldn't get it until shortly after the new year. So come around to January, and we get internet. Hooray! About 3 and a half months after I had initially started. There were countless phone calls in this. But does it end here? Nope.
I received a bill in February for just under £150. A bill for 4 months worth of useage and line rental. I didn't get this bill nullified until around April, after much more of my time and the threatening of OFCOM to a customer service manager finally got it turned around. Eventually after further complaints, I got credited £50 on the account too.
Compare this to Virgin, who recently had to put a new line in for a Flat I'm in. Came in 3 weeks (about standard), set it up in 2 hours and the one time I had an issue with them their customer service was brilliant and told me they weren't going to bill me for the month we had a very lackluster connection (we'd get 2-3 hours a day maximum).
I have never used BT since, and never ever will unless I'm forced to. |
NSA threatening Google would quite possibly be the thing that finally caused the public to reign them in.
Thusfar the NSA has had carte-blanche because the people just don't give a shit. After Snowden, a big part of the public was annoyed which caused some backlash to them, but not much.
But if they openly threaten, let alone go to war with, a company that provides services that the majority of Americans use EVERY day then they will cause enough of a public uproar that politicians will choose the public's side to score favourability points.
And that would be a huge problem for the NSA. Google knows this too, I reckon, in fact, they're counting on it. |
I'm just going to jump in here and say that this is the kind of thing that makes my blood boil, I've pointed out these personality traits in other it professionals countless times before you have.
I know about ip cameras having worked In a sweat factory in China for several months and even if you change the passwords I could backdoor all of them. I tried setting up this exact same website once from a oil rig of the coast of Estonia, thing is the feds nearly traced me so I had to shut down, I said to my friend "I can't go to jail Roy, they'll flipping rape me"
Joking aside you're very wrong as most IT professionals worth their salt would display at least 4 of those traits not two. In fact when I managed a team of at least 35 in Microsoft i gave Steve a list of traits to look for in interviews and all of these were on them.
He wouldn't listen though and that's why I moved to Red Hat now I'm a Linux Monk of some worth. |
Computers and smartphones today demand A LOT more energy from batteries than they did in the 90s. I mean, just compare the two's processing capabilities and you'll see how this article is barking up the wrong tree. It's like blaming the gasoline for your car not driving a million miles before refilling. It's not the inefficient battery. It's the amount of shit we do on our phones/computers that drain down the battery that's the culprit. |
The only way to reduce the influence of money in politics is to reduce the power the government has. Big businesses are drawn to that power and pay hefty amount of money to harness it and use for their benefit. No amount of legislation will change that.
Giving government more power = giving big business more power.
You can't limit businesses' control and power by giving more power to the people who give them power in the first place.
If we stopped giving the government so much authority over regulation, big business would not be able to control it. They would have nothing to control. They would have nothing to gain from bribery and lobbying.
You know who businesses would then come after? Us. The consumers.
Instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on trying to limit competition and gain power through the government (which very obviously is the case, and it's working), businesses would spend an exorbitant amount of money in competition trying to get to us, the consumers. |
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