Yeah, how'd that work out for banking?

Pretty well until government protection of giant banks along with imposition of regulations smaller banks could not keep up with, meant all of the smaller banks got bought up or shut down.

Meanwhile, instead of competition we have Obamacare mandating that very expensive insurance plans be bought from a handful of providers, reducing competition further.

Not sure where you read that, but Apple went through this exact problem several years ago . Kids spending literally hundreds of dollars because once mom entered the store password, they didn't need it again for 30 minutes. ...

After that , they NICELY refunded all those silly transactions and then made it require a password FOR EVERY PURCHASE.

If 7.1 gives a 15 minute window, that's brand new and backwards from their previous direction.

I'm on 7.0.6 now, requires a password for ALL purchases, even 10 seconds apart

Of course it's sensitive and provides "useful" information. If it didn't provide any information, they wouldn't bother collecting it.

Stazi. NSA. CIA. CSEC. GCHQ.

All the same animal, just different flags.

All of them are compromised to provide for the marine's requirements.

Really, we need to restore the understanding that if the law forbids something, it forbids paying someone else to do that thing. Murder is illegal, so it is also a crime to hire someone to commit murder. Government prying without a warrant is illegal, so buying the same information from someone else is just as illegal.

The NSA is not supposed to have any domestic operation at all. If they happen to capture a Citizens call at the foreign endpoint, that's one thing, but no call that stays in the U.S. should ever be seen by the NSA.

However, at this point, we would pretty much have to dismantle the NSA entirely and form it again to break their culture of lawlessness.

Qubes systems can keep things like cameras and mics effectively beyond the reach of remote attackers while running Linux and Windows apps.

The core of the system is a pairing of Xen and X11/Linux which isolates the graphics, network and other risky services into less trusted domains. The result is that the trusted X11 can always show you what security context a window or other graphical element represents, even if the untrusted X11 in a VM becomes compromised-- You can't be tricked into thinking a malware element is really a part of the core OS.

And that core OS allows you to (graphically or via CLI) sequester or assign hardware resources to various VMs; You can see at a glance if an untrusted or risky VM still has access to the mic and remove that access with a couple of mouse clicks.

Of course, you still have to trust the hardware and firmware you got from the PC manufacturer.

Securely run Linux or Windows to your hearts' content:
http://qubes-os.org/

Because:

- The pay is 2-3x what I could get paid at established firms
- The relationship-starting practices actually make sense (an interview amongst humans, often with C-levels, rather than with an HR-drone, and forms of testing that involve work on-product, rather than abstract and unrelated HR games).
- They are thankful to have me and pleasant to work with (as opposed to confronting the HR bureaucracy and middle management)
- I get better titles and better status/authority within the firm

I do good work, I produce value, and the startups that I work with see that and can measure it quantitatively. Established firms could if they wanted to, but that's the point: they don't want to. They want to pay you as little as they can get away with, and have you as silent and head-hung as they can get you to be.

I stopped working for stodgy HR- and middle-management-heavy firms years ago. It basically sucked, and was soul-sucking.

Companies want to talk about making yourself competitive in the labor market, then bitch and moan when those that will pay get all the hot talent?

Oh noez! Whatever will we do!?

I'd say that if someone gets paid $big_bucks at $hot_startup, they're entitled to it. If you want them, pony up.

company now:

- Pays less
- Is less secure
- Is a shitty environment
- Offers dwindling benefits
- And little respect

You're cannon fodder, that's all.

At startups and companies with that "hot startup" attitude (there are a few established companies that do this), you're the core of the business, the brains of the operation, worthy of any perks or cash they can throw at you.

Who wants to work where they're completely undervalued when they can work where they're (if anything) overvalued?

Make the salary at least reasonable, the hiring practices sane, the benefits good, and the job security reliable, and you'll find that a lot of young people are willing to work at stodgy old firms, just like they used to.

Employees are just tired of being treated like shit. These days hot startup > freelance/consult > established firm when it comes to the deal you get as a worker.

When the girl was in 1st grade, she was told by Mom "I don't like math, go ask your dad". It wasn't a gender thing at first, but children attribute such things to gender. It doesn't hurt when most of the other girls in the same class hear the same thing. And no, I'm not the OP, I've just seen the same before.

My "crappy receiver" does that already. Perhaps you should look at what a $600 receiver gets you these days.

Facebook is only able to buy them because they can raise insane amounts of money selling shares (or buy partly with shares), and guess who is buying those shares...

Oddly enough, once you remove the fluff, all you are left with is rounded corners and touch what you want.

Can you use a compressor in my setup? Player (TV-DVR, DVD, Blu-Ray), HDMI to receiver, receiver to speakers. There's no place where the audio is analog in the chain, other than after the last amplification on the way to the speakers. I'd expect it would prefer line-level, as opposed to post-amped, but maybe they do work better after amps. I read the specs on the one you linked to, and didn't see anything that seemed to answer. And it's only 2-channel. So what do I do with 8 speakers?