However, over the past few years, the growth in power of the key broadband internet access providers, and their ability to degrade the internet for profit, has made it quite clear that other options aren't working.
So letting a powerful group go unchecked leads to abuse? Ya don't say!
I've always considered this to be the greatest weakness in the Libertarian ethos: its willful blindness to the simple, fundamental fact that power exists. If government does not hold that power, it does not simply vanish into a happy puff of magical rainbows, sparkles, and more liberty for everyone; it creates a power vacuum and then someone else seizes it. Believing that this will ever not be the outcome is hopelessly naive and idealistic.
Power is a complex thing, but at its most basic it is a function of size. The larger the entity, the more resources it has available, the more power will be available. This suggests that the only way for a small government to truly exist without being ineffective to the point of futility is to have a small nation. How small? Well, the Founders originally tried to have a small government with the 13 original states of the USA under the Articles of Confederation, and it proved ineffective to the point of futility, so they abandoned it and drafted the Constitution, which established a much stronger federal government. So, smaller than that.
A handful of things over the last several years make it look like they're at least trying to be less evil. Perhaps the most notable in recent memory would be Roslyn.
Bitcoin crashed and burned all the way to $639 this morning.
Half what it was just a few short months ago. If that happened in the stock market, they'd call that a major crash.
$1200 is hardly a stratosphere in Bitcoin.
It is when it started at well under $1.
Many people are expecting a new high of $5000 in July/August.
Yeah, tell 'em to keep on dreaming.
And yet the pattern followed was exactly similar to the previous bubble which had no such manipulation. The article stating all these things has been largely debunked.
[citation needed] It's kind of hard to "debunk" actual transaction logs showing that 1) automated purchases were still being made while the entire exchange was offline and 2) the cash balance of the account making these purchases was not remaining consistent with the purchases it was making.
Also, which article are you referring to? The data's been analyzed by multiple sources that arrived at the same conclusion independently: the Bitcoin bubble was a fraud engineered by the people running Mt. Gox.
The success of decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is also helping things along the way.
You mean the Bitcoin that's been successfully crashing and burning ever since the scammers who successfully inflated its price into the stratosphere with massive levels of fake transactions went under?
It certainly worked well enough for the banks in 2008. (No, seriously. When a few people take a few people hostage and demand money and political concessions or they'll kill them, we call them terrorists and terminate them with extreme prejudice. When a few people take the entire world economy hostage and demand money and political concessions or they'll kill them... hey, why aren't any SWAT teams showing up?)
The problem with that is, videogame adaptations (of movies or any other medium, really,) almost universally suck, just like movie versions of video games. (Doom, Super Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat, etc...) For whatever reason, they just don't translate well.
The last really good counterexample I can think of personally is Betrayal at Krondor, which was an awesome game, but to give you an idea of its age, it ran on DOS.
I mentioned this to Brandon Sanderson, author of (among other things) the Mistborn novels, at a signing event when he talked about a Mistborn video game in the works, and he said "Arkham Asylum." I've never played it, but I've heard it's pretty good. Even so, the general consensus is that high-quality video game adaptations of other media is a very small exception to a very strongly applicable rule. (He also said that he was well aware of the problem and he was working with the creators to ensure that the game they came up with did not suck.)
In the other direction, I think the best movie adaptation of a video game that I've seen was Prince of Persia... and that's not really saying much. :P
That's why I like stuff like Person of Interest and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. They take on real, modern problems but manage to remain fundamentally optimistic and remind themselves (and the audience) that good principles are worth sticking to.
Have you ever read "The Unincorporated Man"? It's a sort of dystopia-light sci-fi story that takes that exact premise seriously and explores what would happen...
When Viacom filed their ridiculous YouTube lawsuit, why didn't the folks at Google say "Let's settle this like businessmen" and initiate a hostile takeover? Forcefully give their corporate culture a few cluefulness upgrades, and the problem would go away.
Why are tech companies fighting media companies, rather than buying them out? That's always seemed bizarre to me. It's not like they don't have the money...
Techdirt is for privacy, but only for things that are actually private. Techdirt has always--as far as I've seen, at least--been against the abuse of the term "privacy" to try to hide public affairs that someone finds embarrassing.
What you say is mathematically impossible, even with supercomputers. They might have copied his hard drive that quickly, but not decrypted it unless they actually got the keys.
No, that's not accurate. "Really good crypto" literally requires every computer in the world to work until after the death of the Sun and still not have a 1% chance of brute-forcing it. That's not sci-fi or a goal; that's the reality of modern, high-grade cryptography. It can't be "cut open" like a safe unless a flaw in the algorithm is found.
On the post: EFF Changes Position On Net Neutrality: Recognizes FCC Must Act, But Narrowly
Re: Re: Well, yes. GOOG has changed its opinion
On the post: EFF Changes Position On Net Neutrality: Recognizes FCC Must Act, But Narrowly
So letting a powerful group go unchecked leads to abuse? Ya don't say!
I've always considered this to be the greatest weakness in the Libertarian ethos: its willful blindness to the simple, fundamental fact that power exists. If government does not hold that power, it does not simply vanish into a happy puff of magical rainbows, sparkles, and more liberty for everyone; it creates a power vacuum and then someone else seizes it. Believing that this will ever not be the outcome is hopelessly naive and idealistic.
Power is a complex thing, but at its most basic it is a function of size. The larger the entity, the more resources it has available, the more power will be available. This suggests that the only way for a small government to truly exist without being ineffective to the point of futility is to have a small nation. How small? Well, the Founders originally tried to have a small government with the 13 original states of the USA under the Articles of Confederation, and it proved ineffective to the point of futility, so they abandoned it and drafted the Constitution, which established a much stronger federal government. So, smaller than that.
On the post: Dangerous Ruling: Judge Lets Microsoft Seize & Redirect No-IP Domains Without Notice
Re: Re: Re: But this is Microsoft!
On the post: Court Tells DOJ To Cough Up The Other Secret Memos That Justify Killing People By Drone
Re: Unredacted?
On the post: Dangerous Ruling: Judge Lets Microsoft Seize & Redirect No-IP Domains Without Notice
Re: But this is Microsoft!
Wow. Every time it looks like Microsoft's starting to shape up their act,they go and show their true colors again...
On the post: Obama To Appoint Pharma Patent Lawyer, Who Has Fought Against Any Patent Reform, To Head Patent Office
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On the post: How The Copyright Wars Have Harmed Privacy And A Free Press
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Half what it was just a few short months ago. If that happened in the stock market, they'd call that a major crash.
It is when it started at well under $1.
Yeah, tell 'em to keep on dreaming.
[citation needed]
It's kind of hard to "debunk" actual transaction logs showing that 1) automated purchases were still being made while the entire exchange was offline and 2) the cash balance of the account making these purchases was not remaining consistent with the purchases it was making.
Also, which article are you referring to? The data's been analyzed by multiple sources that arrived at the same conclusion independently: the Bitcoin bubble was a fraud engineered by the people running Mt. Gox.
On the post: How The Copyright Wars Have Harmed Privacy And A Free Press
You mean the Bitcoin that's been successfully crashing and burning ever since the scammers who successfully inflated its price into the stratosphere with massive levels of fake transactions went under?
On the post: US Embassy Blamed State Dept Investigator For Upsetting Its Relationship With Blackwater After Investigator Complained About Death Threat
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On the post: Up Is Down, Day Is Night, And Aereo's Shut Down Is 'Pro-Consumer' According To CBS CEO
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On the post: The Aereo Ruling Is A Disaster For Tech, Because The 'Looks Like Cable' Test Provides No Guidance
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The last really good counterexample I can think of personally is Betrayal at Krondor, which was an awesome game, but to give you an idea of its age, it ran on DOS.
I mentioned this to Brandon Sanderson, author of (among other things) the Mistborn novels, at a signing event when he talked about a Mistborn video game in the works, and he said "Arkham Asylum." I've never played it, but I've heard it's pretty good. Even so, the general consensus is that high-quality video game adaptations of other media is a very small exception to a very strongly applicable rule. (He also said that he was well aware of the problem and he was working with the creators to ensure that the game they came up with did not suck.)
In the other direction, I think the best movie adaptation of a video game that I've seen was Prince of Persia... and that's not really saying much. :P
On the post: Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They're Private Corporations To Get Out Of Transparency Requests
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You clearly do not live in Boston.
On the post: Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They're Private Corporations To Get Out Of Transparency Requests
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On the post: Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They're Private Corporations To Get Out Of Transparency Requests
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On the post: The Aereo Ruling Is A Disaster For Tech, Because The 'Looks Like Cable' Test Provides No Guidance
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On the post: The Aereo Ruling Is A Disaster For Tech, Because The 'Looks Like Cable' Test Provides No Guidance
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On the post: The Aereo Ruling Is A Disaster For Tech, Because The 'Looks Like Cable' Test Provides No Guidance
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When Viacom filed their ridiculous YouTube lawsuit, why didn't the folks at Google say "Let's settle this like businessmen" and initiate a hostile takeover? Forcefully give their corporate culture a few cluefulness upgrades, and the problem would go away.
Why are tech companies fighting media companies, rather than buying them out? That's always seemed bizarre to me. It's not like they don't have the money...
On the post: Google Starts Disappearing Part Of The Internet In Europe
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On the post: Massachusetts Ignores 5th Amendment; Says Defendant Can Be Forced To Decrypt His Computer
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What you say is mathematically impossible, even with supercomputers. They might have copied his hard drive that quickly, but not decrypted it unless they actually got the keys.
On the post: Massachusetts Ignores 5th Amendment; Says Defendant Can Be Forced To Decrypt His Computer
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