Do they come to your house to see the child? What are they, pedophiles?
Do they come to your house to see the child? What are they, pedophiles?
No, they would likely do it a much easier way, with tax records.
Kids may be home-schooled, so the school records may not find them, but chances are you're not going to find too many parents hiding them when the taxman comes around.
"In my country, it is not free! Not free! I finally decide, it is not right! No way I'm paying for Internet access!"
Remember NetZero. NetZero used to be free.
Yeah, NetZero was "free", if you enjoyed dial-up speeds and didn't mind your browser being reduced to the size of a game boy screen due to ads.
In other words, it was about as free as you are from being tracked today with any other "free" shit.
How about Comcast has to offer the low cost internet plan to any of their customers that wants it.
(Comcast support, 3 hours later...)
"Ah, yes, I see you're on our fuck-you-very-much plan. Oh, you say your speeds are horrendous? It feels like dial-up? Wow, I can't imagine why, but if you're unhappy with your plan, you can always upgrade..."
It's called empty promises. The primary purpose of this merger is not nor will it ever be to take care of the poor. It merely serves to unhook the approval process that would create an internet oligarchy.
Cheap internet for anybody is the last thing that these guys want.
Yes, it's one hell of a bribe (let's call it what it is), and I hope the FCC can see the statistics through the trees to call them on their bullshit.
Not sure I'd put that much faith in the government to be that intelligent or anti-corrupt. Comcast already has several monopoly areas. I fail to see how this would ever pass on those grounds alone, but we no longer give a shit about monopolies. Corruption rules.
And when Comcast gets their way that will be validated once again.
Happy voting.
The Internet Essentials program Comcast offers is $9.95/month, and to be eligible, you have to have a child who participates in the Free and Reduced Lunch program. No kids? Not eligible.
So Comcast clearly feels that for anyone under the age of 18, the internet is important.
For everyone else, get off your wallet you can't afford and pay me full price.
If it's so critical to "be online" in today's society, they should stop dividing it even further within the poor.
Oh, and 2009 - 2013 was not exactly the best time to be interviewing anyone to find out why they haven't blown money on wireless routers, laptops, and high-speed internet when people were losing their jobs left and right, so the statistics might be just a tad skewed.
B) he had all the required maintenance performed on the vehicle
Yes, I understand that. However, my manufacturers warranty today is still intact whether I change my oil, or I let the stealership do it.
And my purposeful misspelling here emphasizes exactly why people DIY. In a heated court battle, manufacturers will use the fact that THEY did not perform the routine maintenance directly as a defense, using the "200-point inspection" or whatever bullshit they sell you with a $175 oil change as an excuse.
I don't think you understood what GP was saying. He just wanted to make sure that he wouldn't be held liable under any circumstances if A) he was not controlling the vehicle and B) he had all the required maintenance performed on the vehicle.
I can see his point. I wouldn't want to be sued for a "computer glitch" that may end up killing someone. I'm not even sure I want that on my conscience.
Unfortunately, the manufacturer may not want it on their record either, and they may go to great lengths to state that your car has been "tampered with" or was "hacked", and because you didn't pay them hundreds of dollars for the annual "check-up", you are now liable.
Sorry, just being realistic here. Corporations gave birth to the ruthless lawyer, and they have often have thousands of jobs and billions in revenue to protect. Chances are you would not find them on your side.
>The larger concern is the fact that empathy and human emotion still exist on the actual battlefield today, and we are looking to remove that from warfare as we look into the future of automation.
Because seeing see your enemy face to face in the pre-firearms era stopped any of the (for their time) large scale wars or the atrocities committed during them? LOL, literally.
You clearly have not witnessed the average skilled child playing Call of Duty.
I'd go against a human any day compared to a "machine" controlling a robot with a controller. At least I might have a chance with a human. We may not read about it much, but I'm certain there were plenty of cases of human emotion coming into play during the Civil War, when brother was literally pitted against brother.
Fast-foward to where automation is taking warfare. Kids playing games these days have ZERO emotion to killing. To them it's nothing more than a game, which fortunately today it is nothing more, but obviously changes the mentality towards killing when using nothing more than a video game controller.
I fear the day we carry that game into the real world and remove emotion completely from warfare. And it's coming, with millions of skilled operators in tow.
No, you really don't. Encryption is good for Facebook, but enforcing it for your Internet-of-Everything lightbulb or temperature probe in the basement gains nothing other than more complex bugs and lower battery life.
While you tried to make a good point here, your example was horrible.
Being concerned about Facebook encryption is like gift-wrapping an elephant with a piece of string.
Your password is about the only damn thing not shared or sold on that site, so I'm not sure what the hell anyone is trying to hide or secure.
'Are our actions in a virtual world tantamount to imagining those things we could do in real life but never would? Or are we merely behaving as we would in real life if there were no consequences for our actions?'
This isn't the larger concern right now.
The larger concern is the fact that empathy and human emotion still exist on the actual battlefield today, and we are looking to remove that from warfare as we look into the future of automation. Where we have a soldier making those face-to-face decisions to pull or NOT pull a trigger today will be replaced by a robot wired to a PS4 controller thousands of miles away, being driven by a "soldier" who may not even know they are engaged in actual warfare as they "play" the "game".
These things are coming. And ironically as you call this future inhuman and disastrous for mankind, it is the tears of crying mothers that help justify this, because these "solutions" will be sold as the answer to bringing our boys back home every time.
Uhh, not the NSA's job. I know you guys believe everything negative published about them, but that's not at all, remotely, in any way, their job.
What they are doing is HIGHLY ILLEGAL by the Constitution, and yet you're concerned that what they're doing isn't on the website job description.
Whew. For a minute there I was worried we were focusing on the wrong thing.
No wonder Jack Shit is still in charge. He's getting things done alright.
Obama effectively wrote checks for over $2 trillion in the bailout mess.
As if Democratic-flavored fuck-ups taste any better than Republican ones. It's practically funny watching two groups argue while both of them shove shit in their mouths purporting theirs tastes far better.
When we can start talking about how the next asshole-in-charge won't write even more checks instead of pointing fingers, then perhaps I'll start giving a shit as to who's name is on the signature line.
Shouldn't they be concentrating on turning Americans into decent people instead?
Nah; they don't have any fossil DNA from humans or other critters known to be decent.
But we can look forward to Americans who are furry and have an extra layer of fat. And this can be exported to any other part of the world where there's a market for such people.
Oh yeah, because the average bearded fat-ass is so desirable today to the rest of the world.
Americans cornered the market on obesity. If there was value there, believe me we would have capitalized on it years ago.
I have Adblock on my refrigerator.
Well, that's great and all, but what the average American really needs on their refrigerator is FatBlock.
I wonder...does a spam filter on a fridge prevent you from ordering meat-like substances in a can?
We may have to start using another four-letter word to describe unwanted email. I have a few in mind...
The microbes fashion harpoons and develop a whaling tradition?
No, but I think you might be on the right track.
Since they were American microbes, chances are some McMicrobes survived.
Therefore, our biggest fear now is the moon getting too fat for its own orbit, quite possibly crashing into the Earth.
Oh, the irony in that demise...damn McFries.
In every non-trivial program there is at least one bug.
