Rent Seeking Monopolists.

[Diogenes]

Windows 8 Doesn’t Play Nicely With Others

So an ARM-powered device will run Windows and nothing else. It is, as Ars Technica points out, far from a unique situation. The iPad and a number of other tablets are locked already.

http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/0 ... witterfeed

[Diogenes]

Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music



http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/22/ ... rsal-music

[Skipjack]

Of course they had to drop the lawsuit, they are in jail now... duh...
Guess Universal got what they wanted, total control over the artists, whether they (Universal) own the music or not. Justice has been served, hurray!

[Skipjack]

In this context, this is quite interesting research:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/ar ... /?p1=blogs
It is something that I have suspected for a while.

[Diogenes]

Australia: US Copyright Colony or Just a Good Friend?

The Canberra Wikileaks cables revealed the US Embassy sanctioned a conspiracy by Hollywood studios to target Australian communications company iiNet through the local court-system, with the aim of establishing a binding common-law precedent which would make ISPs responsible for the unauthorised file-sharing of their customers.

Both the location, Australia, and the target, iiNet, were carefully selected. A precedent set in Australia would be influential in countries with comparable legal systems such as Canada, India, New Zealand and Great Britain. Australian telecommunications giant Telstra was judged too large for the purposes of the attack. Owing to its smaller size and more limited resources, iiNet was gauged the perfect candidate.

http://torrentfreak.com/australia-us-co ... nd-120121/

[Diogenes]

In this context, this is quite interesting research:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/ar ... /?p1=blogs
It is something that I have suspected for a while.

That *IS* very interesting. I personally believe that there are a lot of things occurring beneath the surface of most people's consciousness, and what appears to be a spontaneous development is actually a bi product of unnoticed forces.

Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is an example of this. A "Black Swan" is also an example of this. Those Monster mid-ocean waves are a physical example of a similar phenomena.

I personally think that Conservatism results in Prosperity, and that Prosperity triggers Liberalism, which then causes upheaval and poverty, which then leaves the survivors once more embracing conservatism. It is a Chaotic like "strange attractor" sort of phenomena. There is a sort of stability to it.

[Diogenes]

This story is a twofer in my opinion.



Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out

Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.


Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... _comboNE_b

[ScottL]

I personally think that Conservatism results in Prosperity, and that Prosperity triggers Liberalism, which then causes upheaval and poverty, which then leaves the survivors once more embracing conservatism. It is a Chaotic like "strange attractor" sort of phenomena. There is a sort of stability to it.

Personally I think Conservatism leads to masochism based on the 2005 federal spending per dollar of federal taxes.

Of 32 states that received more funding than they contributed, 27 (84%) are Republican leaning* states.

Of the 17 states that contribute more than received, 14 (78%) are Democrat leaning* states.

1 Democrat leaning* state broke even.

* Based on how they voted in the 2004 Election.


I'm curious about the 2010 numbers, so I'll look them up later.

[Diogenes]

I personally think that Conservatism results in Prosperity, and that Prosperity triggers Liberalism, which then causes upheaval and poverty, which then leaves the survivors once more embracing conservatism. It is a Chaotic like "strange attractor" sort of phenomena. There is a sort of stability to it.

Personally I think Conservatism leads to masochism based on the 2005 federal spending per dollar of federal taxes.

Of 32 states that received more funding than they contributed, 27 (84%) are Republican leaning* states.

Of the 17 states that contribute more than received, 14 (78%) are Democrat leaning* states.

1 Democrat leaning* state broke even.

* Based on how they voted in the 2004 Election.


I'm curious about the 2010 numbers, so I'll look them up later.

The Richest states are mostly Democrat. New York, Connecticut, Maryland, California, Washington, etc. Texas is about the only one conservatives have. Those Rich states which are Democrat states are the beneficiaries of their ancestors conservative policies.


I'm sorry you couldn't understand my point, but perhaps I can sum it up for you with an adage.


Hard times make good people.


And an obvious corollary.

Good times make bad people.

[Diogenes]

MegaProtectionism For The Record Companies?

Here's an interesting take on the recent government takedown of Megaupload, which had been a large-scale digital "locker" site where people could upload large files for public access. Megaupload had been ostensibly targeted because of pirated movie and music files, but Matt Burns at TechCrunch voices suspicious that the company may have been taken down because it was preparing to launch a service that would have competed directly and legally with the record companies:

http://wcollier.blogspot.com/2012/01/me ... anies.html

[Diogenes]

Awesome post by Ace.


Jay Cost: Obama Is a Rolodex Socialist

Democrats are just a collection of rent-seekers, beak-dippers, and vig-skimmers, who have convinced themselves that it is not only acceptable that they should collect rents, dip their beaks, and collect a vig on everyone else's transactions, but that to deny them such rents, dippings, and vigs constitutes the most hateful, vicious, and fundamentally un-American behavior they can conceive.

If a guy comes over to your business and begins demanding that you do x and pay y tithe to group z, and is all up in your grill about it, you'd probably either call the cops or spare them the trouble by getting out your gun and telling the miscreant to remove himself from your site or be removed from the earth.

But these cats get a degree in Public Policy and worm themselves up the Media-Distributionist Complex, and suddenly that behavior isn't merely legal -- now they've got the coercive force of the government on their side.

http://minx.cc/?post=326161

[djolds1]

I personally think that Conservatism results in Prosperity, and that Prosperity triggers Liberalism, which then causes upheaval and poverty, which then leaves the survivors once more embracing conservatism. It is a Chaotic like "strange attractor" sort of phenomena. There is a sort of stability to it.

The Kyklos. Known for millennia. Tho I think crediting three forms to monarchy, as identified here, is gratuitous.

[Diogenes]

I personally think that Conservatism results in Prosperity, and that Prosperity triggers Liberalism, which then causes upheaval and poverty, which then leaves the survivors once more embracing conservatism. It is a Chaotic like "strange attractor" sort of phenomena. There is a sort of stability to it.

The Kyklos. Known for millennia. Tho I think crediting three forms to monarchy, as identified here, is gratuitous.

Thanks for the links! Those are quite good, and very closely resemble what I am talking about. The anacyclosis does a great job of describing the circumstances surrounding the transitions from one condition to another, but it does not, however, exactly address the transitions of a state which was a Republic.

I think we have been blazing slightly new territory for awhile. The Founders of this Republic intentionally pitted one force against another, as a builder might have constructed an arch. The opposing forces were supposed to keep each other in check, but enterprising people have managed to work out ways to get around these checks.

They have broken several negative feedback systems which kept our system of Government stable. Abandonment of Hard Currency, Allowing Non-Taxpayers to vote, allowing Young People to vote, and various other loosenings of the system's stability has resulted in us being in a place to which we never should have come.

Ordinarily if a state collapses, the transition would be to a "Strong Man", but this nation is so huge and the technology so advanced that I think instead the nation would break up into semi-autonomous regions, and it may very well be that a Republic might be preserved.

I Think the Texas region will have a Republic, while California and New York may very well have Kings. Who knows? We are moving into uncharted territory now.

[kunkmiester]

The other change to the Greek cycle is information technology. As the ability to spread information and education speeds up, the cycle speeds up. Before, it took hundreds of years to run the cycle. What happens when it can take mere years or even weeks?

[djolds1]

The other change to the Greek cycle is information technology. As the ability to spread information and education speeds up, the cycle speeds up. Before, it took hundreds of years to run the cycle. What happens when it can take mere years or even weeks?

The "IT Revolution" is merely a phase of the Industrial Revolution. One may as well try to separate the "Wheat Revolution" out of the Agricultural Revolution 10kya.