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Comment Nonsense (Score 3, Informative) 72

It would be better to describe reading not as a public duty but as a private pleasure, sometimes even a vice,

Horsecrap. Reading makes you a better writer. If you need to communicate with other humans, the more you read, the better you are at communicating with them. In general of course. If you read garbage then that's what you are learning from.

https://www.masterclass.com/ar...

Comment Value (Score 0) 32

copyright has nothing to do with creation. it's just about money and rents. you can infringe any copyright you like and be as creative as you wish with it as long you do it underground, or privately, or anonymously. nobody will give a damn, and it is still creation in its purest form.

So your argument is that the art that artists create has no inherent value, and others can reproduce it and profit off of it as much as they want and the artist who created it should get nothing?

I agree with the general concept that copyright law and enforcement is screwed up and should be reformed, but copyright itself serves an important purpose.

Comment Tickets (Score 4, Interesting) 74

One of the big local chains has stopped checking to see if you have bought a ticket when you walk in. I think they do a cursory glance at the theater and that's it. I've heard rumor that they make so little money on ticket sales it's more profitable to have a well staffed concession stand than to bother checking tickets. The flip side is that they play some good old movies (I've only cared to see one new movie in the theater this year) so I'll happily shell out to see a cool old movie in the theaters rather than the new shlock they are putting out.

Comment Uncontrolled (Score 2) 63

Capitalism in the US has never been uncontrolled. Nearly every facet is regulated, licensed, taxed and tariffed. You also having the government printing money out of thin air and dumping it semi-randomly into entire economic sectors, driving up prices and making certain corporations very wealthy. Want to know why Boeing can't build anything successfully? Because the US government showers them with cash, and there is zero incentive to produce anything of quality in a timely fashion.

Comment Sorta (Score 5, Interesting) 99

I'm no fan of surveillance, but in Detroit they have a "Green Light" program, where high-risk businesses, like gas stations and 24-hour convenience stores, can opt in to a program where the police department gets direct access to their camera system. So, if a place is held up, once an alarm is triggered the video gets sent to the police immediately, and they can get a description of the perpetrators and vehicle immediately.

From people I know who are familiar with the project, it actually does work. Crime trends down on businesses that have the green lights outside. I don't mind it much because:

1. It's opt-in - business owners are under no obligation to sign up for the project
2. It's obvious when a business is using the service - there's a big green light out front
3. Police only get instant access to the video when the owner says there is a problem, otherwise it's up to the owner to give up the video, or the police can get a warrant for it, as it's always been


I'll take a program like this over Flock that tracks everything everyone does everywhere.

Comment Understanding (Score 1) 28

Your scenarios aren't similar. You don't seem to understand what a monopoly is. None of your examples are monopolies.

Yes. Exactly. That is my point. Behaving badly or in a manner that disadvantages others is not evidence that you are a monopoly.

On the other hand if as a software developer you want to sell software for Apple phones

Antitrust laws are there to protect consumers, not manufacturers or corporations. Are there viable alternatives to an iPhone? Yes? A lot of them? And Apple is making it more difficult to develop for their platform? Sounds like a self-solving problem.

Comment Re:Lol antitrust (Score -1) 28

No one would ever sign up to such insane terms if Apple wasn't in such a powerful position that they could dictate such terms. In other words, their position and size in the market is such that they can enforce things that no one would be able to do without that kind of size, regardless of product quality.

Eufy sends all images from their security cameras to a central server somewhere, whether or not you agree to it. Are they an absolute monopoly?

GM dropped CarPlay and Android Auto from all their EVs. No customer wanted or asked for this. Are they an absolute monopoly?

Subaru is popping up ads in their in-dash displays. Nobody wants this. Are they an absolute monopoly?

There is a gap in your logic.

Comment SNAP (Score 5, Informative) 73

Since the article is somewhat vague about it, a SNAP generator is a thermal generator mostly used to power satellites. It uses the heat from nuclear decay to generate power. It's not a nuclear reactor. If you've seen The Martian, that tube with fins that Watney digs out of the ground is what a SNAP generator looks like. They used to be top-secret classified, but just about everyone knows how to make one nowadays. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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