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Comment Re:Market Saturation? (Score 1) 328

From my personal experience, everywhere I go, I see people with tablets that are a year or two old because they are "good enough", lack compelling reasons to upgrade and also are typically appear significantly more expensive than their cell phone counterparts as they are typically sold unsubsidized.

I used an original Galaxy Tab until just under a year ago when I finally decided to upgrade to a Galaxy Note Pro 12.2. The only real reason I actually decided to get a new tablet is that the original Galaxy Tab is owned by my employer and I wanted my own tablet in case they ever want it back or change their policies about how I can use it, otherwise I may not have upgraded because the original Galaxy Tab is exactly that; "good enough."

I don't really see any compelling reason to regularly upgrade tablets unless they become technologically inferior in some way that interferes with your daily usage.

Comment Re:You want a family friendly internet? (Score 1) 294

Well, how about religiously motivated hate speech? If I go around and tell people that they should die 'cause my imaginary friend doesn't like how and who they fuck, think I will stay free for long?

It depends, and this is strictly my amateur legal opinion that shall not be construed as legal advice; if they are simply saying you're subject to judgement by their imaginary friend or some universal balance such as karma then their speech is probably protected under the first amendment, however if they are directly calling for violence against you or anyone else then the government has something potentially substantial to act on rather than just ideas but even in this case there may be nothing a liberty minded government can do until somebody actually acts on it; a good example might be "inciting a riot" where a person can basically say whatever he pleases but if his actions lead to a riot that threatens public safety then he can be potentially charged with a crime and convicted if the state can prove that person did so with malicious intent.

It is worth noting that hate speech laws are themselves a slippery slope that threaten liberty because in some countries that takes things to an extreme just merely saying you don't like, not necessarily outright hate, something somebody does or a certain culture can be considered hate speech.

Liberty comes at the cost of security but fear not for we have the 2nd Amendment.

Comment Re:You want a family friendly internet? (Score 1) 294

When one person says he's heeding the laws of his imaginary friend, you send him to the mental asylum.

I can't speak for the UK as I'm not familiar with British law but at least here in the US, where I live, the Supreme Court has ruled, in O'Connor v. Donaldson that you need to be proven to be a danger to yourself or others before you can be institutionalized by the state or anyone else and that being committed to a mental asylum is the same thing as imprisonment and that patients are entitled to legal representation as guaranteed under the sixth amendment, so really you can have as many imaginary friends as you want and not face unlawful imprisonment as long as those imaginary friends don't tell you to go break the law.

You may not like the idea of people have an "imaginary friend" but the moment the government starts imprisoning people for doing so, because some people don't like that idea, we're on a slippery slope where the government can imprison and persecute people for any ideas they don't like (See Soviet Union, People's Republic of China). This is why religion is protected, and the moment you start working against the right of people to have religion you'll be fighting against your own rights.

Comment Re:I don't get it (Score 3, Insightful) 170

... and property taxes.

Pretty much this for *alas* you unfortunately never really own your property but basically lease it from the government so people who come into a lot of money always go and get the biggest house they can afford but forget that they have to pay property taxes on that multi-million dollar mansion.

I do have to say though, in my opinion, that if you're going to invest your money somewhere the best place to put your money into is property, not multi-million dollar homes but acres upon acres, for land rarely ever loses value but usually appreciates value because of the limited supply whereas a swimming pool of cash just inflates and loses value.

Comment Re:Land of the free (Score 1) 580

but the meth heads are unlikely to be deterred and may not be put down with one shot,

I'm not really sure what conceal carry course you took but my course taught me to rapidly fire at minimum two to three rounds center mass at the assailant, possibly more until the threat has ceased. This is where semi-automatic weapons really shine with a magazine capacity typically anywhere from 12 to 18 rounds depending on the cartridge, though for just one assailant a revolver can do just fine. Also anyone carrying a weapon for self-defense should carry JHP rounds as opposed to FMJ rounds which will fully penetrate straight through doing relatively minimum damage and possibly hitting something else.

Comment Re:Land of the free (Score 1) 580

A reasonable and balanced view?! Go watch more CNN and MSNBC, citizen.

On a less satirical and more serious note I think most gun owners share your viewpoint and in fact some of the things you mentioned are some the most fundamental rules of handling firearms.

I really think there needs to be more education about respecting and handling firearms, perhaps something along the lines of those horrific DMV classes, but unfortunately our society has stigmatized gun ownership so bad to the point that outreach at any level is politically incorrect and nobody wants to talk about it and instead would prefer dangerous Orwellian legislation over enlightening life saving education. The closest I've seen to any kind of education outreach is the local sheriff's department handing out free cable locks and pamphlets on how it is a felony crime to leave an operational firearm where it can be accessed by minor, which is a nice effort but clearly not enough; we need stuff like those PSA magazine advertisements and TV commercials like the ones that advocate against smoking.

Comment Re:Land of the free (Score 3, Insightful) 580

If you enjoy being a victim, and it helps you to sleep better at night thinking that someone who carries a firearm is a "wussy"

I've never understood this mentality but I'm thinking people with this mentality are so brainwashed into believing guns are inherently evil that they actually confuse law abiding gun owners with gun toting criminals who are cowards that use their weapons to assert power and instill fear.

For anyone who isn't a criminal carrying a firearm is a huge responsibility and the consequences of having to use it are monumental both legally and dealing with the fact that you killed someone (not all people who get shot die but usually they do), in fact it can be a huge risk to even carry it legally because of all these weird Gun-Free Zone laws (my state in particular being terrible).

Lets put lawful carry in another light; a mother has to walk to and from work every night in a dark city full of meth heads and rapists that will do anything to get their next fix and she has had a couple close calls so she applies for a conceal carry permit and now she carries a Smith & Wesson .38 Special. Is that mother now automatically a coward because she has a equalizing means of self defense now, or would it be preferable for her to not be a "coward" right in the morgue and her kids in the foster care system?

Or what about the woman that receives death threats from her former boyfriend? Is she a coward for wanting to defend herself against someone much bigger and stronger than her?

Legal concealed carriers are not cowards, and open carriers (where legal) are probably even less so.

Comment Re:Easier method (Score 1) 448

the Andy Griffith type cop is becoming a minority in this day and age.

The Andy Griffith type cop never existed, and was unique even within the context of the show (remarked on by outsiders visiting Mayberry constantly). At best, you might get Adam-12 or Dragnet type cops.

I guess I should have said a caring friendly neighborhood cop but at the time I was thinking Andy Griffith to be an analogous example of what I was thinking.

Interestingly I actually live near Mount Airy (aka Mayberry, however there is no actual Mayberry) and I can't really say much for the cops in Mount Airy but I've had run-ins with the local county sheriff's department and the state troopers stationed there and in both encounters the officers seem to have something of a condescending superiority complex, but I do want to say though that Sheriff Graham Atkinson himself is a super nice guy and from personal experience always makes himself available to residents. I've always had really great encounters with cops in nearby Winston-Salem which is located just a couple counties away. Some of the smaller communities in between I don't particularly trust the small town cops because if you get in a car accident or something the officer will always take the side of the local resident.

In one particular case I took a picture from my porch of a car accident literally in front of my house and the officer got in my face and yelled at me that he was going to arrest me and confiscate my expensive camera and when politely and calmly asked him about relevant statutes prohibiting my activity it made him even angrier and louder.
I was rather shook up and asked the EFF for help, or at least some advice, but they told me that since I was intimidated into complying with the officer's demands and never asked him if I was under arrest I had no basis for a complaint and they couldn't help me (I can at least say that is where my deep interest in law and the legal processes began).
That being said I really would prefer the Joe Friday type cop from Dragnet because at least those cops in that show had the utmost respect for the law let alone knowing the law like the back of their hands.

Comment Re:Easier method (Score 1) 448

Adopt an African American Child.

...

You tell your kids not to go to Chicago because of the crime, I tell mine not to go because of the police.

Persecution by the police isn't exclusive to any one race. I'm about as white as white can get but yet I fear the police as well and despite my highest regard for the law I've had a couple run-ins with them because there are just some cops that love to strut that authority and tell people what to do regardless of the legality rather than protect people with the humility that they serve the public interests. In fact I've gotten to the point where I've learned resistance is futile and there is no sense in trying to even communicate with officers beyond acknowledging their commands regardless of your rights; you can have your day in court if you can afford competent defense otherwise be prepared to forever lose whatever it is they want to take from you be it your; time, person, property or effects.

That being said I believe there is a bigger problem with the prevailing ghestopo mentality of law enforcement in this country who ironically have no respect for the law but unfortunately it's being chalked up as White vs. Black racism rather than the bigger issue that it really is that affects everyone.

Now I have met some really nice and understanding officers; state troopers, actual sheriffs (as opposed to sheriff's deputy) and city cops but unfortunately they were far and few in between; the Andy Griffith type cop is becoming a minority in this day and age.

Comment Re:Loudness race (Score 1) 433

This. As far as I can hear, compression is the main difference between vinyl and digital, and that's something that is caused by the guys doing the mastering, not by the medium.

I'd like to further add to that by mentioning some technical details; audio CDs even to this day conform to a standard known as Red Book Audio published by Philips and Sony (Unfortunately I cannot reference it because it requires an expensive license AFAIK) in which audio is encoded in a lossless uncompressed PCM format at a sample rate of 44 KHz. So clearly audio discs themselves are no slouch when it comes to audio quality so if vinyl sounds better it must have something to do with the original mastering as you mentioned.

Comment Re:Alternative? (Score 3, Informative) 75

Because then Mozilla will go through all that effort to implement PPAPI but then Google will change PPAPI on a whim and it will break all the plugins on Firefox and people will ignorantly blame Mozilla, and then Mozilla will have to put all that effort into updating to the latest random revision of PPAPI only to rinse and repeat.

Comment Re:Just in time. (Score 2) 219

For reliability, I prefer actual data over your anecdotal opinion: Consumer drives shown to be more reliable than enterprise drives.

This probably has more to do with TLER than anything because consumer drives are designed with the expectation they'll be run as a single isolated disk whereas enterprise disks are typically expected to be part of some RAID array running in tandem with other disks the RAID controller can use to correct errors, so while an enterprise and consumer drive might share the same physical hardware the firmware for enterprise drives can differ significantly in the way they handle error recovery.

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