We are now commensing offensive operations to procure an iPod nano in much the same manner as the free PSP that was recently obtained. What can I say, I like my mostly free stuff, ne? The plan is pretty much the same as before, that being a minum effort attempt by simply linking the offer through my forum sigs.

[added] Ironically, I have an older account that was originally formed to obtain an iPod 20gb color that a friend just reminded me of. Already has the offer done and 3 out of 5 referals. It's off because linking through THAT account allows the next person a choice of which iPod they want, be it Nano, Mini or Color. Not only that, but it allows me the choice as well without affecting my status. Sweet. I'd rather have a 20gb color anyway ^_^

If you're curious, you can review my free PSP progrees earlier in this journal as well, which was recieved without incident.

Speaking of the PSP, I love it to death, but damn the thing is a money sink. Buying one of these things almost obligates you to purchasing accessories at not-so-paultry sums prices in order to be useful beyond its normal gaming function.

In other news I may be picking World of Warcraft back up, sadly enough. It's undergone patching and my bro is absolutely pestering me to no end becuase I (ahem) owe him 15g from the last time I played :p But no warlocks this time. I love the complexity and depth of the class, but there's no way I'm screwing around with shards again.

EVAH.

Seriously. Obviously that's a blanket statement ot be making, but after my first 6 month long excurtion into the world of MMORPGs, I have a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth.

First is the entire premise with which they're sold under-- If you decide at anytime that you are disatisfied with the game, your basically eating not just the cost, but subscription fees as well. Now this wouldn't be so bad if there was some offline portion to kick around, but there's not. Unless you decide to pony up the cash, your game becomes ABSOLUTELY worthless. And since it's software, you can't take it back. We're talking TOTAL LOSS.

My second gripe is the innane "intellectual property" crap. For all intents and purposes, you bought the game, paid the subscription and spent the time. Why can't you sell the character again? I'm taking a total loss on this game if I never decide to play it online again, and what do I get for it? A nice "don't let the door hit your butt on the way out."

Third is the fact that WoW is beta-ware. Seriously, they should have been paying all of US to find all the problems that this game was saddled with at launch and through the last 6 months.

It's like there are just times when you watch TV and you know that was just 2 hours of your life that you never will get back and was a total waste of your time. Thank you WoW.

I know there are probably dozens of PSP reviews out there, but seeing as I just got one for more or less free, I probably have less emotion in justifying the $250 I just potentially wasted on an overpriced POS hardware. Luckily, mine cost $10, so my emotional investment equates to nearly, well, 0.00%. So what's the word from a relatively unbiased source?

OH MY DEAR LORD THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME LETHAL HANDHELD GAMING DEVICE EVER ASSEMBLED BY MORTAL MAN.

That's the condensed version. The list of electronic devices that have induced this level of awe is quite short, and the PSP positively owns that list at the moment.

First Impressions
There's almost no point in going on about how the PSP looks as everybody has probably seen one by now; It's sleek, black and oh-so sexy. Picking the unit up reveals some serious heft. There's no doubt that the PSP is more than just a hunk of plastic and is packing serious hardware under the hood. The face is laid out much like a PS2 controller, so there is almost no acclimation phase in using the thing.

But we all know looks aren't everything. They get your foot in the door, but after that, you gotta perform, and that's something the PSP does from boot to power down. First, the OS is refined and gorgeous. Like the chassis, it is smooth and easy to navigate. While there are quite a few options to fiddle with, many of them don't become useful until later with either a mini USB cable or wireless LAN connection at your disposile. Even in it's out of the box capacity, it's still a good indicator of things to come.

In Depth
So besides turning it on, what was the first thing I did with my PSP? Pop in the sampler disc, of course! Actually, "preview disc" would be a more accurate descritpion of the game since all it did was show the in game graphics of released titles. Even so, it did it's job well, and I was salivating over the likes of Wipeout and Ridge Racer. Obviously, there was only one thing to be done. An hour later I was out the door and found the nearst McVan's in search of Ridge Racer. As it turns out, they didn't have it, but the trip was not wasted-- One of the reps pulled out his PSP and launched a demo movie for the upcoming PS3 game "Killzone". Beside the fact that the game graphics were insane in their own right, this guy had downloaded the movie from the internet and stored it on his PSP, which was playing back smooth as silk. My jaw dropped. It wouldn't be anything I could do on my 32mb weenie stick, but the potential was there. This movie also showcased the vibrant- not to mention generous -display. I'm gonna save any handheld vs handheld comparisons for later, but I can tell you one thing: It's absolutely gorgeous.

But I had a game to buy. So I found myself an EB and traded 3 XBox games to get Ridge Racer at half price. Let the playing begin! Now we had a rel test of the systems capabilities and I can tell you right now, it passes that test with flying colors. Ridge Racer performed so close to PS2 quality there might as well not have been any difference. Sure there are a few details here and there, but for the most part it's solid gold. Lighting, car modeling, environment... It's no exaggeration to say you're holding a PS2 in the palm of your hand (or almost a PS2 if you want to be picky) and the beautiful screen only amplifies the experience. While I haven't really had a chance to use the wireless features yet, i can tell you that battery game time is very sufficient and hardly as bad as I've seen it exaggerated. That may change once you go wireless, but to be fair, wireless will suck the life out of ANY handheld device. I'll get into comparisons vs. other gaming handhelds later.

The next order of business was to get into the guts of the thing. Having procurred a USB cable, I hooked it up to my PC and was ready to rock. Well, almost. The computer wasn't seeing my PSP as a drive. Hmmm. After some poking and prodding, i find you have to set the PSP to "USB mode" in order to establish the link, and once that was done, the computer picked up quite easily. After that, it was quite easy to drag anything I wanted onto the PSP memory stick ...which amounted to a whole 5 songs and a picture. Mental note: Next purchase 1gig memory stick.

Now we have media with which to test the OS capabilities more fully. The MP3s play flawlessly and the inline controller sony packed in with the headphones integrates prefctly into their playback. Speaking of headphones, these aren't just any POS buds you'll find packed in with a lot of todays audio equipment. I haven't been able to test the PSP with a large archive of MP3s to see how well the unit actually handles them, but this inital test is a point in the PSPs favor as it handeled a variety of tracks without complaint. Next was a photo I had grabbed off my HDD. Again the display reproduced it beautifully and without complaint. Infact, a number of ooptions are available when browsing your photos, including a slideshow, zoom, and rotation. very well thought out.

sorry, i haven't been able to do movies yet. The memory stick is too small for that, but a 512-1g stick is the definitely my next purchase.

Comparisons
There are a lot of websites that will lead you top believe that the PSP and its nearest competitor, the Nintendo DS are somehow close in nature in terms of capabilities and value. They're not. not by a longshot. Now I'll be honest-- My DS expereince is limited to playing it on display in stores, but I've played two games vs. my one on the PSP. That aside, I'll try to be as unbiased as possible. After all, it's not as if I really paid for my PSP anyway.

That said...

The PSP totally annihilates the DS in nearly every way, shape and form. Infact, the only area that the PSP doesn't absolutely stomp the DS is in terms of battery life, and THAT's only because the DS isn't powering a 1.8 gigabyte disc or a 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD. Ok, I understand that you can touch the display. That's... nifty. Really. But Mullet, don't forget price! Yes, the price is certainly lower on the DS, but I would like everybody to keep this one fact in mind:

You get what you pay for.

Anybody looking at that rationally would tell you right off that for $250, the value you're getting is probably better than the DS you're getting at $150. The PSP provides five to six times the capability and value for only double the price. Let's face it, you're getting a full blown movie player, MP3 player, Photo archive, wireless capabilities and of course... A PS2 in the palm of your hands.

Now for your eight year old kid, there is no chance that I would ever suggest getting him a PSP. There's a reason you don't let him play with an iPod and it's the same reason you wouldn't let him touch a PSP. But for everybody else, would I recommend a PSP at $250? Most definitely. Even if your purpose is only gaming? Yep. Even if all you wanted to do was game and not EVER use the other features, I would still recommend a PSP over a DS. I've played Metroid and i've played Ridge Racer. I owned a GBA if it matters any. Unless you absolutely hate Sony, your $250 is WELL spent here. There's no freakin' contest.

[Disclaimer: This entry is actually about 2 weeks old, occuring May 25th or so]

Today is the day! Actually, yesterday was the day, but I missed the DHL drop and had to wait ...Which rather surprised me since my order status was still being processed by vendor according to the website. But regardless, here it is in my hot little hands: One PSP Value pack, complete with essential cables, carrying case, 32mb memory stick, headphones and one sexy PSP. I guess I wasn't one of the first 10,000 that got a Spiderman UMD pack-in :p

In terms of function, the device works as advertised and I can report that even without a game, just the BIOS menuing alone is total eye candy. The sampler disk only soldifies this fact. I do have to report one defect: A spec of dirt on the inside of the screen itself. Whether I take care of it myself or use the Sony warrenty is still being debated, but it should be noted that this is not really a reflection on FreePSP's service, who held up their end of the bargain as promised. Likewise, the unit was shipped with about a 30% battery life, which ain't bad since I was expecting it to need a full charge anyway. As it is, just enough to tell you if the unit is working or not.

That's pretty much it. From start to finish it took nearly 2 months and $10 to get 5 serious people at more or less random (62 people, 7 serious, 5 required) to recieve a $250 handheld Sony PSP at a 200%+ discount with relatively little effort (see journal Pt1 for a complete number cruch). Any delays were pretty much expected due to the popularity of the item and their explanations believable. To anybody who says this is a scam, you either haven't done it or did something very wrong in the process, because the proof is quite literally in my hands at this very moment. Believe it or don't; I've got nothing to gain at this point.

With that, the FreePSP section of this journal is closed.

Status change.

"Sent to Vendor, Waiting on Product...What does this mean? We have placed your order, but are most likely waiting for inventory to arrive before we can ship it out."

Again, no big surprise. Demand is probably exceeding supply by a large margin for this offer, so we're still on hold.

Yes, it's been awhile since we posted PSP news, mainly because I just up and forgot about it. Of course, I started out watching it everyday, but that got as exciting as watching grass grow, so I just immersed myself in my new job and World of Warcraft.

Needless to say:
"Congratulations! We have approved your account and referrals. You may now order your totally FREE Sony PSP."

Hooyah! Granted, I have no idea of the exact approval date, but it's here now, so we click on the "redeem" button, add all the shipping info and... Annnnd... Well, it took a few minutes, but:

Thank you for your order!
We hope you enjoy your order from FreePSPs.com! Status: Processing

The most humorous part about this is that there is actually a button that says "Canel Order" yeah, I'll be doing that... Soon, right? har har. that's it for now. Fairly painless so far.

Still no approval yet and I'm getting a tad impatient, so I dropped their Support an email:

4/13/2005 10:43:57 PM
mulletproof@xxxx.xxx wrote:

"My qualifications were complete as of the March 31st. In addition to having 7 verified referals, it has been well over the specified 5 day verfication period and the account is still waiting for approval. An explanation as to the delay would be greatly appreciated."

A few days later...

4/14/2005 3:46:49 PM
customer service wrote:

"I am sorry, however due to the recent volume of approval requests we have received and the care with which we approve them, it is taking longer than usual to process the approval requests. Due to the exceptional potential for fraud in our line of work, we have to be very careful in approving accounts and sometimes it takes a while. We are working on approving your account as we speak. We thank you for your continued patience in this matter."

Hmmm... Well, fair enough and fairly believable. I also have no doubt that demand is actually exceeding supply for this particular item, so I'll cut them a bit of slack for now. I'll survive. I guess. Maybe I'll trade in Halo 2 for instore credit toward a PSP game in the meantime.

Oh yeah, the Blockbuster offer is great. Movies were delivered 2 days after ordering. If I actually watched that many movies, I'd probably continue the offer.

I'm a little antsy, so I thought I'd jot down some more observations... First and formost is that we obviously still haven't confirmed yet. The notice said give it five business days, so that should be rolling around anytime now. The 8th to be exact.

Second, we're still taking on people even though I stopped advertising the day I hit the first five. I'm now holding at 68 total sign-ons with 7 people locked in for the offer, the latest one coming from #23. Note all 7 are still within the initial 63, bringing the ratio to roughly 9:1, even though it took longer. That's ok, since FreePSPs recommends some overrage incase a few are disqualified for whatever reason.

Tommorow is teh day. Supposively.

Having been throughly pissed by Blockbuster and unable to find an alternate method to join up through them, I let FreePSP to cool off for a few days. I men I've tried nearly everything. My friend didn't feel comfortable using his card (not that I blame him), I was unable to use my alternate bank card as my girlfriend in Indonesia had that number and a Prepaid debit card would take to long to get. Seriously, I was SOL. Big time.

Here we are tonight and I was finally able to obtain my alternate card number from my Sweets when I thought I'd try my old one just one more time. And wouldn't you know it? Bam, it works! So we sign up BB and no less than a half an hour later, the confirmation comes through on FreePSPs that I have met all the qualifications. Infact, here is the exact text:

You currently have the minimum number of referrals needed to get your FREE Sony PSP. One process we must perform is to approve your account, and comfirm all of your referrals as unique, valid, and have legitimately completed an offer. We also check your referrals' referrals, and make sure all offers were done with no signs of fraud or abuse. If you referred someone who we find suspicious you may not receive credit for their referral. Some accounts will have 1 or 2 referrals that do not get approved, so you may want to refer extra friends to improve your chances of approval.

If you feel like you have completed all necessary steps according to the FULL requirements of our Terms & Conditions, then you may click the button below to request this approval. Once approved you will be able to order your FREE Sony PSP! Please note, however, that ANY type of abuse or attempts to fraud our free offer will be taken very seriously and may result in your account and/or your referrals being placed on HOLD status.

[click] ...Congratulations!

You have requested that your account be approved. We will now go through this process, and review your account and referrals. Please check back after 5 business days to see your status.

So that's where I stand. I've converted all my forum sig links to that of my friend who helped get me in qual. Figure I certainly don't need any more at this point, even though a 6th person popped out of nowhere (referral #3 no less). So now the waiting game begins. but at least I'll have Shawn of the Dead, AVP and Hero delivered to my doorstep in the meantime, right?

The following entries will be dedicated to just what it takes to get a free PSP from freePSPs.com. If it works, you'll see it here. If it's a scam, well, you'll that here too, along with a liberal amount of flaming.

This specific entry will encompass quite a bit, since we're already joining our tale in progress.

So roughly too weeks ago I was meandering through the freeipods website, grumbling over the fact that I STILL hadn't gotten the five people nessisary to get a free ipod. But then, who was I really to complain? I was doing this the ultra lazy way, doing nothing more than posting the requisite link in my sig and having people click on it at mostly random. I figure the 'freshness' of the offer had something to do with it, but at least my bro Caelth got his ...With my help of course. Back to the present, I'm poking around the website and see this little pull down menu in the corner and decide to investigate what other free offers they might have available.

There is was: A free PSP offer.

How forunate it was only a mere day or so after launch! I haven't seen anybody pushing this offer, so there was little doubt that participating therein would be on the leading edge of the free cool gadget of the month trend. How was I going to pull this one off? Same MO as before: Maybe a dedicated forum post here and there and the addition of the link in my sig of all the forums I frequent, which adds up to about 4 decent sized ones. Other than that, it was going to be a minimum effort attempt... No hard core spamming and no friend pushing. Just mostly passive linkage on forums I normally frequent anyway.

Long story short, this offer indeed up like a wildfire. It only took 2 weeks to gather 5 people who seriously wanted a PSP for themselves, a stark contrast to the freeiPods offer that took me 2 months just to get 3 of the 5 nessisary. Of course, along the way you get the people who call scam, it doesn't work, or say it's only fair to mention you get credit toward the offer. Huh? Why is that again? You want a free PSP or not? Going through me makes next to no difference in the qualifications you'll need to get it. Fairness isn't involved here. You do it or you don't. Knowing me changes nothing. But whatever. I can't fit the ground rules in the sig space anyway. What are the gound rules? You must participate in one vendor trial offer. It's up to you to read the fine print as to how long the trial lasts and how much you'll be billed after the trial completes if you decide to continue. The second rule is that you need the forementioned five people to do the same thing. Not exactly hard. The trial offer I chose (which may be defunct at the time of this reading since they seem to randomly rotate through offers) is the Blockbuster (hereafter known as BB) offer. You paid $9.99 for soemthing you might actually use: 3 movie rentals delivered right to your door. Besides, I can afford $9.99 for a PSP, can't you? But I saved that part for last. First, some statistics--

Time to complete 5 people: 2 weeks
Total number joined to get 5: 63
Breakdown: 1 friend, 4 anonymous
Joined at: 9,15,20,21,57
Ratio: Roughly 12:1

Not bad for noing next to nothing. The next step was the free offer. As I said, I'm going ahead with Blockbuster, but have been having a few preflight issues... Namely, they keep denying my credit card! I click the freePSP through link to BB and fill out all the requisite blanks, including a credit card number.

Sidenote: Yes, kids, you're going to have to give up something to get a 200% discount on your PSP. If you're that paranoid, grab your tinfoil cap and run far, far away.

Well, BB DENIES the card. Huh? Quick check of the online balance says more than enough funds. Try again! NO. DENIED! Ok, this is screwy. So I call my banlk first to see if there are any problems. They report the dollar "pings" to my account theat BB is making for CC approval as, well, approved. A call to blockbuster insists that the card is denied, but would I like to register over the phone? NO. I don't get my 200% reduced price PSP that way. AS IF! So back to my bank. Same story. Approved, only now I'm seeing the "pings" register in my real-time online account balance. The bank is saying approved. My account is registering the fact, but BB refuses to even acknowledge that something is screwed up on their end. When asked why they showed denied when my account balance was being deducted in real time, they could only answer that it was my banks fault... But would you like to register over the phone?

So that's where I stand now. BB doesn't have a brain in its head, but it's the best offer of the lot for my purposes, given the minimal cash outgo and minimal risk. After all, BB is fairly well know. I'm attempting to secure my friend's CC in order to bypass this little dilemma and finish this final qualification. I'll just pay him back the $9.00 and change the CC on the phone later or something.

It doesn't take a genius to see that spam is evolving into a higher lifeform. Sure, it may have started out as "Free Viagra Now!" in your mail box, but over the past Millenia, spam has mutated. After all, we're talking survival of the fittest here. We pruned it, blocked it and outright rejected it, so it was only a matter of time before spam built up a resistance to our pathetic efforts. Some of us even invite it in willingly now if you can believe it.

How did this travesty occure? How could we, once masters of our own destiny allow this incidious presence into our very households at the drop of a hat? It's quite simple. Free Stuff. This new Super Spam turned our darkest internet desires in upon our themselves, dangling attractive lures in exchange for aiding and inbedding the enemy.

I'm such a weak little man.

It wasn't just free stuff, mind you. It was FREE STUFF, writ all capital letters no less. Gone are the days of inmaterial promises like "Discount prices!" and "Free samples!" This new strain of spam eats at the very fiber of your being with tangiable offers of substance. I remember my fall quite well as rumors of a website that offered a Free iPod circulated around the internet. I resisted until my friend asked a favor... He need help BANISHING HIS SOUL INTO THE DARKEST NETHER-REGION OF SPAM HELL in order to get a free iPod. But that minor technicality was almost beside the point. It was a free iPod, right? What was one measily little soul compared to such a prize? Of course we took precautions. We placed holy wards around his PC. Set up disposable email accounts. One-shot credit cards. And of course, a stake and garlic should he happen to turn during The Summoning.

Sadly, it wasn't enough.

Not nearly enough. What he hadn't told me was that this ritual required the sacrifice of no less than FIVE of his closest friends. I didn't even have a chance to grab a stake, let alone the garlic. Before I knew what hit me, I was slobbering over the prospect of my very own iPod, since my own damnation had qualitfied me for this very special offer. What was expect of this newly recruited iPod zombie minion? Why, just to sign up for any number of "free" trial offers and corrupt five of MY closest friends. Enough sanity remained within my hollow, spamming shell to be very afraid. One mistep during the execution of this offer could result in my eternal damnation or worse... A year's supply of ink jet printer cartriges for nominal monthly fee. But I was a glutton for punishment; I went for the AOL trial offer.

My daring paid off and I escaped with my soul intact. That was, until today. That demonic strain of spam continues to evolve like some rabid hellspawned dog, gnawing at my ankles until I finally give into it: A Free Sony PSP. Is it worth my soul? That of my family and friends? We just have to be careful. It's a good deal. So what if others don't think so. "But it's a scam!" and "You spammer!" were the predicted reponses. So what if they didn't know the joys of earning free stuff from the devil himeslf, then sticking it back to him by closing down that email account and deactivating the defiled one-shot credit card. Unwittingly, I had become some sort of Free Stuff Spam demon slayer, dedeicated to not only gambling my soul for low cost, hi-tech merchandise, but being clever enough to live and tell the tale. Those people who turn their nose up at such activities just don't know until they put their lives and email accounts on the line in a high-stakes gamble between good an evil. The Winner ended up with a Free __________ (insert cool tech device here). The loser, a life time subscription to AOL Premium 5 Billion hour special offer service. A fate worse than death, no doubt. So horrible, that one could see why these timid souls would back away from such activities.

But not us. We few, proud, demonic free stuff spam slayers.

Ok, so jobs are going overseas. Simple economics dictate workers can be paid less, which allows for a greater profit margins back home. There's no denying the overseas lure, even when it can potentially alinate the local economy. But is it the proverbial knife at the throat of the American worker?

Hardly.

Or more to the point, we're a sad, sad country if this trend is actually the harbringer of economic ruin some people would have you believe. Contrary to popular belief, this country was not founded on the job. It was founded on the concept of small business and innovation with tax regulations and those mythical 'loopholes' written to benefit them as such. What does that have to do with anything, you ask? There is no innovation required to do perform the average wage slave position. Sure it requires brain power, but there is nothing that sets it apart from Al'hubob half way around the world. He may not have a strong grasp of the english language, but he can follow a trouble shooting script on the phones as well as anybody else. To put it succinctly, most of the jobs being shipped overseas require no innovation and can easily be done by anybody with half a brain and a minor speach impediment. Sure, some of them are higher level positions such as Al'habib the coder, but by and large these are skills anybody can aquire and are not the monopoly of the your Union Local 180. Chopping off the nuts of free enterprise is not the answer, and I'll prove it.

Look at it from the perspective of the RIAA-- The trends of high speed downloads and easily duplicated music have combined into a force that may very well render the current record label sales model obsolete, and the they are not happy about it. Their control over the music revenue stream is being sucked away and they've been left with two options: Innovate or Litigate. They've opted for the latter. In order to retain control of that revenue stream, they've opt to sue and over-regulate their industry and in the process have continuously alinated their customer base while creating opportunities for new, more agile competition to take root. Most people have agreed that this is a bad way to do business. Holding on to power at whatever cost will eventially kill you or the consumer, which will eventially kill you anyway.

They could have taken the latter method. Instead of clinging to a dying sales model for dear life, they could have embraced the new age and innovated a solution which would have benefited all parties innvolved. I won't go into how they could have done it since there are too many ways to list, just that it doesn't take too much brainpower to think it through. Some, to their credit, have already started down that path and will be in position to catch the next surge. Good for them.

By now, the analogy should be clear. In my opinion, this is an unstoppable trend in American economics. It's an irrefutable law that people want stuff cheap. It's caused music downloading to explode and it's what is compelling industries to farm their workforce out to other countries. These companies have to remain competitive and in order to remain competitive they have to cut costs somewhere. In a land of ever increasing minimum wages and Unions, the workforce is a logical place to start. So far, most people's reaction has been to litigate their way out of this dilemma; Keep jobs at home, have a nice comfy salary and demand low prices without any concessions to the contrary.

Congratulations, folks. We're the RIAA.

But there is that other way. Innovate your way out of the problem. Find a niche and fill it. Overcome, adapt and improvise. Find something you can do that they can't. Frankly, most of this can't be done easily with in the average 9-5 job. It's the wrong vehical for the job and the workforce of America is going to have to go against half a century of conditioning to realize it is not the end all, be all of success. It's not what will provide them long term security, especially in a globally competitive market.

The US should have learned something from World War 2: Isolationism at our own peril. This fact applies to economics as firmly as it does military warfare. America cannot engage in a siege mentality when it comes to global economics, and we all know how sieges end. They end in an opposing army setting up shop outside your walls and pounding on them until they crack, wence you are sacked, raped and gutted. If you don't think that can't happen to us, look at that juggernaught called China. I don't think they're better than us, but left alone in the global arena they can be. In order to remain competitive, we, the American worker are going to be the ones that have to change. The market place is already doing so as a matter of nessesity. The status quo is fading rapidly and we're all faced with a choice: Will we cling wildly to the sinking ship or will embrace the new market and innovate accordingly? After all, it's been innovation and adaptivity that has allowed this country to remain the dominate, most successful power for over 50 years. Eventially this economic cycle will run its course. Al'Habib and his brothers will begin to realize how much their skills are worth and demand more. The market will adjust accordingly as the price of maintaining overseas bases becomes cost prohibitive to hiring out American workers. Once more, the market will adapt as it always has. But for now, it comes down to the very same choice the RIAA is being forced to make:

Innovate or die.

Privacy is a hottly contested issue here on Slashdot and as such, a closely followed one. So what if I were to tell you that your medical records are now fair game for search and seizure, no warrent or subpoena required? What if, more over, I were to tell you that such an action specifically violated your state's constitutional right to privacy? Most of you, I suspect would be yelling "Burn the Patriot Act!" or something similar. And rightly you should...

...If it were the Patriot Act we were talking about. Unfortuantely, the invasion of privacy we're talking about here requires no special governmental powers apparently, only the will to abuse them. The person we are hypothetically referring to may or may not have commited a crime, but such is irrelevant at this moment. What is relevant is the impact it will have on the rest of us. Without a search warrent, subpoena or even consent, this persons medical records were opened, searched and used as evidence in order to bring charges against him. It might as well have been his house.

Again, this doesn't bode well for any of us if the action is upheld. At that point your medical records are fair game and anything therein can and will be used against you in a court of law without your knowledge, consent or due process. Nor is it a story you'll see here on Slashdot, despite the far reaching consequences it holds and the general fanatisim Slashdot holds for this specific topic in general. Why? Because of the high profile nature of the person being persecuted.

His name is Rush Limbaugh, and now it's OK to crucify him without due process because of what he represents to some people. It is no less than political terrorism, on the order of ransacking republican voting centers and burning swatsikas into the lawn of your opposition, only more insidious as it not only affects a controversial high profile figure such as Limbaugh, but you and I as well. He may very well be guilty. Or not. Justifying your case through illegal activities after the fact, however, is abuse of power of the highest order and should be smacked down hard, regardess of the figure in question.

Or you can sit back and laugh at your wonderful fortune as he gets taken down... At least until the Nazis come looking for you.