I'm pretty sure it'd be more useful to pour the gasoline on the whitehouse. setting Yourself on fire just makes you look like an idiot and/or attention whore, and if you screw up, you're dead.
still probably not terribly productive though.
this, like many of life's problems, could be solved by the proper application of explosives.
[wonder if this sort of comment gets me on watchlists anywhere interesting? *laughs*]
well, sarcasm is included, but it seems to be a general marker for 'don't take this too seriously, and stop and think about how it's funny before invoking RAGE! or other negative responses'.
sarcasm included.
exact emoticon meaning varies by user, but most have a general... range.
used to be, every time a good business model was writen about here, someone would show up and make a big deal about how it would only work for small time musicians no one had heard of, or it would only work for people who already had a huge following.
now people respond, humorously, with 'but it'll only work for [silly subsection of the type of entity in question]!', both for funny and to forestall anyone who thinks to say such things seriously.
so, yeah, the point was 'evening', not 'papers'. read it that way and realise how silly it is and it's funny.
that said, you've got a good point there. i doubt many people would imediatly think to apply it to something other than newspapers... smart.
ya know, here in New Zealand, trucks and such are taxed based on how far they go. no privacy invasion at all, just a periodic official check on the meter (presumably when they get their warrant of fitness, aka road worthiness check, or some such). which is physically attached to a (drive, i think?) wheel [or axle, I'm not sure] and counts rotations. rotations on the wheel translating directly, as they do, into distance covered.
every diesel powered car also has this. unless they changed it since i last looked or remember.
meanwhile, there's no tax on the diesel. [well, aside from the basic GST, which is a consumer/sales tax.]
petrol, on the other hand, is taxed. or was it that there's a levy on it? [which is exactly the same thing, but specifies what it is to be used for and looks slightly less dodgy when they then charge you GST on what is effectively the Petrol Tax.
well, if one defines 'out of print' as 'having already been published once and unavailable by conventional means for the list X years' where X is something like, i dunno, 5?
that would actually encourage people to write new stuff, probably. or not. depends how you run the logic.
if out of print literally just means they stopped printing it then...er... wouldn't that be pretty much the moment a run was done and stuck in the trucks or whatever to go to the retailers ? :D
anyway. i sort of understand the guy's point, but you need to apply some sanity and logic to it before it becomes a meaningful basis for action.
as for 'when google benefit everyone else will be at a disadvantage'... who is 'everyone else'?
that's far from the only problem with that statement, but it's the most obvious and the one i can express most coherently.
no, it's just that 90+% of all people on both sides are fanatical idiots who will paint anything done by the other arbitrary 'side' as wrong and their own side as right and totally hard done by. you get this anywhere with a representative democracy, especially in places with a 'two party system'... but the USA seems to be particularly bad. or at least, we hear about it most.
and that's before i get into the pet rant of the massive corruption of the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' that have resulted...the two are NOT OPPOSITES *headdesk* rar!
so, yeah, no patents or copyrights to the best of my knowledge, just massive stupidity on all sides :)
most countries go a bit crazy at the prospect of large corporations from outside their borders taking control of stuff. especially US and Chinese corporations, at least here abouts.
there's a tendancy for such entites to bring with them diplomatic pressure to change conditions in their favour, which can be a lot harder to resist than internal lobbying...
this isn't Just about economics, ya know?
also, i'll tell you something for nothing: Foreign ownership and free trade in New Zealand, that I'm aware of anyway, have repeatedly resulted not in lower prices, but in loss of jobs, lower service quality, and more and more of the profits being funneled out of the country.
i've got a whole pet rant on the subject actually :D
so, yeah, you'll have trouble getting any sympathy for anti-protectionist stances in countries that have to put up with the crap that comes from removing barriers to unimpeeded US corporate operations there, even in countries that Like the USA. [you can tell they like the USA because they do things like this rather than blowing stuff up :D]
at least one of the mass effect books does this with 'undue', possibly both of them. 'undo' is repeatedly used instead. sentences often begin with 'And', as well.
every time one of those sentences begins with 'and' it's because it's [it's? its? i HATE this one :S] the third sentence in a paragraph, and for whatever reason the sentence that should be First has been put second, meaning that the second and third don't line up properly. if this was done correctly the second sentence would be first, then a lot of the time the first [now second] sentence and the third sentence would be the Same sentence, using commas and such.
i must admit to fail when it comes to capital letters, sadly. i often forget them.
you know, much as English does have grammatical rules which it is generally beneficial to stick to, the one about never ending a sentence with a preposition is utter nonsense steaming from the whole 'Latin is perfect. therefor, English should be more like Latin' thing, which started with 'we have no codified system for English, there's a codified system for Latin, let's use that as a starting point'
English, used properly, does end sentences with prepositions [does that make them postpositions?]. There's another common 'don't do that' rule with similar origins which is actually completely backwards, but i forget which one it is.
i don't know about you, but around here we have bottled water, and the water that comes out of the tap is Very good [if memory serves, it's actually the same water in at least some instances.]
people here don't actually buy the bottled water for the water, mostly.
they buy it for the fact that it comes in some of the best drink bottles you can get here :D
the bottled water comes with those sipper tops, and they seal well. they have to to meet health requirements for their contents, i think. the drink bottles you buy specifically for purpose come empty, and almost always end up leaking. why? i do not know.
so, from the customer's point of view, you buy a high quality drink bottle and get free water :) they do co-exist, but... the water kinda fails to be the product from the customer's point of view.
not sure exactly what that does to anyone's argument, but there you go.
my only problem is that eventually some bright spark will claim you didn't buy the car, only licensed the right to drive it in accordance with the terms and conditions displayed on a screen on the dash which you must accept every time you start the engine...
On the post: No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not 'Normal' -- Nor Is It A 'Distraction'
Re:
still probably not terribly productive though.
this, like many of life's problems, could be solved by the proper application of explosives.
[wonder if this sort of comment gets me on watchlists anywhere interesting? *laughs*]
On the post: There Are Lots Of Ways To Fund Journalism
Re: Re: Re:
sarcasm included.
exact emoticon meaning varies by user, but most have a general... range.
this is more elaboration than correction.
On the post: The Lobbyists' Ability To Control The Message
Re: How Dare They
too bad it's not how things actually work.
i find the above amusing however :)
On the post: Netherlands The Latest To Propose Mileage Tax That Requires GPS For Tracking Driving
Re:
read it again keeping that in mind. [or not, given that this is now an old post :D]
On the post: In Going Free, London Evening Standard Doubles Circulation While Slashing Costs
Re: Re:
used to be, every time a good business model was writen about here, someone would show up and make a big deal about how it would only work for small time musicians no one had heard of, or it would only work for people who already had a huge following.
now people respond, humorously, with 'but it'll only work for [silly subsection of the type of entity in question]!', both for funny and to forestall anyone who thinks to say such things seriously.
so, yeah, the point was 'evening', not 'papers'. read it that way and realise how silly it is and it's funny.
that said, you've got a good point there. i doubt many people would imediatly think to apply it to something other than newspapers... smart.
On the post: Netherlands The Latest To Propose Mileage Tax That Requires GPS For Tracking Driving
every diesel powered car also has this. unless they changed it since i last looked or remember.
meanwhile, there's no tax on the diesel. [well, aside from the basic GST, which is a consumer/sales tax.]
petrol, on the other hand, is taxed. or was it that there's a levy on it? [which is exactly the same thing, but specifies what it is to be used for and looks slightly less dodgy when they then charge you GST on what is effectively the Petrol Tax.
On the post: New Google Book Settlement Tries To Appease Worries
Re:
that would actually encourage people to write new stuff, probably. or not. depends how you run the logic.
if out of print literally just means they stopped printing it then...er... wouldn't that be pretty much the moment a run was done and stuck in the trucks or whatever to go to the retailers ? :D
anyway. i sort of understand the guy's point, but you need to apply some sanity and logic to it before it becomes a meaningful basis for action.
as for 'when google benefit everyone else will be at a disadvantage'... who is 'everyone else'?
that's far from the only problem with that statement, but it's the most obvious and the one i can express most coherently.
On the post: More Important Saving Lives From Swine Flu Or Protecting Roche's Monopoly?
Re: Re:
On the post: Is Murdoch's Move Against Google Really About Twitter And Facebook?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: au contraire
and that's before i get into the pet rant of the massive corruption of the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' that have resulted...the two are NOT OPPOSITES *headdesk* rar!
so, yeah, no patents or copyrights to the best of my knowledge, just massive stupidity on all sides :)
On the post: Virtual Goods, Scams, Investigative Reporting And The Media
Re:
not quite sure where you're coming from here... or going... but that last sentence is dead on :)
On the post: Canada Decides That Canadian Ownership Is More Important Than Real Telco Competition
Re:
was something of an agreement with the AC above.
On the post: Canada Decides That Canadian Ownership Is More Important Than Real Telco Competition
there's a tendancy for such entites to bring with them diplomatic pressure to change conditions in their favour, which can be a lot harder to resist than internal lobbying...
this isn't Just about economics, ya know?
also, i'll tell you something for nothing: Foreign ownership and free trade in New Zealand, that I'm aware of anyway, have repeatedly resulted not in lower prices, but in loss of jobs, lower service quality, and more and more of the profits being funneled out of the country.
i've got a whole pet rant on the subject actually :D
so, yeah, you'll have trouble getting any sympathy for anti-protectionist stances in countries that have to put up with the crap that comes from removing barriers to unimpeeded US corporate operations there, even in countries that Like the USA. [you can tell they like the USA because they do things like this rather than blowing stuff up :D]
On the post: Grammar Nazis: Useful Language Experts, Or Elitist Snobs?
Re: Re: Re: Re:
every time one of those sentences begins with 'and' it's because it's [it's? its? i HATE this one :S] the third sentence in a paragraph, and for whatever reason the sentence that should be First has been put second, meaning that the second and third don't line up properly. if this was done correctly the second sentence would be first, then a lot of the time the first [now second] sentence and the third sentence would be the Same sentence, using commas and such.
i must admit to fail when it comes to capital letters, sadly. i often forget them.
On the post: Grammar Nazis: Useful Language Experts, Or Elitist Snobs?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Grammar Nazis: Useful Language Experts, Or Elitist Snobs?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
English, used properly, does end sentences with prepositions [does that make them postpositions?]. There's another common 'don't do that' rule with similar origins which is actually completely backwards, but i forget which one it is.
On the post: France Agrees To Kick File Sharers Off The Internet Again; Lobbyists Call It 'Consumer Relief'
Re: Sigh
... is 'crimes against humanity' an actual charge? because if it is, someone really should do that.
preferably someone who can actually succeed at it without getting sued into the ground or thrown in jail.
On the post: The Debate Is Not Free vs. Paid
Re: I disagree...
people here don't actually buy the bottled water for the water, mostly.
they buy it for the fact that it comes in some of the best drink bottles you can get here :D
the bottled water comes with those sipper tops, and they seal well. they have to to meet health requirements for their contents, i think. the drink bottles you buy specifically for purpose come empty, and almost always end up leaking. why? i do not know.
so, from the customer's point of view, you buy a high quality drink bottle and get free water :) they do co-exist, but... the water kinda fails to be the product from the customer's point of view.
not sure exactly what that does to anyone's argument, but there you go.
On the post: OnStar Used To Stop Carjacked Car
...
now I'm probably giving people ideas, oh well.
On the post: Beginning Ruby Author: Publisher Wouldn't Let Me Give eBook For Free... So Pirate My Book (Sorta)
Re: Re: Free Book Publishing could be a powerful marketing tool
all comes down to knowing your audience, i guess.
On the post: Negotiating Through Lawsuit Continues: EMI Drops Lawsuit, Signs Deal With Grooveshark
Especially an American cooperation... [Chinese ones are bad too, but for rather different reasons :D]
and yet, it keeps happening.
Next >>