blue_dinner

The real problem is this entitlement mentality that if something is not offered to you, you have the right to just take it.

Torrenting of Game of Thrones most likely doesn't hurt the show's profits. It's one of the most popular shows on television today and HBO relies on subscription fees instead of advertising dollars.

This isn't the case for a less popular show. Shared shows don't show up as tracked views and can and will affect real things like ratings and if a show gets picked up the next year.

The end result of this will be product placement right in the show, so sharing it will only help make money for the show creator. It's very similar to all of the people using Ad block: eventually, companies will have to resort to articles and content being one big advertisement.

"Last year was the hottest on record, and NASA has declared this past February the most unusually warm month since it began keeping records. People appear to be noticing."

My problem is that statements like this are used as proof of climate change. Temperature isn't climate. Someone would chime in with this (and call the person an idiot) whenever a cold day was mentioned as proof there was no global warming.

Now, the exact same reasoning is being used to show proof of climate change. If the real science is there, we shouldn't be promoting the junk. Even if it is in your favor. It just makes the whole movement look disingenuous.

Because right now, the exchanges are run by people that have no business running it in the first place (huge hacks every month and people losing thousands of dollars), the average consumer will have no idea how to keep it secure (my parents would probably lose all of their money), and it seems the inflation rate can still easily be manipulated (the value has crashed multiple times in the last few years).

Until these things are fixed, I don't think I will ever use or invest in Bitcoin.

"These games were all priced probably too low for what they offered in time played."

The marketplace has pushed prices down so low (sub $5), in-game purchases or advertisements are the only way they can make a living.

If Google/Apple cared about their developers, they would force a minimum price. This way, it wasn't a race to the bottom. The end result is either large companies using the games as a loss leader, hobbyists that are releasing games and not getting compensated, or what we see now: games slapped with tons of advertising and in-game purchases. Personally, I would rather just see a higher priced game so I don't have to deal with the spammy tactics used now.

Yes. I can support a family and own a house with an average income in the Midwest. I also don't have to work in a factory or destroy my body physically.

I can do it all from the comfort of a temperature controlled office.

Many people seem to think they need to live in New York or San Francisco to live the good life.

He's 'donating' his money to the non-profit that was created last year. It sounds noble, but I believe one of the other motives is that he will be able to keep his money in the family for generations.

He will be able to get around the death tax and pretty much any other taxes that could take away his fortune. Pretty much every billionaire has done this.

One of my last clients used scrum (I was a contractor). The boss ran a fortune 500 company during the day and decided to take everything she learned to run her own small 20-person company.

Our standups lasted minimum 1 hour every day. Every Thursday we had a show-and-tell meeting, which meant going through everything we worked on and fixed (some of these meetings lasted 3 hours) and we also had a pre-planning and post-planning scrum meeting, each lasting 3 hours.

At one point I was charging the company more for meetings than actual work (it was 70/30 meetings to work).

I finally left when we added another 1-hour meeting on Fridays where we would just tell a joke, funny story, or something about our life. Since the majority of other contractors/developers on the team were from other countries (and didn't speak English very well), it was one of the most awkward situations I've ever encountered at work.

Discrimination is alive and well I see.

If you are doing some sort of illegal activity, it's best to not use a service attached to your home IP address (there are plenty of free wifi hotspots around) or your credit card information.

No matter what a VPN provider says, there's always a way it will get tracked back to you

We can say the same about taxes and regulations: if it's too high, individuals will just go elsewhere. For some reason, we always try to punish the individuals that do this.

Piracy will only continue to make it more difficult for small and mid-sized companies to compete. The multi-national corporations will always have the resources to wait out the slaughter.

The end result will be the same as what we have with the music industry: huge companies owning all of the media.

"are increasingly spreading to barbers, cosmetologists and even landscapers. "

There's a reason for this: We don't want inexperienced people making big mistakes and causing problems for the average consumer (health wise or monetarily).

It's not that difficult to get a license in any of the 3 things that were mentioned. I know many people under 25 that did just that without much trouble.

The Nordic countries have their own problems.

The press is owned by the state, making the freedom of the press a little difficult.

Because of the high taxes and plentiful regulations, your only options for employment are huge corporations or government.

Hardly what I call freedom.

Switzerland, on the other hand, is more free. Mostly because the majority of citizens have some wealth.

Many people associate more government programs and freebies with freedom. In reality, it only creates dependent groups of people and gives more control and power to the government. The exact opposite of freedom.