Yeah, cutting the head off with a blunt butterknife! In a battle between guns and fists, the guns often win.
Besides, these employees weren't just responsible for their own lives but also of the customers in the shop itself! And I assume it's a reasonable busy shop. If he had shot those four enployees and escaped the room, chances are that he would have shot a few customers too just to escape.
Basically, they were also lucky because this robber just didn't dare to shoot. Most people aren't murderers and pulling the trigger of a loaded weapon to shoot someone else isn't easy. A more cold-blooded robber would have shot them all...
Brave because they saved a laptop? Never. You can be brave if you try to rescue another person, or even an animal, from certain death. It's even brave if you tried but died in the attempt! But these four were protecting just a laptop which is worth far less than a human life! This while they just know that all they have to do is remember what the guy looked like and turn over the video surveillance tape to the police after he's gone.
Bravery requires a valid reason to try something that would otherwise be just stupid. A laptop just isn't worth it.
Option 4: open the door and allow the thief to walk away... They were just between him and the door.
Besides, there were 5 people in that room! It wasn't that small, I think. (Besides, why did the four of them even need to be there, if the room was that small?)
The policy makes sense, though. Walmarkt pays insurance fees just in case it gets robbed and can easily deal with the losses from such robberies. But if the employee or any customer was shot by the robber due to this stupid action then it would have a huge damages claim against it. It's likely that images of the robber were already available due to the security camera's so if he had escaped, the police would just have to do their job, use those images to find him and arrest him in a more secure way.
What could have happened? The robber could have used his gun, shoot the four employees, reload his gun and shoot them again to leave no living witnesses and then run through the store to escape, shooting at anything else that moved. These four weren't brave. They aren't heroes. They've been stupid and very, very lucky. It's like letting your child play with a living rattlesnake, expecting nothing bad happens.
But firing them for this is also a bit extreme. It's better to educate them and use the event to educate other employees. Suspend them for a week or whatever. But don't take away their jobs because that would definitely discourage other employees from ever caring for their employer. Because they might have been stupid, they also cared enough to put their lives in the path of danger to support their employer. People who care are what you need as a company...
In the fight against child porn, all is permitted. Especially if it gives governments the chance to hide other things that could be harmful for their re-elections...
True, existing businesses will go tits up, but new businesses will rise from their ashes, using a different payment method. Maybe people will just barter more, trading two donkeys for a camel as transport, or whatever.
Life doesn't stop when the Internet stops. Things just change. It will be bad for some, but new chances for others...
The Internet is about 20 years old. Modern communication devices aren't that much older either. So assuming that people can't survive without all this modern technology is just false. People can and will survive. People will find other ways to communicate, even though it might take much longer for messages to go back and forth.
It won't kill the messenger, just slow it down a bit.
It wasn't an Islandic name that was misspelled, but a Dutch name. The name Gonggrijp is 100% dutch, made of two words "Gong" and "Grijp". "Gong" is the same as the English word and "Grijp" has multiple meanings, like "grip" or "catch", but in this context, it's most likely to mean "handle"
So basically, his name is the handle of a gong. :-) It's not rocket-science! :-)
It wasn't a serious misspelling either. They used one "g" less than required: "Gongrijp". Split that up in two and you get "Gong" and "Rijp", the later translates to "Ripe". Makes less sense... ;-)
But it's a logical spelling error since that double G tends to be a bit silent. The "ng" has a bit of an "n" sound, but the second "g" is pronounced.
It makes sense from the perspective of Visa and Mastercard, because they hear rumours that Wikileaks is doing something criminal. They don't want to be involved in criminal actions so they suspend the account for further investigations. It would hurt their business if they would support a criminal organisation.
No proof doesn't mean Wikileaks is innocent. Courts must assume a person is innocent until proven otherwise but businesses, banks and regular persons are just free to assume the opposite. Everyone has the right to think and say Wikilieaks, the FBI, the NY Times etc. are all criminal organisations. That's what free speech is about.
Thus, Visa and Mastercard can just assume Wikileaks is a criminal organisation and thus refuse any further business with them. If that's their opinion then you have to respect that, or put an end to free speech!
Hypocrisy? Not really. Any moron can write an ebook, publish it on Amazon and earn a few dollars that way. Someone just did that with those cables, hoping some people are foolish enough to pay for something they could also get for free.
I don't think Amazon even checks what kinds of ebooks it's actually selling! At least, not until someone complains. Then their bureaucracy will start to slowly get the book removed, possibly hoping that a few more customers will still buy the book before it's gone.
Well, that pedophile book was sold quite a lot after all the negative publicity, so dropping that book immediately would probably hurt their profits even more...
First of all, http://www.datacell.com/news.php
Datacell is located in Iceland and has a second office in Switserland. Datacell is a provider who hosts a donation site for Wikileaks. They have been doing this for 2 months now. Visa asked them to close this donation site and they refused. So Visa had their account suspended, not closed, for one week, possibly longer. Visa (and probably Master card do this to make sure they themselves won't get in legal problems when they allow payments to support the Wikileaks site. It would make sense if Wikileaks was a terrorist organisation and some Politicians are pretending that Wikileaks is worse than Al-Qaeda. Thus the confusion. From that viewpoint, it does make some sense.
But Datacell also offers regular hosting options to other clients and I don't think Visa or Mastercard payments are blocked for payments related to that too. (If it is, then this company has some major financial problems!) As far as I know, only payments for their donation system are blocked until it's clear that Visa and Mastercard won't get any legal problems with helping those financial transactions.
This suspension will last one week. So my suggestion is to just wait this long, see how things develop. For all we know, Visa might be willing to open the account again plus add a donation of their own if it's proven that Wikileaks isn't doing anything illegal.
You could call it "Copylove". :-)
I also like the UPS advertisement that came with the article. It has plenty of hearts too. :-) Don't have much use for UPS, though, but the ad arrived with the proper article.
At least it showed that this world is full of Morons in a Hurry, considering the number of people who mistook EasyDNS for EveryDNS. I even wonder... If EasyDNS was the real culprit, would EasyJet then be in trouble too? How many complaints did EasyJet get about "them" closing Wikileaks? :-)
It also shows the importance of trademarks and why it's important that your name can be distinguished from that of your competition. EasyNet and EveryNet are apparantly very, very similar...
Trademark dispute, anyone?
On the post: Walmart Employees Fired For Disarming Gun-Toting Robber
Re: Re:
Besides, these employees weren't just responsible for their own lives but also of the customers in the shop itself! And I assume it's a reasonable busy shop. If he had shot those four enployees and escaped the room, chances are that he would have shot a few customers too just to escape.
Basically, they were also lucky because this robber just didn't dare to shoot. Most people aren't murderers and pulling the trigger of a loaded weapon to shoot someone else isn't easy. A more cold-blooded robber would have shot them all...
On the post: Walmart Employees Fired For Disarming Gun-Toting Robber
Re: Whole heartedly disagree...
Bravery requires a valid reason to try something that would otherwise be just stupid. A laptop just isn't worth it.
On the post: Walmart Employees Fired For Disarming Gun-Toting Robber
Re: Re:
Besides, there were 5 people in that room! It wasn't that small, I think. (Besides, why did the four of them even need to be there, if the room was that small?)
On the post: Walmart Employees Fired For Disarming Gun-Toting Robber
What could have happened? The robber could have used his gun, shoot the four employees, reload his gun and shoot them again to leave no living witnesses and then run through the store to escape, shooting at anything else that moved. These four weren't brave. They aren't heroes. They've been stupid and very, very lucky. It's like letting your child play with a living rattlesnake, expecting nothing bad happens.
But firing them for this is also a bit extreme. It's better to educate them and use the event to educate other employees. Suspend them for a week or whatever. But don't take away their jobs because that would definitely discourage other employees from ever caring for their employer. Because they might have been stupid, they also cared enough to put their lives in the path of danger to support their employer. People who care are what you need as a company...
On the post: France The Latest Country To Approve Internet Censorship
About child porn...
On the post: Firm Involved In Planning Attack On Journalist Glenn Greenwald To Hurt Wikileaks Apologizes; Cuts Ties With HBGary Federal
On the post: The Impact Of Egypt Cutting Itself Off From The Internet
Re: Re:
On the post: The Impact Of Egypt Cutting Itself Off From The Internet
Re: Re:
Life doesn't stop when the Internet stops. Things just change. It will be bad for some, but new chances for others...
On the post: The Impact Of Egypt Cutting Itself Off From The Internet
It won't kill the messenger, just slow it down a bit.
On the post: The Mistakes The Government Made In Trying To Get Info From Twitter
Re:
So basically, his name is the handle of a gong. :-) It's not rocket-science! :-)
It wasn't a serious misspelling either. They used one "g" less than required: "Gongrijp". Split that up in two and you get "Gong" and "Rijp", the later translates to "Ripe". Makes less sense... ;-)
But it's a logical spelling error since that double G tends to be a bit silent. The "ng" has a bit of an "n" sound, but the second "g" is pronounced.
On the post: Guy Agrees To Pay $250,000* Just Days After Being Sued For Uploading Movies
On the post: Yogi Bear Alternative Ending Creates A 'Squiffy' Fair Use Question
I love it!
Let's hope Warner has a sense of humor, albeit a little one...
On the post: Amazon Won't Host Wikileaks... But Will Sell The Leaked Cables For Your Kindle?
Re: Re:
On the post: Wikileaks Payment Company Plans To Sue Visa & Mastercard Over Cutoff
Re: Re:
No proof doesn't mean Wikileaks is innocent. Courts must assume a person is innocent until proven otherwise but businesses, banks and regular persons are just free to assume the opposite. Everyone has the right to think and say Wikilieaks, the FBI, the NY Times etc. are all criminal organisations. That's what free speech is about.
Thus, Visa and Mastercard can just assume Wikileaks is a criminal organisation and thus refuse any further business with them. If that's their opinion then you have to respect that, or put an end to free speech!
On the post: Amazon Won't Host Wikileaks... But Will Sell The Leaked Cables For Your Kindle?
I don't think Amazon even checks what kinds of ebooks it's actually selling! At least, not until someone complains. Then their bureaucracy will start to slowly get the book removed, possibly hoping that a few more customers will still buy the book before it's gone.
Well, that pedophile book was sold quite a lot after all the negative publicity, so dropping that book immediately would probably hurt their profits even more...
On the post: Wikileaks Payment Company Plans To Sue Visa & Mastercard Over Cutoff
Datacell is located in Iceland and has a second office in Switserland. Datacell is a provider who hosts a donation site for Wikileaks. They have been doing this for 2 months now. Visa asked them to close this donation site and they refused. So Visa had their account suspended, not closed, for one week, possibly longer. Visa (and probably Master card do this to make sure they themselves won't get in legal problems when they allow payments to support the Wikileaks site. It would make sense if Wikileaks was a terrorist organisation and some Politicians are pretending that Wikileaks is worse than Al-Qaeda. Thus the confusion. From that viewpoint, it does make some sense.
But Datacell also offers regular hosting options to other clients and I don't think Visa or Mastercard payments are blocked for payments related to that too. (If it is, then this company has some major financial problems!) As far as I know, only payments for their donation system are blocked until it's clear that Visa and Mastercard won't get any legal problems with helping those financial transactions.
This suspension will last one week. So my suggestion is to just wait this long, see how things develop. For all we know, Visa might be willing to open the account again plus add a donation of their own if it's proven that Wikileaks isn't doing anything illegal.
On the post: Copyheart: Encouraging People To Copy
Funny...
I also like the UPS advertisement that came with the article. It has plenty of hearts too. :-) Don't have much use for UPS, though, but the ad arrived with the proper article.
On the post: Mistakes Were Made: How Tons Of People Started Slamming EasyDNS For Actions Of EveryDNS
Re: Re: Similar names
On the post: Mistakes Were Made: How Tons Of People Started Slamming EasyDNS For Actions Of EveryDNS
Trademark dispute, anyone?
On the post: No Surprise: Wikileaks Leak Shows US Entertainment Industry Wrote Spain's New Copyright Law
Re: You misspelled Wikileaks...
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