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Comment I did (Score 1) 432

Cricket sold me the phone for $400, and is about $15/mo cheaper than any provider (even with my work discount). Also, I don't have to worry about my kid running up a huge bandwidth bill. The service tends to be faster too, but that's just my area.

Comment How are they suppose to see that... (Score 1) 584

when we're told from day one as children that America is the greatest country on Earth? It was mostly young people that aren't as jaded as you and I, and You're taught to believe that we're all basically Americans and in the end we'd come together, work together and prosper together. I seriously doubt they were expecting to have counter terrorism groups hand them their asses. That's the sort of thing that happens in Syria, not America...

Comment Uh, no (Score 4, Insightful) 584

he's mentally ill. OWS was just the thing he latched onto. There would have been something else. Also, the FBI wasn't watching guys like him, it was watching the leaders of the movement in an obvious effort to shut it down.

OWS had one unforgivable sin: it offered a working and likable alternative narrative. Right now the only narrative in American society is that if you work hard and play by the rules you'll succeed, and if you didn't it's your own damn fault and you're a bad person. It's prosperity gospel by any other name. OWS and the 'We are the 99%' was catchy, simple and made sense. It was a movement that had a real chance, which is why we're even talking about it, and also why it was crushed relentlessly.

In short, you didn't think speech was really free, did you?

Comment nah, you are reading it wrong (Score 0) 145

The media really is evil. Actually, by design. It's an evil business. Any business which produces physical things that enable or improve life must have waste. Such business must take natural resources (which have no use) and turn it into something useful. News business just has to talk. When there a true danger, the "real" news businesses are often too late to cover it. So they must constantly invent reasons to complain. The ones which don't invent reasons to complain simply go out of business. One must, therefore, assume that the only general news outlets which survive are the ones which complain about the side effects of real life-enabling businesses. And since they cannot be sued for lying or exaggerating, they have little to lose by lying or exaggerating the extent of harm brought about by life-enabling businesses vs the benefit they produce for society. They pooh pooh anyone who does something useful by pointing out the waste that useful activity generates. Of course, they could complain about their own harm (exorbitant salaries, social unrest, excessive political influence and waste of resources which they are responsible for) but they rarely do.

Comment UofA says no (Score 4, Interesting) 433

and almost everyone I've ever talked to says unless you can already pass compilers in your sleep, you're not going to make it. Start with a years worth of Discrete Math texts and if you can follow that no problem you can make it through years 1 and 2. That said, you can get all the course work from MIT, learn it, and then go get the degree as a formality. It's still hard. There's a lot to do.

Comment Re:You are so naive (Score 1) 177

Way to Cherry Pick.

Meanwhile: Madoff is in Jail for life 2 Generals and two different cabinet officials have been forced to resign Seattle PD is under Justice Department microscope Book publishers forced to repay customers for price fixing BP pays huge fine and has Executives indicted Entire trading firms under indictment

Its a mixed bag. It always is.

1. Madoff ripped off rich people, nobody cared until he then.

2. Sex scandals don't count. They make such great news that everyone gets taken down by them.

3. It's a gov't agency. The rest of us are busy complaining about how private companies get away with murder (HSBC anyone?)

4. And the fine was still significantly less than the profits from the price fixing.

5. See above.

6. See above.

There's a phrase I don't hear often enough: Corporate Death Penalty.

Comment In defense of Bureaucrats (Score 1) 177

If they're spending their all their time covering their asses instead of doing their jobs there's a reason, and it's because someone's out to get them. At least in the States the powers that be are doing a major push to put working class Americans at the throats of gov't workers that happen to still make a living wage. It's classic divide and conquer tactics. They do the same thing with race baiting.

The key to keeping the poor down is to keep pointing at someone else as the problem. The problem isn't that the rich have 80% of everything, it's those darn Bureaucrats/Unions/Negroes holdin' you back.

Put another way: A Bureaucrat, a Union guy and a Rich man are setting at a table with 10 apples. The Rich Man pulls 8 apples off the table, turns to the Union guy and says "Hey, that guy's gonna steal your apple".

Comment What planet are you from? (Score 1) 337

my Droid runs any app I want after checking 1 box, works with any bluetooth device I throw at it (gamepads, mice, keyboard) and has an SD card slot for storage. My only complaint is app devs that are too lazy to give me the option to install to SD (come on guys, it's 1 frickin' line in your manifest)!

Comment nahah. (Score 1) 592

Not gonna convince me that FB are the good guys. Not going to open a FB page anyway. Although kudos to them for getting *one* thing right. They sell information. Creation of that information does not take roads, public telecommunications (the info goes over private networks), etc. Why should they pay for services of which they consume none?

Comment Re:People will say their duty is to shareholders.. (Score 1) 592

but they're still actual human beings

Who take money from other human being and promise to pay them dividends at some future time (that's what a stock is -- a right to vote in an entity which promises but does not guarantee future dividends). And that money which they take from those human beings has been taxed at least once (and in many case multiple times).

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