That being said, I don't understand why the music and video industry doesn't come together and has some international distribution agreement, even if one is willing to pay for the content, the fact is that (mostly) outside the US, one wouldn't be able to make a purchase without resorting to using VPN.
And that's still probably illegal, even if he did pay for it.
Yeah, but understandably, to fulfil the legal requirement of a country, in particular for music and video, is probably more complex than many of us think.
This has been going for 10-year, but unlike IBM vs SCO, there seems to be no Groklaw to explain the situation...
Can I assume what's on rambus.org is full of FUD...?
One thing still baffles me, if the memory makers were sure that Rambus had no ground in court, why did some of them still coughed up millions of dollars to them...?
I know sometimes having a settlement is cheaper than going all the way through litigation, and sometimes acting shrewdly does not necessarily mean illegal, but still...
Could it be that both sides have had their mischief...?
Cheers.
Years ago, I managed to convince my friend to get an X41 Tablet (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X41_Tablet) when it first came out, thinking that she could use it to jot down notes using OneNote in classes. In the end she kept on using paper and pen instead.
She did find the tablet functionality useful - To draw with ArtRage.
There are some reasons why she didn't use it to jot notes - The machine was too heavy (4lbs) and large (10" x 10") for her to carry around together with the printed textbooks and other stuff; The performance was not very good (4,200RPM 1.8" HDD); She's not that into technology and felt more comfortable to shift through notebooks......
Few years later, I got an X61 Tablet myself. These days, I mainly use the tablet functionality to jot down notes with OneNote when I read the Bible, and occasionally to write the diary.
The ability of OneNote to recognize my hasty handwriting is surprisingly good. But the machine is still too heavy to hold in hand for long periods.
There are slate-only models which are lighter, but I need a keyboard and have no interest (and money) in buying and switching between 2 machines.
I think one of the blocking issues for my friend to utilize the tablet functionality more was that, e-textbooks were in most cases just not available back then. She would have to carry the book AND the machine all the time.
The above comments are about Tablet PC running full-fledged Windows.
With regard to the newer tablet market out there (e.g. iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tabs...), most of them use capacitive screens which are not accurate enough for handwritten notes (there's a stylus called Jot from Adonit who seemed to give excellent accruacy, but I have no actual experience myself so cannot vouch for it).
A few of them have an active stylus (which I mentioned here http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1819164#post1819164), but then software support is an issue - They all have their proprietary and incompatible ways to utilize the stylus and store the drawings/notes, which could prove to be problematic down the road.
I can go on for many paragraphs, but not knowing more about what your wife expects, it's difficult to give more useful comments. But feel free to let me know if you have any specific question in mind.
Cheers.
This is marked score:5 informative...?
Did you also check where the capacitors, resistors, PCB, or the rare earth elements used came from...?
With regard to switching the place of the final assembly, as another AC mentioned (http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2513116&cid=37975866), it's not that simple. Just ask the Chinese government how's it doing trying to migrate some of the factories away from the Pearl River Delta area.
Like it or not, we're living in a global economy now, and we're more or less depended on and inter-related to each other, more than ever. It doesn't mean every one depends on China - Without the western technology developed in the past century, many of the factory workers in China maybe working on the field now (whether that is bad or not is up to debate, though).
BTW, it kind of saddens me when people tell me "China is good" because a lot of cheap things come from China, I try to explain, whenever possible, that the many many workers and people in China suffer from excessive working hours, poor working conditions, uncontrolled and unmitigated pollution and damage to the environment, just to name a few.
Sigh.
I wasn't trying to imply anything, just would like to state my opinions.
And if I understood correctly (pardon me if I didn't), one of the features and inevitable conclusions in post-modernism deconstruction is that, there's no absolute truth.
Cheers.
Sir, if it makes you feel better, then so be it.
But in case, just in case, you have time and interest, you may join me here to see the situation on the ground, and talk to the people directly, together, you and me.
Cheers.
Again, your mentioning of a force that would like to "wipe Israel from the face of the earth", is something I consider far from being true in terms of practicality, something that's exaggerated by the media and used by people like you to justify the oppression of the Palestinians and minority groups in Israel.
At the same time, it's understandable that many Jews, and the people as a whole, are still reeling from the prosecution in the hand of Christians-led authorities in the last 20 centuries, and the Holocaust.
What should I say? The Christians first prosecuted the Jews, and now they prosecute the Muslims. Umm... It now seems pretty clear to me what's the source of the problems.
And it's time for me to do my daily devotion.
That's not quite how it worked there. Jews have continuously lived there for thousands of years.
So can be said for (some of) the Palestinians.
Around a hundred years ago more started moving back, the Caliphate was cool with it, even sold much of that land to Jews.
How much, of which parts, of Levant...?
BTW, what if the US sold some land in Iraq to the Japanese after the 2003 war...?
The Ottomans welcomed the prosperity the immigration would bring. In fact, the Caliphate had a fairly decent policy regarding the whole thing and relations between Muslims and Jews.
Sure, it helped their failing economy.
But then the Caliphate fell, and the locals took over. Back when Jews were still a tiny minority, Muslims were rioting over their immigration and attacking their settlements. The Haganah was formed to protect Jews from these attacks, such as Jaffa, Hebron, and Safed.
You left out the British Mandate totally. BTW, Haganah may have begun as a loosely organized local defence force, but its role, AFAIK, has drastically changed in later years. By 1947, it's become a full-fledged military.
Of course immediately upon creation of the tiny Jewish homeland at the edge of of a Muslim sea, the combined might of several surrounding Muslim countries tried to wipe them out. The land Israel holds today is the result of repelling that and later invasions.
The fact that Israel was able to create a state like out of thin air (which wasn't, but that idea has been spread to imply something like divine intervention) might have showed that, 1) the "might" of the Arab states at that time is questionable at best, 2) the Israelis had a stronger military force and better strategies than the Arab armies, or 3) a combination of both.
In addition, you continually see cited the Palestinian refugees, several hundred thousand fled or expelled from Israeli-controlled areas. What about the Jewish refugees? Almost a million were expelled or forced to flee violence and oppression in most of the Arab Muslim countries. Jews were killed in pogroms in most Arab countries, their rights rescinded, property confiscated, forced to flee.
I can't turn back the clock and see how it would happen, but I wonder they wouldn't have been, if not the Jews took Palestine by force like that.
Many just want all the Jews out, no recognition. The best you get is as you say the Palestinian Authority refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. They simply cannot have it, since it offends their sense of religion. Forget the Muslim states surrounding Israel (and constituting a persistent threat to Israel's security), this one Jewish state cannot be allowed.
The contentious issue of whether to recognize Israel is a Jewish state or not is, in my opinions, that there are 1.2M Israeli Arab, to recognize Israel as a Jewish state means to legitimize the discrimination against them.
The Israeli Declaration of Independence stated that "the State of Israel would ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex, and guaranteed freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture".
So if Jewish people remain the majority, then it's a Jewish state by number count.
But even that is a very recent concession, not sincere IMHO. They're still teaching their kids that Jews have no historical claim to the area, that it was always Muslim.
Did you know there was even an uproar in Palestine over the UN wanting to mention the Holocaust in their schools in Palestine? Its mere mention as one of the founding reasons for the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights was considered offensive. No sympathy for Jews allowed when they are trying to teach the kids that the Jews are the powerful evil oppressors (especially when the Palestinian Muslims were complicit in said Holocaust).
Again, it's in my opinions that you're over-generalizing, as if you've held country-wide census. I personally find (some of) the local people, be it Jews or Palestinians, more accommodating than you.
Make no mistake, I'm not against the Israelis, and I've defended them before Palestinians, during discussions, that's. But I think it's wrong for Israel the state to continually oppress the Palestinians, and they are not allowed to defend themselves, as if every Jew is a patron saint and every Palestinian (Muslim) is a terrorist.
(Assuming you're a US citizen) If one day, some people from the opposite of Alaska come and take your land, expulse you and your family from your homes, make you live in tents (which later become brick houses), kill your cousin who fight against them, all the while telling you that their ancestors had lived in North America 2000 years ago, and have their sacred text to support them, so that they've a sacrosanct title deed to the land...
What would you do?
I'm a Christian and one who's not totally ignorant of the history and religious significance of this land, I've read the Bible from the beginning to the end all over 2 times, flipped all over the pages from Genesis to Revelation in worships, Sunday schools, fellowships over the years. Started reading the Qur'an (with an exegesis not written by some Wahhabi imams) not long ago. Understand that the failures and internal scuffles of the Arabic "leaders" had as much importance as the Israeli military might in shaping the 1948 Nakba and following defeats. That some people always exaggerate and over-dramatize certain events to their own benefits, like the one mentioned by the OP...
Not that I consider myself well-versed in the conflict and, as Paul's taught, I still have much to learn (1 Corinthians 8:2). But to consider it's a Middle Eastern-only phenomenon is disingenuous in my opinions.
Just try to put your feet into their shoes for a little while.
BTW, I think it's Hamas' official stance to refuse to acknowledge Israel's right to exist...? The PLO and PA have long accepted the fact that there's a state called Israel here in Palestine. They don't agree that it's a "Jewish state" though.
Cheers.
I'm photographing in the Middle East, in particular Palestine these days, but I would argue that the mere act of choosing which place to go, picking up one's camera, framing his shot, choosing what to focus on, pressing the shutter at which moment, and afterwards, choosing which one to publish, with with what captions to write, all doing it consciously or sub-consciously, is "biased".
The problem is that people *think* there is an absolute objective out there, and their views are that one. So, when you see something in the news is consistent with your school of thought, then it's objective reporting. If it doesn't, then it's biased.
Of course I'm generalizing, and there are people out there who really *think*. And I'm a Christian and think this post-modernism deconstruction thing leads one nowhere. One has to pick his stand somewhere, but keep it ready to be challenged at any time.
Who said that, something like "Faith is treading a line everyday between believe and disbelieve"...?
Oopps... I intended to add a "sarcasm" tag to the first paragraph but failed... Guess I need to learn more about posting on Slashdot...
In the photo journalism industry this is not news, but for the public who often take images at face value this rare glimpse of things can offer quite a disconnect. It can be shocking to be reminded to view things with an overly critical eye, and I think the photo journalism industry would have to tighten things up a bit if the public at large paid more attention to and was, on the whole, more critical of these kinds of issues.
Does it even matter? People often believe what they want to believe. As long as there's an audience for your reporting. It doesn't have to be objective at all.
Although I don't necessarily agree with everything about the post-modernism deconstruction, there is some insight within that school of thought.
To a certain extent, I have to admit that what you said is right, especially for the people making decisions in air-con rooms.
But there are real people on the ground who're indeed suffering, and I'm not meaning only the Palestinians, but also the Israelis.
It's such a polarized topic though.
I wish there is, but people believe what they want to believe anyway.
"And remember: Evil will always prevail, because Good is dumb." -- Spaceballs
