Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 18th Feb 2013 22:28 UTC, submitted by bowkota
"The last time we looked at Silicon Valley's lobbying efforts, Google was the big spender and Apple the piker. That hasn't changed much in the past nine months. In fact, Google increased its political spending in 2012 - a Presidential election year - by nearly 90%, while Apple reduced its by 13%." Anti-SOPA or no, that's a hell of a lot of money. This should be illegal - it's thinly veiled corruption.
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Member since:2012-10-25
Amen! Before Senators were popularly elected, the position was often given to those who made the largest contributions to state government electoral campaigns. These were people who contributed with the expressed understanding that they would be rewarded with a seat for doing so. It was unspeakably more corrupt than what we have now.
And, for the record, the great majority of Senators were popularly elected (by the state governments' choice) at the time the amendment was passed. That's the only reason it did pass.
Edited 2013-02-19 02:23 UTC
RE[2]: not veiled at all
by twitterfire on Tue 19th Feb 2013 14:45
in reply to "RE: not veiled at all"
Member since:2008-09-11
Repeal the 17th? Heck no. My state is *more* corrupt than the Federal government. All of the gerrymandering that takes place to form the US house also exists at the state level. The direct election of senators is the one thing that results in good representation of my state.
You know guys, I know you invented democracy, are the leaders of the free world and bla, bla, but you can, for instance, try to follow EU footsteps and vote directly for members of parliament and for the president, instead of resorting to weird algorithms and gerrymandering.
RE[3]: not veiled at all
by jackastor on Tue 19th Feb 2013 15:01
in reply to "RE[2]: not veiled at all"
Member since:2009-05-05
RE[3]: not veiled at all
by Bill Shooter of Bul on Tue 19th Feb 2013 15:59
in reply to "RE[2]: not veiled at all"
Member since:2006-07-14
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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Member since:
2006-07-14
Repeal the 17th? Heck no. My state is *more* corrupt than the Federal government. All of the gerrymandering that takes place to form the US house also exists at the state level. The direct election of senators is the one thing that results in good representation of my state.
I don't really understand why anyone would think that removing that direct link would be a good idea. The only think that makes sense to me, is that you prefer the way your state government is elected (gerymandering and all) than what a direct vote of all citizens. The only way you would like that is if it results in politics that you prefer. I'm a bit idealistic in that I prefer that the process is fair, more than I prefer that I have my way.
But I do agree with the rest of your argument.