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Comment: Re:Information like this shouldn't be banned... (Score 2) 154

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36128218) Attached to: Judge Issues Gag Order For Twitter

Information like this shouldn't be banned...It isn't going to work. A better approach would be to ignore or scorn those who would post such personal information about something that is purely a painful family issue.

I don't think your definition of "work" and the judge's definition are the same. No one expects that this info won't be made public on the internet. By issuing a gag order, however, the judge provides legal leverage to prosecute or legally disadvantage dickheads who are harassing this family. What we have evidence you got your religious friends across the pond to post this info in defiance of UK law? Guess who's church is now classified as a criminal group collaborating with foreign religious extremists to undermine the lawful authority of the commonwealth?

Mind you, I don't particularly support the legal system to undermining the basic right of free expression, but at the same time if these people are claiming the legal protection of the law for themselves, they have to acknowledge that just because a law is not practically enforceable does not mean they won't be punished for breaking the law or encouraging those beyond its reach to do so. And in the end that may be enough to at least quash some of these religious nutjobs and keep them from harming innocent people in their attempt to force their own religious beliefs on others.

Comment: Re:You can't make talking illegal. (Score 5, Interesting) 309

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36101036) Attached to: FCC Commissioner Leaves To Become Lobbyist

So only people who are unemployed can talk to politicians. Or do you want to make it illegal to give someone that particular job title? Do you see what I'm getting at?

I think you're being particularly obtuse. There is no reason that you can't give anyone any job title you like so long as they are not a government official. What laws should do is make it illegal for corporations and foreign governments and organizations receiving donations from either to contribute money to election funds; run political advertisements; or provide gifts, food, travel/travel expenses, entertainment, lodging, etc. to anyone in political office (elected or appointed) or to their relatives.

Sure you may not be able to ban individuals from going to visit congress critters and appointed officials, but you can sure as hell make them less likely to be received since they won't be bearing gifts or swaying an election in exchange for wink wink whatever. Sadly because of absurd Supreme Court rulings, such a law would most likely require a constitutional amendment, one that specifically states corporations are not individuals with the rights of individuals. I actually think this is doable as a grassroots reform movement and people could really get behind an independent party or group of politicians honestly trying to reform the laws and clean up the system. It certainly has popular support.

Comment: Re:Only for high officials (Score 3, Insightful) 309

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36100860) Attached to: FCC Commissioner Leaves To Become Lobbyist

In other words that XO is completely ineffective, since lawmakers don't work in the executive office, and she's free to Lobby congressmembers all she desires. Starting immediately.

Not completely ineffective, just not as effective as we'd like. The next FCC commissioner, for example, cannot have her over to discuss what Comcast would like changed by the FCC. That is a real benefit. The problem being that most people don't give a damn and are too easily distracted by other issues so they don't vote out the corrupt legislators that don't pass a similar ban.

It is actually quite interesting. The so called Tea Party is a combination grassroots movement and lobbyist/PR firm funded movement that manages to focus completely on issues other than lobbying. This is an issue where the vast majority of Americans: Democrat, Republican, and independent are in agreement. Not many people think it should be legal for companies and foreign governments to give gifts to or meet with lawmakers or provide them with campaign funds. It's just that people are too distracted by other issues to gather together behind reform candidates and vote on it. There is some chance, this is the purpose of the Tea Party, to prevent a real grassroots movement that does end up rooting out corruption and banning most lobbying.

Comment: Re:Just Wrong (Score 5, Interesting) 309

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36100262) Attached to: FCC Commissioner Leaves To Become Lobbyist

I thought there was a law against this.... Don't you have to wait two or so years before you can do this???

Congress refuses to pass a law. The Obama administration, on the other hand, issued an executive order the very first day banning lobbying by former members of the administration to executive branch employees. So because the legislative body is corrupt, she can lobby Congress. The executive is slightly less corrupt, so she theoretically can't talk to former co-workers or anyone in the executive branch (including the FCC) about law and policy changes without that member of the executive being fired. That's about as close to honest as we've been able to come in recent decades.

Comment: Re:Only for high officials (Score 4, Informative) 309

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36100210) Attached to: FCC Commissioner Leaves To Become Lobbyist

When my father retired from NASA, he had to wait two years before he could work for anyone who did any business with NASA. Apparently this sort of thing doesn't apply to political appointees.

Executive order number 2, from Obama's first day on the job, bans lobbying for 2 years by former members of the administration. So no, there is no law, but there is an order in place that gets anyone in the executive branch meeting with her to discuss changes to laws or policies fired.

Comment: Re:Foxconn != Apple (Score 1) 537

Correct me if I am wrong, but Foxconn manufacturing is mostly Apple products.

You're wrong. Foxconn makes everything, the Kindle, The Xbox360, the Wii, The PS3, Motorola cell phones, Intel branded motherboards. Apple is a big customer, but only about 20% of their business.

So, I think Apple could have a great deal of say in all of this if they wanted to.

Apple does have a good deal of say, for the factories supplying Apple, which Apple regularly audits and requires human rights policies to be upheld. You can read their audit and required remediations openly published on Apple's web site as well as see a list of the suppliers Apple has stopped working with entirely because of human rights violations. Now see what information you can find on what all those other companies have done. Have any of them ever done anything to make things better? And it is Apple the Daily Mail decides to pin it on. Brilliant!

Comment: Re:(Foxconn != Apple) != (Apple = Good Guys) (Score 1) 537

Sorry, but Foxconn's other clients aren't as newsworthy. Logitech and Dell aren't big enough names to warrant a mention.

How about Intel, Amazon.com, Cisco, HP, Nintendo, Nokia, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung? All too small to mention? I agree mentioning Apple gets more eyeballs, but because of their popularity and news appeal, not just size. Not mentioning these other companies is absurdly irresponsible reporting.

Apple does business with a company that works its slaves until they die, end of story.

Everyone does business with companies that work people like slaves, especially in the electronics industry. Apple stands out because jobs actually tried going to all US manufacturing with his company Next and because Apple is about the only company firing suppliers for human rights violations and requiring changes to woking conditions for factories supplying Apple. Moreover, they're the only company conducting audits and openly publishing them for all to see, including what changes they require supplier to make. And there is the worst part of all this. It pays to shut up and do bad things, because being open and honest about what's happening while working to make things better for people, just gets the press to write misleading articles attributing abuses at your competitors' factories to you.

Comment: Re:Pffft (Score 2) 537

This entire thing makes me a little embarrassed to use an Iphone tho it is required by work.

What in makes you think that other companies are any better in this regard? Apple isn't the only company that contracts with foxconn you know. That said, the apple pr department should be ashamed for not having a better response.

Apple is probably the best in the industry for working conditions in China and they do publicize that. Newspapers, however, don't care because Apple's popularity makes demonizing them sell more papers, even if it's doing so by misinformation. Apple audits their suppliers, publishes the audits openly and actually takes corrective measures. They dropped a number of suppliers because of poor working conditions, too long of hours, or child labor. They forced others to change policies and provide compensation to workers in order to keep their business. Basically no other company in the industry does this. Daily Mail should be ashamed of the way they spin Foxconn as an "Apple supplier" without mentioning all the other companies like Intel, Nokia, HP, Acer, etc. and not bothering to find out if the plants they are complaining about are the ones Apple audited and required changes at, or service some other company entirely. And they can't even plead ignorance because they mention Apple's audits as one of their sources.

Comment: Re:Irresponsible Article (Score 1) 537

However, I also believe it is necessary to bring this shit to light no matter whose demand is being supplied under these conditions.

Except, this article isn't "bringing it to light" it is obscuring what is going on by focusing only on Apple in a very misleading way. It is entirely probable some of the issues they mention are happening at plants making things for Sony(or some other company) because, Sony, unlike Apple has not stepped in to stop the practices. By referring to Foxconn only as an Apple supplier and not checking to see which company is funding the practices that are abhorrent, all that is happening is they are providing incentive to make things worse.

If Apple has to eat shit for using virtual slave labor abroad SO BE IT!!!!

That would be fine, if it were happening, but Apple is the one company that is not allowing them to use underage workers or make people work extreme numbers of hours. They're the one company that is actually investigating and firing suppliers for just those practices. But all that is obscured by the slanted reporting.

If Apple deserved any white night status in all of this, it would only be because upon learning of these abuses, they moved all of their manufacturing base back here.

They did at one point, or in a way. Jobs left Apple and founded Next which did all it's manufacturing in the US, not the third world. Unfortunately, people were not wiling to pay a premium for that and elected politicians who would not even enforce the antitrust laws on the books, so Next was purchased by Apple and went back to the status quo. So Apple does the only thing that they can to stay in business, prevent the abuses at the facilities they work with, using regular openly published audits and reports on what action they take in response to abuses. Sorry, but picking on the only company doing anything is really, really counter productive, and trying to spin what Foxconn does overall, not at plants making things for Apple, as though it was Apple's fault is likewise counter productive.

Comment: Re:Fact checking not a requirement for posting? (Score 1) 212

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36029972) Attached to: Apple Releases iOS 4.3.3 To Fix Location Tracking

To produce a traffic database, the location of the phones must be read and transmitted to Apple. Claims that they only send location data and never pull it is clearly false.

The issue we were discussing is the list of cell towers and wifi networks stored on iPhones and which Apple has changed in this update. As for logging user location data anonymously, I'm sure Apple is doing so, at least they said they were when I clicked through the location stuff on the maps application in my phone. But that is a significantly different from what we were discussing.

Comment: Irresponsible Article (Score 2) 537

I'm all for investigating abuses in Chinese labor and dealing with them, but tis article is counter-productive. First, it constantly refers to Foxconn only in relation to Apple, not mentioning the dozens of other corporations it supplies. It repeatedly refers to facilities run by "Apple's supplier" but doesn't mention if they were actual facilities that make things for Apple and which Apple audits yearly and openly publishes information about and what they found and what action they took. It mentions Apples audits in the phrase, "...but its[Apple] own audit reports suggest suppliers in China may not meet up to these standards." It does not mention the list of changes Apple required from various suppliers nor the numerous suppliers Apple fired outright for violating Apple's human rights policy.

I find this article irresponsible because it is just heaping bad press on Apple (not the rest of the industry) when in truth Apple is the only company I have been able to find actually taking a stand and doing something about the problem. There is no mention of Asus, Sony, Intel, Acer, Nokia, etc. who are all supplied by Foxconn. Thus readers are misled into thinking Apple is the issue. All this article does is motivate Apple to stop publishing audits and stop all the good work they've been doing to remediate the labor problem. I'd like to be the first to throw a big "Fuck you!" to the Daily Mail for their irresponsible, slanted journalism.

Comment: Re:Implied Admission? (Score 3, Insightful) 212

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36029566) Attached to: Apple Releases iOS 4.3.3 To Fix Location Tracking

Isn't this (the update) an implied admission that the original software tracking was wrong?

Well, wrong in that it kept a large cache instead of a small one. Most users probably care a lot more about rapidly finding their location all the time than they do about the possibility that someone with access to their phone or an unencrypted backup thereof could generate a very rough estimate of their locations over time.

I don't see how it could have been coded in, and have had the behavior described to it, as an accident.

Then you have no idea what the software was doing. Why don't you find out by doing something crazy like reading.

What will become of the data already collected?

Data wasn't collected. It was downloaded TO the phone and cached there. The "collected data" was collected on your phone and stored there as well as in any backups of your phone. What you do with it is up to you if you have an iPhone.

Comment: Re:Fact checking not a requirement for posting? (Score 4, Insightful) 212

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36029502) Attached to: Apple Releases iOS 4.3.3 To Fix Location Tracking

My understanding was that what was being logged was not the users' locations but rather that of the nearest cell tower or hotspot.

Your understanding is flawed. It wasn't logging the nearest cell tower or wifi. It was, based on location, downloading to the phone a list of nearby cell towers and wifi networks (from a crowdsourced database run by Apple) so that when the user used an app that requested the location of the phone, this cache could be used to quickly generate a rough estimate and speed up the GPS location. This is a very useful optimization for most of us and the fact that it allowed people to generate a very rough log of our locations over time was simply an unintended side effect.

Comment: Re:The Sooner the Better (Score 1) 437

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36018598) Attached to: iMac Gets Thunderbolt I/O, Quad-core

I thought the point was reducing cables. You still have two that have to be threaded under the desk (unless you have the poor taste to have outlets in the wall above your desk).

Indeed, you do need two cables run under the desk. I was merely pointing out that your assertion about my statement that I only needed one cable between my computer and desktop was not correct, probably because you misread it.

Again, for device to bulk storage transfers, you still need compatible hardware for direct transfer. I don't mean to sound like an ass, but direct FW transfer is a pretty damned small market.

It is these days, mostly limited to the professional market, but largely because Firewire never took off as a mainstream standard. There is not technical limitation to Thunderbolt that requires a computer involved in direct transfers, as USB does. This means if Thunderbolt does take off, this limitation is removed and all those use cases open up for direct transfer between devices of all sorts, sans computer.

I'm hard pressed to find a fractional need beyond the fourth percentile decimal that would require a physical drive local at a machine the has to be transported regularly or locked up.

Lots of people are lax about security, but not everyone. When it is simple and easy, I find it nice to put my work in a fire safe for the night, where burglars and accidents do not threaten it. For more sensitive contracts, it also greatly reduces liability.

Comment: Re:The Sooner the Better (Score 1) 437

by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (#36018500) Attached to: iMac Gets Thunderbolt I/O, Quad-core

after Apple's exclusivity agreement with Intel is up in 2012, you may start to see it pop up in PCs as well (from Anandtech's article)

That's great and all if it were not completely wrong and based on unfounded speculation as pointed out in this article that quotes Dave Salvator, speaking on behalf of Intel. He states that exclusivity is, "not the case. Apple saw the potential of Thunderbolt, and worked with Intel to bring it to market. Other system makers are free to implement Thunderbolt on their systems as well, and we anticipate seeing some of those systems later this year and in early 2012."
