In a democracy, the power is supposed to lie with the voter. The voter has power, indeed absolute power to change the leadership every so many years and in the US even sooner because isn't that why you got so many guns... and therefor, the voter is corrupt. Nice.

The simple fact is that while a LOT of people claim outrage at this case, a LOT of people ALSO want a though stance by the justice system on OTHER peoples offenses. Hang'em all and let god sort them out is a significant voting group.

An even BIGGER group of voters is "hang em all" "oh my god, you slapped his wrist, how mean!". It is a lucrative market to serve as the media, write a story about how soft the system is on hardened criminals then a story about how hard the system is on misunderstood people and you got your readership nice and enraged and yet feeling like they are caring people after all.

The DOJ YOU got is the system your society wants. Don't believe me? Nothing has actually been changed with regards to JSTOR and its policies has it. MIT hasn't stopped working with them. Academia still submit their papers to it don't they? Everybody is having a good little cry and a nice outrage at the system and then all back on our hamster wheel part of the big machine just like before.

It reminds me of Munich. How many seconds was the collecting of wealth and fame halted after the slaughter? Did a single athlete say "no this isn't right, I won't continue". In the Tour de France at least if there is some event like a rider who died, the other riders do symbolic things like letting the affected team win or ride across the finish line as a group rather then in a race. Sometimes... if the stakes aren't to high.

How many people/organizations have declared to STOP using JSTOR or to keep themselves associated with MIT? Have many MIT students have stopped going?

People forget that oppression isn't just a person at the top going "send him down", it is an entire support system beneath it. If you want to be nice it is "good men doing nothing" but mostly it is "selfish people not doing anything unless it benefits them and even then only if it doesn't take to much effort". You might blame the Klan for segregation laws in the deep south (see how neatly I avoided mentioning the nazi's and a godwin?) but that doesn't explain how easily it was implemented and supported. Every bus driver, every shop owner, every person who went into a whites only area. Did you push YOUR granddad in the face for being part of it? No? So you think the DOJ should be punished for prosecuting a criminal but racism is okay?

Life is hard, fighting the good fight all the time is FUCKING hard. Lessig is one person who does it easily by doing the fighting through proxies and getting his proxies lumbered with million dollar punishments or until a depressed young man kills himself. How many cheered Swartz on and how many gave a depressed suicidal guy a shoulder to lean on? I sure as hell didn't. I am taking the easy way out. I know this of myself and just avoid looking at myself in the mirror. SAME AS YOU!

You can convince me differently if for instance there had been a "Spartacus" event where a lot of MIT students had copied the mass download. There wasn't. If students had left MIT. They didn't. If Academia had stopped using JSTOR. They didn't. If there had been ANY action beyond a few cheap speeches.

It is even more hilarious to read articles denouncing the DOJ on this subject matter when such sites are heavy supporters of copyright and have in the past attempted to restrict fair use of their own content.

I predict that NOTHING will change. The reason is simple, NOBODY cares. Well not enough. The next election will be about taxes and employment once again and the people will vote for the guy they think is best for them (or for Romney voters, better for that rich guy they never met and will never be) and copyright is just not a big enough issue to figure in election results yet. Hell, the US doesn't even have a green party of any note. In the EU it took decades for them to get any power and the moment the economy takes a hit, it is back to the old parties in a flash.

Right now in The Netherlands the big news is that the queen is abdicating. And my god does it show how right Terry Pratchett was when he has Vimes comment that people have a weakness in their knees. Her mother married a nazi collaborator, she married a kraut and when her son couldn't find a nazi bitch, he got himself the daughter of a war criminal and a SOCIALIST prime-minister told everyone it was okay and for the last decade the entire country has pointedly ignored increasing evidence her father was not just knowledgable of human right atrocities but was part of it.

In a democracy, there should be no place for royalty especially such known corrupt (financially and morally) royalty. But the bootlicking is sickening to see. People don't really LIKE democracy, they want someone to be in charge and as long as it is not them getting it in the ass, they don't mind if someone else does it. Well not enough to do anything about it.

That is how corrupt regimes survive. People look the other way. They might whine a bit but won't do anything and when it has died down, things continue as before.

Right on this site there MUST be MIT students and JSTOR users/contributors. Proof me wrong. Has a SINGLE one of you taken ANY steps at all in protest?

No?

Then you voted FOR the system and are just upset some blood spatters showed up when someone was caught in its gears. But you ARE what powers the gears.

"I like computers"... it only gets worse when the hopeful claims to know "how to take them apart". Gee whiz! We got a rocket scientist here! He grasped the concept of the SCREW! Pity that by the way he phrased it, it is clear he has never managed to actually put one together again. But he has a golden future at a recycling center.

Neither is taking courses and getting perfect scores any clue. I took some exams and passed them with perfect scores even on languages I never used. It is easy. Most computer courses already give you a passing grade if you refrain from trying to eat the keyboard.

In The Netherlands, the current shortage is NOT in guys who can hook up a PC, or even those who can code. It is in people who can finish an application to specification within a budget. Coding is EASY. Coding well is harder but very few computer courses require you to write more then a few thousand lines of code. Hell, in university most students will build their own OS or something SEEMINGLY difficult. But building a base OS that just runs on one machine and doesn't really do anything is easy. Supporting an entire eco-system of hardware and making it fully functional for daily use by real people, THAT IS FUCKING HARD. Why do you think there are only so many OS'es out there? Why do think many of the "new" ones are really just Linux with a skin? (Android, Meego and its offspring, various realtime OS'es, Bada can use a Linux kernel as an option).

Same with a web application, Webshops are a booming industry yet the number of packages available is truly limited, especially ones that are any good. 4chan software is re-used on countless sites. Most forums run on the same code base.

With mobile Apps we have seen that there are PLENTY of would-be developers out there but the vast majority can just code, have a bright idea but cannot develop it. they cobble pieces together and shove it out the door with "it works for me" and wait for the money to roll in.

IF the poster wants a job in the very wide field of IT OR development (in many ways IT is so wide that development can't be considered a part of it) he FIRST needs to get an idea of what he wants to do, and then get some experience doing it.

If you came to me for a development position, no matter how junior and said "I want to do something with computers" I would tell you politely I have no room for you. Anymore then a carpenter has room for someone who wants to do something with hammers. I can teach you how to code, I might be able to teach you how to become a developer.

I can't teach someone who thinks everything that involves proximity to a computer is the same job.

I have had occasion recently to once again see the difference between a senior DEVELOPER and a senior CODER. One guy on a project I was reviewing happily showed me amazingly well written clean code with full documentation, fully complete and accurate unit tests, continues deployment. Full A+ material.

Just a tiny pity that it had taken him apparently 1.5 years to do as subproject budgetted for a few weeks in a project that was supposed to be finished in less then half a year... he had completely overshot the mark, gone completely beyond the spec and written something vastly more complex then what was needed.

And yet, he was in the company highly regarded despite essentially being worthless to the company... without the main project being ready, there was no use for his code. But the owner of the company told me, "he writes really nice code, nicer then yours, so why should I contract you to fix it". Needless to say I didn't take the interview further, if the owner of a company can't see the difference between being productive and being on a hobby project in this bosses time, there is nothing to manage except a fast exit.

Once again, coding is easy. Finding good coders is trivial. Getting a project out the door on time and with in specifications is the hard part. Don't impress me with your fancy one page script, show me shoddy code for a site you build that is actually live and serving a customer base. I don't even care if your only user is your mom, at least it shows you FINISHED it, even if it is falling apart of the seams, you regonized the need for code to DO something rather then just be. You will be AMAZED by how many hopeful candidates fail to show working finished projects. And with finished I mean, you had an idea for a service/task and you written your code to start achieving that RATHER then get stuck in details and trying to write some super optimized database script while the original idea never gets realized.

You can buy ANY phone you want, unlocked and then use it at least on normal SIM style networks. I am aware some carriers in the US have insane schemes but surely at least one sane European style phone company exists on US soil?

I have a Nexus S, unlocked when I bought it from the US and been using it ever since on first T-Mobile and now Vodafone. I paid the full sum for the phone so it is all mine and there is no contract telling me to use a certain service.

Basically what you as a true idiot are claiming is that you went to Ma Bell and despite the sales guy telling you could use your own phone you could buy anywhere you insisted on getting their phone and to have it hardwired into the wall AND to pay them for it the service AND then you compain that you got their phone hardwired into the wall and have to pay for the service.

BUY AN UNLOCKED PHONE WITHOUT CONTRACT. It is NOT rocket science.

The sooner we can get rid of subsidies the sooner we can reduce telecoms to simple data pushers like most ISP's and get rid of insane rates.

The rental car industry is protected by laws that determine that although they GIVE you the car, you STILL have to return it!

And although I can simply REACH over a fence and take fruit from a tree, specific laws forbid me from doing so. Hell, allmost all business is protected by laws and would be impossible without laws. Or do you think property laws are NOT there to allow trade in property to occur?

There is really no great unjustice being done here, don't like your phone locked? Buy an unlocked one at retail price. You are basically complaining that it is not fair that renting a car doesn't allow you to keep it. Stop whining, a contract is a contract. Don't like it, don't sign it.

This law only exist really to stop deadbeats who buy an expensive phone on a contract they can't or don't intend to fulfill and then want to unlock the phone to use it with a different carrier. And the only reason why contract law alone is not enough is because contract law is pretty weak, setting a collection agency on every deadbeat for a few hundred dollars is not worth it, better to kill of the unlock business and a BUSINESS it is or at least used to be, getting an unlock code leads to dozens of pay sites. They improved things in Holland by requiring carriers to supply the code for free after 1 year for prepaid phones.

But really, just buy an unlocked phone to begin with if you want to unlock it.

Meant to end with the tidbit that the new metro line being build in Amsterdam also doesn't connect to the airport. Getting a direct bus service is also rather hard.

I have used that line as a visitor and a person without a car and it ain't as bad as that. The light rail/tram indeed does NOT connect to the airport but it DOES connect directly to the free bus service that is at the airport.

The tram has rather ample storage for bikes and the busses allow bikes to be stored on racks in front, so it is a better public transport system then exists in places like Amsterdam where you can't do this. BUT the area is HUGE and is made for cars. Roads are insanely wide and everything is spread out, so one line is hardly going to service the entire area you need to go as a resident. And getting fat Americans (they really are as fat as seen on TV) out of their gigantic cars is impossible.

It would have made more sense if they made it a tram, riding in say on the edges of the road for easy pedestrian access leaving the cars the remaining 200 meters or so in the middle of the road (they really are fucking wide) saving a LOT in construction costs. Instead they made it into a seperate track and that indeed means it doesn't really hit to many areas. Once you figured it out, it is also very very very very cheap (buy a multi-day ticket).

It was far better then I expected as a Dutch/Amsterdam person from the deep south but I can see how Americans hate it. You might actually have to walk! Going to the shops just a 10 minute walk away, my American host wanted to take the car... in beautiful dry sunny weather. WHY!!! (32 degrees celcius, in Holland when we get that maybe once a decade, the humidity is 80%) GO OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THE FUCKING NICE WEATHER AND LOOSE SOME TONS!

Oh and the metro in Amsterdam, not even the new line is. Despite the train service to the airport being rather error prone. Those in power don't use public transport so it rarely makes sense.

George Lucas did NOT make the original Star Wars alone, not The Empire Strikes Back. But "A New Hope" especially was made by a team including his wife. That you don't know about this says a LOT about human beings but it isn't hard to research.

Basically, when Lucas made a New Hope, nobody thought he was to big to contradict and he listened to advice/opinions then put it together. By the time the new episodes came around, he didn't listen and nobody dared to tell him he was wrong anyway. It is the perfect example of a benevolent dictator turning into an evil one because he has been surrounded by yes-men.

Join the dark-side Jedi, we got the original laser disc where Han Solo shoots first, Sith style! Watch the raping of your childhood, let the hatred flow through you and set you free!

TNG always sucked, always will, so it was okay to suck because it sucked. We are talking about the destruction of the original series not that yuppie whank-fest of a TNG that was the prelude for making Star Trek lighter and lighter and lighter. You would think that you couldn't get more lightweight then Voyager but they found a way.

Pfff, at least the ass-raping of my youth will be done. I thought not being Catholic I had escaped being raped up the ass in my youth... but not to worry, my youth has now been thoroughly raped. Both Star * series have now been raped completely and thoroughly. George Lucas and his PCness, Star Trek The Office and all the following series, Episode 1-3, followed by the rape of the memory of Star Trek TOS and now even the sequels to Star Wars...

All I can say, well played universe! There is now nothing left to rape. The only thing to finish it off is to make me choke on my own bile as I write this [CARRIER LOST]

So... customers care more about price then minor feature differences but are willing to pay a premium for Apple products that have minor feature differences...

That makes sense.

Oh and smartphones are hardly a budget market at the moment, if you want a budget phone, you get one for 50 dollars or less without a contract. 500-600 dollars for a smartphone is high-end. And they sell like hotcakes.

I am seriously starting to dislike Android. When it runs, it is fine BUT if you want to upgrade (coming from a DOS, Unix, Linux and Windows background) FORGET about it. It is gigantic fucking mess where you are totally at the mercy of the manufacturer as to whether your model gets an upgrade. Cyanogenmod isn't an answer either, it is FAR from a generic Android that just "works". If Android was Linux you would have distro's that ONLY ran on ONE model of Dell and then had 1 year after release small niggling bugs like the monitor not yet working...

Now I grew up with Unix, Dos, Windows and Linux. I am no stranger to having to hunt for drivers and have to deal with weird configurations and installing stuff in just the right order. But with ALL the above, you at least have the OPTION to do so.

With Android? No drivers, no configs, no nothing. Either you spend ages learning how to cook a release to tweak it or you just don't. The debug options to are shockingly bad even compared to Windows. It would be a LOT better if there was just a default install you could do and install drivers that Google required each company to make available for install if they want to use Android.

But they didn't and you suddenly realize just how fucking open the Windows platform is by comparison, just how complete Linux is.

I am either going to stick with Nexus devices in the future or hope an alternative emerges because I am NOT going to be stuck with a device that is not going to be updated by Samsung ever again.

You don't have to differentiate with screen/case etc. JUST FUCKING UPDATE YOUR FUCKING DEVICE! That will make you fucking unique in Android land. The first company that manages to release a device that can ALWAYS run the latest Android version will leave ALL the other companies in the dust.

I played Lord of the Rings Online the most and was a casual raid leader (meaning I organized and ran raids for casual players where often the loot would go to someone who had a birthday or fought well or been really unlucky rather then loot tables, I also didn't care about levels or experience). They were somewhat popular and I was asked to lead other groups... and then found out that in the NON-PUG groups, getting people to talk was a LOT easier. In the PUG raids everyone had sound on but for some reason few had a microphone. Suddenly in the closed raids, most had. And high voices.

Turns out I had been gaming with a lot of women. And I mean a LOT. Some were raids were majority female but when I asked them to join a pug something became clear... they were willing to play BUT could I not reveal they were female.

I have had several discussions online and in the real world were I was told about the kind of abuse female players receive. And this is NOT the rage kind when someone just says "bitch" or the sexual innuendo. Women talk like that too. It were attacks that yes as the AC says, you would expect in Klan meeting. One type of attack is that women have no right to play the game... I mean seriously. WTF?

AND it is not just trolling, there are a lot of REAL misogynists online. They can't vent their putrid bile in real life because they would get beaten up but online they let go.

So... the women hide online and only reveal their gender if they feel safe. AND THAT IS NOT OKAY! If you think it is, then I hate your fucking guts and hope you die before spreading your diseased genes. Because THIS attitude is what fuels extremists by tolerating them. It is basically nothing else then "if you don't want to be raped, don't reveal your gender". It is YOUR kind that created the burkha.

People should be free to be who they are. Yes, there can be gentle ribbing like Q.I. makes fun of homosexuals and hetero's alike BUT that is NOT what gay and female gamers are talking about. Gay and female gamers don't want special regonizition, they simply want to be able to be who they are without getting attacked simply for speaking with a high voice.

And only a closet bigot would start an argument over whether they got the right to be who they are.

Never take security advice from a guy who can't read. The static content web servers use 1024 bit keys, the encryption servers 2048. So you can spend a small fortune decrypting the content on static content web servers. Wheee!

What is the issue here? Or are you not aware that New Zealand, the home of Mega is very early in the timezones? The day practically starts in NZ.