I don't think it's that simple. Home Depot doesn't sponsor NASCAR just because they like NASCAR. They do it because it's good advertising. NASCAR = marketing. The armed forces spend quite a lot of money on marketing, and I imagine their NASCAR sponsorship is dwarfed by their other marketing expenses.
So, while you might argue that the armed forces have no business spending so much money on marketing, I hardly think this is about someone liking NASCAR.
Personally, I can't stand NASCAR, so I can understand why it would grate on your nerves that they budget dollars for it.
No, this is not bizarre at all. Lawyers are notorious for doing this sort of thing: if you can claim you sent notice, but the opposition does not respond, you can get a summary judgment.
Because courts do not require such notices to be sent certified mail, abuse of the system is common: pre-date the mail - even the date on the postage meter - and send it late. Obviously if you can prove they did this, you risk angering the judge. Therefore if you send it via email, you reduce the chance that the notice will be received or read, while still claiming that you sent the notice in a timely manner. If email gives you this edge over the postal service, you would naturally want to use email.
Nice theory, but it doesn't work in real life. I have helped a number of coffee shops setup and maintain wifi, and free wifi invariable means you get certain customers who buy one cup of coffee, and sit there for hours browsing the web. You get more of this when wifi is free, not less.
But it's the risk you take, and you have to figure out ways to deal with it. You are worse off with no wifi, or no free wifi at all.
"Adding W-Fi to a restaurant costs $50/month. Tops.
Totally not true. A business supplying WiFi to its customers is normally required to get business-class broadband, which costs significantly more than $50 a month. Some of them *may* be using residential class, but they are not supposed to, and it's only a matter of time before they are forced to go Business class.
Also, Starbucks stores use dedicated T1s. Way more than $50 a month.
... is why I will never move back to the state which I so love. And for those who want to defend it based on the "somebody has to pay for the roads" argument: Get real. Do you honestly think that the Oregon gas tax is being dedicated to road maintenance?
Besides: Oregon cannot enforce this on anyone but Oregon citizens. So, the most populous portion of the state is right across the Columbia from Vancouver, Washington. This is an open invitation to move to Washington and continue to work and shop in Oregon.
Oh, and this is the state which BANS pumping your own gas, forcing gas stations to charge higher prices to pay for full service; Legalized assisted suicide, so you can pay someone to off you when you get too depressed (hint: this is sarcasm); Instituted vote-by-mail for the whole state, thus robbing voters of the ability to make last-minute changes to their vote.
I love the state dearly. I miss the mountains, the hidden trout lakes and streams, the tall trees and clean air. And I will never move back.
Care to show any evidence to support your assertions regarding the "ecenomics of infinite supply"? And that is all they are: Assertions. Piracy often increases demand for the infinite goods which are being sold. Guess what? Time and again, publishers have found that by giving content away, they end up selling, more, not less. Techdirt has published many examples of this principle at work.
Why don't you get your facts straight.
Kind of makes me wonder if the MPAA/RIAA is playing the sock puppet game here.
She absolutely deserves to get pummeled. If this is in fact real then this person is in charge of shaping the ideas of the future generation. This goes all the way back to the scopes monkey trial.
Add yourself to the list of idiots, then, who have no sense of scale. She was ignorant not evil. Don't you get the difference? No, of course not, because you are an idealogue. She, at least, was educable. (Note the Twitter post). You, on the other hand, are ready to support, and likely engage, in harassment. People like you are far more dangerous than this woman.
She also sent a private email, not a public posting. Ken's first response should have been to contact the teacher in person, and do his best to clear up the misunderstanding. Judging from the Twitter post, that would have worked, and we would have only heard the good news in the end.
Harrasment is right. Some idiot on his blog posted a list of all the Karens at her school. Moron. Ken Starks is also a moron for posting the name of the school. This should never have seen the light of day on his blog.
I feel really sorry for this lady. She may have been ignorant, but doesn't deserve to be pummeled.
Note this, from his Twitter feed:
# Text received: can I call u? response: I guess who r u? received:Karen response:k. Talked with her twice that day. Tearful, frightened. about 6 hours ago
# 45 minute conversation with Karen. Educated her on FOSS/Linux. Apologies flowed, she is in awe of the Linux/FOSS Community. about 6 hours ago
# colleagues talked her into civil litigation for privacy violation, now on hold. Am installing Linux on her computer this Saturday. about 6 hours ago
... but that doesn't mean the weakest link was to blame.
There are but a few voices with any mainstream coverage, who have nailed this issue: It's the Monetary System, stupid.
Get this through your thick heads (if the shoe fits . . .): Money = Debt. Debts are paid with interest. This has consequences. The consequences are now playing out. (And for he who has ears to hear: the game began in 1913.)
In other words, the problem is not IN the Monetary System. The problem IS the Monetary System. It ultimately MUST fail, because it is built upon the principle of ever-increasing debt. In order to keep pace with the amount of interest that must be paid, the number of loans which are created must continue to increase. Otherwise the money all goes poof, back into /dev/null from whence it came.
Every dollar in your pocket, your bank account, your 401k is a dollar that somebody owes a bank. There is not enough money in the entire system to pay off all the debts that are owed. This is by design. This means that the interest that you pay on a loan is also created by debt -- somebody else's debt. Some people are smart. They put their money into fixed assets, thus turning a debt-based instrument into an asset. But all this really does is take more money out of the system - less with which to pay the interest on all those loans out there, and more cash that must be created by making yet more loans.
Picture in your head two curves: One is the rate at which capital increases. The other is the rate at which debt+interest increases. The latter curve, after a while, is steeper. In other words, it does not matter what happens. The debt will finally outpace the capital that backs it, and the result will be: No More Money Anywhere. This is what the news media has been euphemistically describing as "the credit pipes getting clogged".
The weakest link in the Monetary System were the sub-prime mortgages, amplified in the extreme by securitization of the same. Don't get confused or mired in the details. You can spend years trying to understand how this part of the game is played, but it doesn't matter. It's a distraction. Even if the whole sub-prime bubble never happened, even if every bank was a careful lender and all of their customers were responsible borrowers, the crisis would not have been averted. It would simply have taken longer to play out.
(And so the question you must ask yourself is: If the game began in 1913, what does the end game look like?)
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Teilo.
(untitled comment)
So, while you might argue that the armed forces have no business spending so much money on marketing, I hardly think this is about someone liking NASCAR.
Personally, I can't stand NASCAR, so I can understand why it would grate on your nerves that they budget dollars for it.
Re: The Real WTF (as teilo)
Because courts do not require such notices to be sent certified mail, abuse of the system is common: pre-date the mail - even the date on the postage meter - and send it late. Obviously if you can prove they did this, you risk angering the judge. Therefore if you send it via email, you reduce the chance that the notice will be received or read, while still claiming that you sent the notice in a timely manner. If email gives you this edge over the postal service, you would naturally want to use email.
Re: Non-free is a worse deal for SB
But it's the risk you take, and you have to figure out ways to deal with it. You are worse off with no wifi, or no free wifi at all.
Re: Let's talk about ROI
Totally not true. A business supplying WiFi to its customers is normally required to get business-class broadband, which costs significantly more than $50 a month. Some of them *may* be using residential class, but they are not supposed to, and it's only a matter of time before they are forced to go Business class.
Also, Starbucks stores use dedicated T1s. Way more than $50 a month.
And that, my friends ...
Besides: Oregon cannot enforce this on anyone but Oregon citizens. So, the most populous portion of the state is right across the Columbia from Vancouver, Washington. This is an open invitation to move to Washington and continue to work and shop in Oregon.
Oh, and this is the state which BANS pumping your own gas, forcing gas stations to charge higher prices to pay for full service; Legalized assisted suicide, so you can pay someone to off you when you get too depressed (hint: this is sarcasm); Instituted vote-by-mail for the whole state, thus robbing voters of the ability to make last-minute changes to their vote.
I love the state dearly. I miss the mountains, the hidden trout lakes and streams, the tall trees and clean air. And I will never move back.
Economics of infinite supply != no sales
Really, you guys take the cake.
Care to show any evidence to support your assertions regarding the "ecenomics of infinite supply"? And that is all they are: Assertions. Piracy often increases demand for the infinite goods which are being sold. Guess what? Time and again, publishers have found that by giving content away, they end up selling, more, not less. Techdirt has published many examples of this principle at work.
Why don't you get your facts straight.
Kind of makes me wonder if the MPAA/RIAA is playing the sock puppet game here.
Re: Re: Re:
And for the record: Those who don't believe in evolution are neither more nor less evil than those who do.
Re:
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Add yourself to the list of idiots, then, who have no sense of scale. She was ignorant not evil. Don't you get the difference? No, of course not, because you are an idealogue. She, at least, was educable. (Note the Twitter post). You, on the other hand, are ready to support, and likely engage, in harassment. People like you are far more dangerous than this woman.
She also sent a private email, not a public posting. Ken's first response should have been to contact the teacher in person, and do his best to clear up the misunderstanding. Judging from the Twitter post, that would have worked, and we would have only heard the good news in the end.
Idiot commenters
I feel really sorry for this lady. She may have been ignorant, but doesn't deserve to be pummeled.
Note this, from his Twitter feed:
# Text received: can I call u? response: I guess who r u? received:Karen response:k. Talked with her twice that day. Tearful, frightened. about 6 hours ago
# 45 minute conversation with Karen. Educated her on FOSS/Linux. Apologies flowed, she is in awe of the Linux/FOSS Community. about 6 hours ago
# colleagues talked her into civil litigation for privacy violation, now on hold. Am installing Linux on her computer this Saturday. about 6 hours ago
The weakest link fails first . . .
There are but a few voices with any mainstream coverage, who have nailed this issue: It's the Monetary System, stupid.
Get this through your thick heads (if the shoe fits . . .): Money = Debt. Debts are paid with interest. This has consequences. The consequences are now playing out. (And for he who has ears to hear: the game began in 1913.)
In other words, the problem is not IN the Monetary System. The problem IS the Monetary System. It ultimately MUST fail, because it is built upon the principle of ever-increasing debt. In order to keep pace with the amount of interest that must be paid, the number of loans which are created must continue to increase. Otherwise the money all goes poof, back into /dev/null from whence it came.
Every dollar in your pocket, your bank account, your 401k is a dollar that somebody owes a bank. There is not enough money in the entire system to pay off all the debts that are owed. This is by design. This means that the interest that you pay on a loan is also created by debt -- somebody else's debt. Some people are smart. They put their money into fixed assets, thus turning a debt-based instrument into an asset. But all this really does is take more money out of the system - less with which to pay the interest on all those loans out there, and more cash that must be created by making yet more loans.
Picture in your head two curves: One is the rate at which capital increases. The other is the rate at which debt+interest increases. The latter curve, after a while, is steeper. In other words, it does not matter what happens. The debt will finally outpace the capital that backs it, and the result will be: No More Money Anywhere. This is what the news media has been euphemistically describing as "the credit pipes getting clogged".
The weakest link in the Monetary System were the sub-prime mortgages, amplified in the extreme by securitization of the same. Don't get confused or mired in the details. You can spend years trying to understand how this part of the game is played, but it doesn't matter. It's a distraction. Even if the whole sub-prime bubble never happened, even if every bank was a careful lender and all of their customers were responsible borrowers, the crisis would not have been averted. It would simply have taken longer to play out.
(And so the question you must ask yourself is: If the game began in 1913, what does the end game look like?)
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Teilo.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt