It was a gun owners advocacy group.

It's not anymore. http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-industry-funds-nra-2013-1

The NRA does what it can to keep interest up in its members. I'm sure it does what it can to increase gun ownership to pick up new members. It also, very much, wants to make sure that more guns are sold. My basis for these last few statements are the change of heart they had regarding background checks, their reactions to shootings that make national news, and the people I know who belong to the organization.

You know what, you're right. We shouldn't be subsidizing any energy. Let's do away with oil, gas and coal subsidies, and reset the system from there. Once we establish how much energy actually costs, we can figure out what to invest in from there.

As for the summary and associated stories, I have no idea what the living wage is in Chattanooga, TN. But wow, this summary looked like someone with an ax to grind with the executive branch. Fair or not, I had to double-check to make sure I wasn't looking at the Washington Times.

Hyperbole aside, I have to acknowledge the gripes you have. Yes, the GPL is a funny license when it comes down to it.

IANAL, but my understanding is that anything that Sun, and by acquisition Oracle, contributed to the MySQL code can be changed to non-free licenses for newer editions. Obviously you can't say "That release from two years ago is no longer freely available." Anything in the project that is GPL code needs to have the source freely (or at least easily) accessible. So, any community contributions (yes yes.. I know... Both of them) are still covered by the GPL if the authors chose to mark them as GPL code. If they did not state any licensing terms with their code, well then I believe it became subject to Sun's/Oracle's discretion.

To properly reply to the parent that you are criticizing, they do have a point in that if the code that has been released isn't changed, it is still GPL code. That should remain publicly available. Any changes they make from here on aren't necessarily... But depending on how they make use of the GPL code they might cause a violation of the GPL license, which could be actionable... But we'll just have to see how this progresses.

So, in the case of the community, Oracle is essentially choosing to no longer license their changes under the GPL. The only real surprise in all of this is that it took them this long to do exactly that. Of course it bothers the community because someone just took their truck from the sandbox, and let's face it, Oracle ain't exactly known for playing nice in said sandbox anyway.

So have all sort of things. Look, I don't want to minimize the crime. I get it, they're really bad people, and they do really bad things.

The same can be said about gun owners, cars, airplanes, lightning... They're all more likely to kill you than a terrorist. Is that worth another Red Scare, or Salem? If you train the people to distrust each other, you lose your society. So, I'm all for being vigilant. If you see someone in their back yard trying to bring in a big bag of gunpowder and some pressure cookers, by all means ask them what's up.

But, please don't justify this as a "terrorists are bad so we should constantly report each other for suspicious activity."

In that case, how often does Adobe release a new edition of the software? It looks like (we'll be generous) 2 years for each iteration. So, if after two years you paid for about the boxed version, Adobe doesn't seem to come out very much ahead. Businesses will buy the latest one regardless, so it doesn't seem much different.

I'm thinking the benefit to them is the guarantee that there are only so many instances of CS available at one time to each customer. Businesses that over-license may save money (because they wouldn't be anymore), but the ones that have "one or two+ rogue installs" won't anymore. I'm taking a guess that's what's up here. Another poster made the point that the business customer gets to write off a "subscription cost of business" instead of an asset that has to depreciate over however long that is.

So, yea, it looks like Adobe wins in that they are guaranteed a license for every installation, and businesses get instant writeoffs (and built-in license compliance). Individuals, who might use the same software for 4+ years because of cost, get the downside. Adobe doesn't care because, individuals are a small part of their market.

And the point that GP, and up are trying to make is... Yup, they're apologizing for getting caught. Unlike most non-apologies, at least some good is coming out of it, and they're at least putting up a good show to show they're sorry.

That's better than the vast majority of non-apologies, and they're at least acknowledging that their image is important enough to them to try to make some amends.

I'm sure you paid all those speeding tickets that you could've been cited for, so I should just leave well enough alone.

Too bad NetCraft says it's dying :D

If you're going to tie it into your mortgage, you're in luck. Because you can get a 10K Watt system installed into the house, which will probably put energy back into the grid (paying you during peak hours). You'll end up coming out way ahead even with maintenance. Numbers vary based on location and who does the installation, but you'll be in fantastic shape before year 15 in just about every case without incentives.

The best part? Those expensive $150/month bills will be the happiest months because you'll be feeding even more energy into the grid.

And please, don't scoff at energy incentives. We pump enough subsidies into fossil fuels and nobody seems to complain too much. We might as well put these energies into equal competition.

12 Month membership cards can be bought for $45 (maybe less, but that seems like a reasonable price).
To play any games with anyone else, you need a gold membership, so you're getting one.
So:
$299 + $240 = $539 at the two year mark.
$499 + $90 = $589 at the two year mark.

From that point on, you're paying $45 a month regardless. So, there is a point to it if you're going to have the membership anyway. If you can get your 12 month membership for under $20, then you can get ahead.

...And sadly the download probably does too.

Assuming it actually delivers that speed, of course.

I remember working with a couple of those resellers, and SBC a lot in those years. I hated SBC with a passion.

The resellers treated me much better. Unfortunately, every once in a while one of my clients would lose their internet connection... The reason? At the SBC telco office, the loop would suddenly go missing.

It did eventually stop, and it was about when they became AT&T... So either the reseller fixed up their problem, or complained to the right people. I'll never know if they were telling me the truth, but I was quite quick to believe it.

I never claimed it was some conspiracy. That's not the point of my post. It's just a case where I have to jump through extra hoops, and as far as I can tell there is no real gain on the end of Netflix. And yes, I understand I can watch it on just about anything that isn't a standard Linux.

They locked in with Silverlight to present to PCs and Mac, because of DRM requirements. A side effect of the solution they chose is that it's inconvenient for me, and grandma isn't going to figure it out on her own. That makes it "not good" in my humble opinion, and that's what I'm trying to point out. The only real effect it has is that it gives one less reason to adopt Linux, and that's for a video streaming service.

No conspiracy, just silly.

"If they provided me with good cheap DRM'd service, they'd have my dollars."

And I guess that's where this is really irritating. Because, as of yet, there hasn't been a "good" nor "cheap," let alone "good and cheap" DRM service. Really, DRM has been about making sure you have to fit a very specific set of conditions to view content that you probably paid for. Usually those conditions involve "viewing from Device P, running Operating System Q, with Browser R," even though it has nothing to do with the content you're viewing.

So, we look at Netflix as the opening case. To watch a movie in Netflix on my laptop that is running Linux, I have to jump through a large number of hoops... Or, I can fire up my Xbox 360, or my PS3, or another machine running Windows. Why is that? Certainly it's not about stopping piracy... Because I can still jump through those hoops and get there.

DVD regions... Why did they exist? It was certainly not to prevent piracy, because you could easily copy the bejeezus out of them. Rather, it's to prevent you from buying a copy cheaply in one region, and bringing it home... Because their content is overpriced here. BlueRay? Same deal right? Again, not about piracy.

Really, DRM has always been about soaking legal users as much as possible, or it's been about shady corporate deals to force users onto particular platforms to make them have to pay their partners. That is all it accomplishes, and that's perfectly fine with them.

Fortunately, Mr. Rogers was able to make this a complete scumbag deal by putting him and his wife in a position to profit by it becoming law:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130417/16253022748/oh-look-rep-mike-rogers-wife-stands-to-benefit-greatly-cispa-passing.shtml

That wouldn't surprise me.

He even made a bet saying that black holes didn't exist. It was a hedge because it would've blown up a bunch of his own research if he had won. I rather enjoy that he doesn't take himself too seriously when it comes to these bets.