On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:30:17 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>> You do know that the US pulled out of Iraq, yes?
> 
> I've heard multiple rounds of "We're pulling out. Oh, wait, we're
> pulling out in 6 month's time. No, we're pulling out next month. Oh,
> actually, make that 2 years. Actually, wait, make it a month. No, hang
> on..." It's news to me that they *actually* did it at last.

There was an agreed-upon timeline with the Iraqi government for the 
pullout to be completed by December 31, 2011.  They met that timeline.

>> Or were you unaware that the US (and the UK) were at war in Iraq?
> 
> Hehehe, is *that* why every FPS made in the last 10 years happens in the
> Middle East with Iraqis as the enemy? :-P

It seems that that probably doesn't have a lot to do with reality.  There 
were a couple of Star Wars games that came out as well, yet the Empire is 
still a work of fiction.

>> You know there's a war in Afghanistan too, yes?  And that's still going
>> on?
> 
> Wait - Afghanistan and Iraq aren't the same place? o_O

Um, no, they're not.  Are you serious?

>> And that Osama Bin Laden is dead?
> 
> Actually, no. I heard Saddam was dead, but I didn't know they ever found
> Osama.

<facepalm>

>>> Fame is a relative thing.
>>
>> It is relative, but there's been a *lot* of news about illegal
>> downloads and torrents in the past 5 years or so.  TPB has figured into
>> a lot of that news, because the providers keep blocking access, and
>> they keep getting unblocked.
>>
>> I've found it kinda hard to avoid news about that.  I'm wondering how
>> you managed it without even trying.
> 
> I've heard a lot of talk about "illegal downloads". I haven't heard
> anybody mention TPB.

Do you read slashdot?  The Register?

> It did tickle me when ISPs were talking about various ways to "detect
> and prevent downloading". Uh, you realise that the entire /point/ of
> ISPs is to enable downloading, right? Perhaps you meant prevent
> *illegal* downloading? :-P
> 
> (That and the talk of ISPs charging YouTube money because they're "using
> up all the bandwidth". Translation: "our profit model depends on
> customers using only a fraction of the bandwidth that they pay us for,
> and now people are using /all/ of what they rightfully paid for,
> waaaaa!")

Actually, not YouTube, but Netflix; it's streaming has been claimed to 
take more bandwidth than illegal downloads.

Jim

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