I guess you don't have Kijiji wherever you are. I get (and sell) most of my used games there. Way better prices than GameStop, and have been doing it for years. GameStop is for kids who's parents don't know any better.
How can you lose your mind when it comes to games? Everything else can be resold, but not games? If I had a Settlers of Catan board game, I should be able to sell it but not a Settlers of Catan video game? In what world does that make sense.
The irony is a robust used game market supports a new game market. When they eliminate used games, the new game market will collapse and they will have to lower prices, thus lowering revenue. This developers/publishers are retarded.
It doesn't matter if surveillance would have prevented 9/11. Locking up all the mentally ill may have prevented Sandy Hook, but that doesn't mean it is a good idea.
Policy can only be determined by looking at the benefits of a policy (reduced terrorist attacks) and the risks/downsides (increased surveillance). Hindsight is useful _only_ for quantifying the benefits and risks.
I disagree with the moral grounding. Everything flows from empathy. Teach kids to empathize with people, and you will get moral adults. For example, show a picture of a kid getting picked on, and ask them how he feels.
The problem with just telling kids "murder is bad" is that is abstract. Dawkins, in one of his books, tells of Israeli school children who though genocide (the Battle of Jericho) was okay. When the same story had a Chinese setting, the kids realized it was horrific.
Empathy training is much more effective than abstract commandments. If you kid steals, have him think about how he'd feel if the roles were reversed, don't tell him God is mad at him.
The solution isn't to make more laws, like make it "illegal to have a government that is funded by" industry. The solution is to reduce the size of government and let industry survive by themselves. No more bailouts. No more government enforced monopolies.
Enough of this "owned it" talk. He's not going to jail, and the reason is patent law is screwed up. The solution is to kill patents, not to try and layer on more convoluted nonsense about who owns an expression.
The reality is successful ideas are built on hundreds of almost successful ideas, not one unique special-snowflake of an idea. As a mechanical engineer, I have never once seen a unique idea appear without a precedent.
Even more interesting, is piracy is the Broken Window Fallacy in reverse.
Just like a broken window reduces society's wealth, but does slightly increase the wealth of glaziers, copying INCREASES society's wealth, but does slightly decrease the wealth of content creators. The problem is content creators vastly overvalue their content, and therefore think they are losing more value than they are. Not to mention there are way more content creators than glaziers, so each creator loses very little.
Nuclear is already one of the safest power sources around. Humans just can't judge risk properly. For heaven's sakes, people think "pipelines" are a real problem. That is like saying roads are responsible for too many cars and too many accidents.
Reducing energy consumption won't work; it never has. Other people just consume the cheaper fossil fuels. And unless you want to go to war to enforce your opinion, it is a losing battle.
Green energy is waiting for battery technology. The best we have is lithium ion, and that took a quarter century to develop.
One solution to global warming is to move fully to nuclear and wean off coal. (Oil and gas don't really affect climate change compared to coal.) Of course, another solution is to just deal with the consequences, like migrating farms and relocating coastal cities.
There are many people like you. I love horror movies, but I can't watch a knee surgery on TV without gagging. I love violent movies, but have never got into a fight in my life. I'm horrified when I see real violence.
There will always be people who can't distinguish fantasy from reality (schizophrenics) and there will always be people who like violence (psychopaths). Violent video games and movies have nothing to do with either.
Has Google ever used your data for nefarious reasons? "Oh no, now Google knows I'm looking to buy some fertilizer or taking a flight to Cuba." Who would you prefer to have that info? Google will just try and sell you fertilizer and flights. The government will try and put you in jail.
Why just "Samsung Galaxy" devices? This seems odd. What about other phones, like the Google Nexus? There are people, like me, who don't like the stupid skins Samsung put on Android, one reason being it takes forever for updates. I finally sold my Note because of the huge delay in getting Jellybean. I'll only ever buy pure Google phones now.
None of those things you mention is directly the fault of corporations. Monopolies only exist when governments grant them, in most cases. And there is only regulatory capture when the regulators are powerful enough to crush competition.
You meant to say the Crony States of America. The solution is less monopolies, less patents, less copyright, less regulation in general.
This is very ironic, given police forces everywhere have actually been criticized for using tasers on people. Civil liberty groups have actually called for a moratorium on tasers after incidences like the death of Robert Dziekański.
They can't have it both ways, because there will always be drunk/high/crazed individuals and we need a way of subduing them. Personally, I'd prefer a taser to a baton.
Are you saying that a tax rate of 94% is "forcing the bankers to pay for their mistakes"? Forcing bankers to pay for their mistakes would be to let them fail. Not bail them out and then bitch that they are making too much.
But I'm not sure where your quotes end and commentary begins.
The obvious solution to a system with regulatory capture is LESS REGULATION and smaller government. If the government didn't bail out the bad banks, we would have had severe short term pain, but we'd be out of the woods now. Instead, we have been limping along while the fed dump insane amounts of money into the system trying to shock it to life. All it is accomplishing is a stock bubble.
Speaking of rating agencies, the government made it mandatory that the SELLERS have their crap rated. How does this make sense? If you are buying a house, to you believe the SELLERS home inspector? No, the government messing with the system, then bailing it out is a huge contributor to the problem.
By the way, corporations love regulation. Why do you think no one was charged in the 2008 meltdown? Because all the regulations were followed.
Trademarks are not about protectionism, but about protecting consumers. There is not much wrong with trademark laws.
Patents/copyrights are totally messed up and are grinding the technology industry to a halt, and justifying massive spying on individuals. They should be curtailed or sh!tcanned altogether.
I'm clarifying because they tend to get lumped together and are not the same.
Re: Used Games
Don't forget. If you get banned on XBOX 1, all your legally purchased games are gone, even the offline ones. Anyone would be a fool to buy an XBOX 1.
Re: Re: Used Games
I guess you don't have Kijiji wherever you are. I get (and sell) most of my used games there. Way better prices than GameStop, and have been doing it for years. GameStop is for kids who's parents don't know any better.
Re: Re: Re: Used Games
How can you lose your mind when it comes to games? Everything else can be resold, but not games? If I had a Settlers of Catan board game, I should be able to sell it but not a Settlers of Catan video game? In what world does that make sense.
The irony is a robust used game market supports a new game market. When they eliminate used games, the new game market will collapse and they will have to lower prices, thus lowering revenue. This developers/publishers are retarded.
Hindsight doesn't matter
It doesn't matter if surveillance would have prevented 9/11. Locking up all the mentally ill may have prevented Sandy Hook, but that doesn't mean it is a good idea.
Policy can only be determined by looking at the benefits of a policy (reduced terrorist attacks) and the risks/downsides (increased surveillance). Hindsight is useful _only_ for quantifying the benefits and risks.
Re: CEOs
> Workers could manage themselves and still accomplish great things
Name one worker-run company where this is true.
Hey, if you don't like a CEO's salary, don't do business with that company.
Re: Video Game Violence
I disagree with the moral grounding. Everything flows from empathy. Teach kids to empathize with people, and you will get moral adults. For example, show a picture of a kid getting picked on, and ask them how he feels.
The problem with just telling kids "murder is bad" is that is abstract. Dawkins, in one of his books, tells of Israeli school children who though genocide (the Battle of Jericho) was okay. When the same story had a Chinese setting, the kids realized it was horrific.
Empathy training is much more effective than abstract commandments. If you kid steals, have him think about how he'd feel if the roles were reversed, don't tell him God is mad at him.
Re:
The solution isn't to make more laws, like make it "illegal to have a government that is funded by" industry. The solution is to reduce the size of government and let industry survive by themselves. No more bailouts. No more government enforced monopolies.
Re: Chris Crawford should be charged with criminal fraud
Enough of this "owned it" talk. He's not going to jail, and the reason is patent law is screwed up. The solution is to kill patents, not to try and layer on more convoluted nonsense about who owns an expression.
The reality is successful ideas are built on hundreds of almost successful ideas, not one unique special-snowflake of an idea. As a mechanical engineer, I have never once seen a unique idea appear without a precedent.
Re:
Even more interesting, is piracy is the Broken Window Fallacy in reverse.
Just like a broken window reduces society's wealth, but does slightly increase the wealth of glaziers, copying INCREASES society's wealth, but does slightly decrease the wealth of content creators. The problem is content creators vastly overvalue their content, and therefore think they are losing more value than they are. Not to mention there are way more content creators than glaziers, so each creator loses very little.
Re:
Nuclear is already one of the safest power sources around. Humans just can't judge risk properly. For heaven's sakes, people think "pipelines" are a real problem. That is like saying roads are responsible for too many cars and too many accidents.
Reducing energy consumption won't work; it never has. Other people just consume the cheaper fossil fuels. And unless you want to go to war to enforce your opinion, it is a losing battle.
Green energy is waiting for battery technology. The best we have is lithium ion, and that took a quarter century to develop.
One solution to global warming is to move fully to nuclear and wean off coal. (Oil and gas don't really affect climate change compared to coal.) Of course, another solution is to just deal with the consequences, like migrating farms and relocating coastal cities.
Re:
There are many people like you. I love horror movies, but I can't watch a knee surgery on TV without gagging. I love violent movies, but have never got into a fight in my life. I'm horrified when I see real violence.
There will always be people who can't distinguish fantasy from reality (schizophrenics) and there will always be people who like violence (psychopaths). Violent video games and movies have nothing to do with either.
Re:
Has Google ever used your data for nefarious reasons? "Oh no, now Google knows I'm looking to buy some fertilizer or taking a flight to Cuba." Who would you prefer to have that info? Google will just try and sell you fertilizer and flights. The government will try and put you in jail.
Your privacy is gone. Who do you want to have it?
Re: Re:
I don't need your consent to take your photo.
Just Galaxy?
Why just "Samsung Galaxy" devices? This seems odd. What about other phones, like the Google Nexus? There are people, like me, who don't like the stupid skins Samsung put on Android, one reason being it takes forever for updates. I finally sold my Note because of the huge delay in getting Jellybean. I'll only ever buy pure Google phones now.
Re:
None of those things you mention is directly the fault of corporations. Monopolies only exist when governments grant them, in most cases. And there is only regulatory capture when the regulators are powerful enough to crush competition.
You meant to say the Crony States of America. The solution is less monopolies, less patents, less copyright, less regulation in general.
Re: No Tazers?
This is very ironic, given police forces everywhere have actually been criticized for using tasers on people. Civil liberty groups have actually called for a moratorium on tasers after incidences like the death of Robert Dziekański.
They can't have it both ways, because there will always be drunk/high/crazed individuals and we need a way of subduing them. Personally, I'd prefer a taser to a baton.
Re: Economics
Are you saying that a tax rate of 94% is "forcing the bankers to pay for their mistakes"? Forcing bankers to pay for their mistakes would be to let them fail. Not bail them out and then bitch that they are making too much.
But I'm not sure where your quotes end and commentary begins.
Re:
So let me guess. You solution is to give even more power to regulators, right? Now you understand how we get into this mess.
In capitalism, the solution to corruption is failure, not regulation. If it doesn't have failure, the system isn't capitalism.
Re: Neither
The obvious solution to a system with regulatory capture is LESS REGULATION and smaller government. If the government didn't bail out the bad banks, we would have had severe short term pain, but we'd be out of the woods now. Instead, we have been limping along while the fed dump insane amounts of money into the system trying to shock it to life. All it is accomplishing is a stock bubble.
Speaking of rating agencies, the government made it mandatory that the SELLERS have their crap rated. How does this make sense? If you are buying a house, to you believe the SELLERS home inspector? No, the government messing with the system, then bailing it out is a huge contributor to the problem.
By the way, corporations love regulation. Why do you think no one was charged in the 2008 meltdown? Because all the regulations were followed.
Re:
Trademarks are not about protectionism, but about protecting consumers. There is not much wrong with trademark laws.
Patents/copyrights are totally messed up and are grinding the technology industry to a halt, and justifying massive spying on individuals. They should be curtailed or sh!tcanned altogether.
I'm clarifying because they tend to get lumped together and are not the same.