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My enthusiasm for parsing legalese waned too quickly to look up all the details for all the involved parties; but it looks like Samsung is certainly not being sent away empty-handed... The city of Austin's agreement is one part, and looks like some rather nice tax 'incentives' and procedural waivers(two decades worth of municipal tax breaks, a variety of free infrastructure upgrades). Apparently the county, state, and school district(?!?) also have their own packages. I, for one, would like to thank the citizens of Texas for subsidizing my semiconductor purchases!

:) Coming from a country that used to subsidize everything I can tell you tax breaks is not subsidizing. A subsidy is giving money taxed or borrowed from somewhere else to some deadbeat factory that would otherwise go bankrupt the following month- the fact that said factory is never expected to pay any sort of tax or social security contribution just goes without saying. :)

My enthusiasm for parsing legalese waned too quickly to look up all the details for all the involved parties; but it looks like Samsung is certainly not being sent away empty-handed...

The city of Austin's agreement is one part, and looks like some rather nice tax 'incentives' and procedural waivers(two decades worth of municipal tax breaks, a variety of free infrastructure upgrades). Apparently the county, state, and school district(?!?) also have their own packages.

I, for one, would like to thank the citizens of Texas for subsidizing my semiconductor purchases!

H. Ross SR wrote a blank check to the state of Texas to save a oak tree poisoned by not too stable individual. He did not have to do this, but he choose to quickly assist to save a symbol of trust when it would be obvious to anyone that normal bureaucracy would not act in time. See a problem, react quickly to resolve it. This oak, the Treaty Oak was regarded by the native Commanches and Tonkowas as a "Tree God". Early settlers and Indians signed treaty's under it's branches. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/treatyoak/hist1.htm

hmmmm who else came from Texas and had that thought???? Hmmm

Sorry....you'll have to do better than that. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo was born in Cuba but raised and educated in California.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/police/chiefs.htm

I really don't think Avecedo pushed the red light cameras -- that's the city, not the police. They police don't run them or really do anything with them. And if you don't pay, it's a civil matter rather than a criminal matter -- so the police don't even enforce that.

And as for a never ending supply, there aren't that many. At least not yet.

I personally haven't had any `unreasonable' (tickets are bad, but not unreasonable) experiences with Austin police, but friends have.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell and the entire city council are Democrats. Austin's chief of police is appointed by the city council......if they don't agree with his actions, they can dismiss him.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/default.htm

http://www.citizinemag.com/features/commentary/27-public-forum-to-debate-controversial-blood-withdrawal-policy-on-dui-suspects.html

In Texas (and in other states, it seems), it is against the law to leave your keys in the ignition. I haven't yet figured out exactly what the purpose is for that law, except to remind people that leaving your keys in the car invites theft. I certainly haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted for the "crime".

Perhaps a similar nominal criminal sanction should be in place for the company that leaves the keys to my identity in their corporate "ignition"? The penalty would be a slap on the wrist, or less -- because a stiff penalty would lead to coverups. But the law would still be on the books.

That would allow the bean counters to add an item on the balance sheet for "secure client data -- compliance required by law". That would carry more weight than "secure client data -- compliance with 'best practices' guidelines".

Hmmm, what the hell; I've got karma to burn. Your arguments fail to move me -- the examples either apply to telecom as a whole, or are simply untrue. You've clearly never had working knowledge of this industry.

As far as TV goes, most people's options boil down to little more than an antenna, DirecTV or The Cable Company.

True, there are currently 3 competing providers across the US, four if you separate DirectTV and Echostar. There's also FIOS. Some area have overbuilders, essentially a second cable company in the same area. Since I can't possibly come up with another crappy car analogy, we'll have to settle for an OS analogy: You've got over the air broadcast by FOX/CBS/*BC, around since the 1930's: Big Iron, IBM, Unix System V, systems that went into decline due to the changing face of technology. Dish: Microsoft - a newer product, with oppressive EULA's and a desire to have their product in EVERY home in the US. And the cable companies + overbuilders: Linux and it's variants...fractured and splintered amongst themselves, but with a similar goal and purpose.

How many options do you have for internet? More than 3? How about landline phone service or cell service? More than 3 local major players? This "lack" of competition exists in all of telecom, not just TV.

If there was an injection of more competition in the market I think we'd see a lot more innovative services like more robust video on demand, ala carte programming options, more and higher quality HD channels, and innovative new services we haven't even thought of.

You mean like....Youtube, Youtube, and with the exception of HD content....Youtube? In today's markets, innovative has come to mean "interactive". TV watching is not an interactive activity, and never has been...unless you count screaming at Sunday Night Football when the QB fumbles in the end zone in overtime. These innovative services are not going to come from the TV provider; they will be online. The HD issue is a tough one...a quick look online shows less than 50 HD channels currently available not counting regional sports networks and broadcasters. If you exclude HBO/SHOW/MAX, the list is under 40. I don't know about you, but Wealth TV HD just doesn't do it for me.

And before someone points out it's *their* infrastructure and they built and bought it--they did so with a lot of government subsidies and that infrastructure is sitting on a lot of public land. They only have mini-monopolies because the government has allowed it.

You're kidding, right? Cable companies receive no such subsidies; perhaps you're thinking of the telephone companies. FIOS is being laid courtesy of that lovely FCC fee on your phone bill, but not cable. Cable companies PAY the local governments for the rights to service the towns which they do -- and they pay mightily. I've seen franchise agreements where the municipality is collecting 1% of total revenue from the cable provider. This is passed to the customer, a tax imposed not by the cable company, but by city hall. Towns are greedy; Google for "FIOS franchise dispute" or read about AT&T being sued by a Wisconsin city because AT&T wasn't paying a franchise fee or a dispute for Cablevision. Austin, Texas used to collect 35 cents per subscriber each month; that was in 1996 and it's probably more by now.

Finally, there are no mini-monopolies -- overbuilders and telecoms such as AT&T/Verizon are free to come in to a town and provide service. But before they hop a ride on the money train, they have to pay f

If NASA would have bought it in my hometown, they could've gotten a $100 (or $150!) rebate from the city. Suckers.

Firstly, someone should make a mirror of this site and post the URL in response to this post. It's just some guy's site, and these pics are big.

Here goes:
http://aubrey.vima.austin.tx.us/pipestone.html

The city of Austin (Texas) already has this:

City of Austin Crime Viewer

It has been VERY useful when looking for a new place to live. I've ruled out some otherwise nice areas because of the high crime, while other areas rose to the top of my list.

Plus, the city crime viewer has satellite data with higher resolution than Google maps, albeit a bit older. I can zoom in to 1 inch = 100 feet, enough to tell if the house I want to buy had rusted cars in the front yard and a bad roof 3 years ago. I can also figure out if there's enough space to build an addition without driving to it.

Off the top of my head, here's a pretty good example, New York City Water System

How about city parks and recreation? Austin Parks

That's just off the top of my head... sure there's always waste in any beaurocracy, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. Waste can always be cleaned-up with good management. City Parks usually cannot be created without the ... uh.. well, without a city and I for one really appreciate greenbelts and public spaces.

How about federal parks? Been to one? You should try it sometime. Take the free tours, they're always educational, even if you do feel like a nerd with all the old folks and 5 year olds.

Just to let you know, TWC is a franchise based business. For Time Warner of Austin, you can read about it here.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/telecom/acvfran.htm

I'm a vegetarian, but last time I was down in Austin, my buddy Sam has this bright idea to order lunch from Hilbert's. It's a fuckin' buger joint. The bastard kept reassuring me that it would be ok, but they totally fucked up my order. I hate sam now....

I would have to say that this was personally first problem with Hilbert's, but it was such a large problem that I will never order food from them again.

In 1989, a vandal used a strong poison and nearly killed the Treaty Oak, a 500-year-old Live Oak said to be the place where Stephen F. Austin signed a treaty with the local Native American tribes. Heroic efforts (funded by H. Ross Perot) went into saving the tree, but nobody knew if they would be successful.

To preserve the tree's legacy, it was "cloned" -- several still-living branches were rooted just as the parent poster described. One of these trees is now growing next to the original. It's clearly an exact genetic duplicate, and if that's not a clone, I don't now what is.

I agree with the parent poster -- what's the big deal? Why can't they just cut off a branch of the Methuselah tree and root it?

By the way, the story of the Treaty Oak has a happy ending. Despite fears that it would only be good for commemorative pen sets, the tree made a comeback, and started bearing acorns again in 1997 -- 8 years after the attack. Seedlings are now available, for "just" $125 bucks.

The poisoner, on the other hand, likely had a bit rougher time -- 9 years in a Texas state prison. No word on the fate of his acorns...

I am already a member of such a co-operative. I already check out music (and movies!) and return them when I'm done. Anyone in my vicinity is free to join. Here's the URL:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/default.htm

Texas has some really bizarre alcohol laws (Among other things, I am a bartender and can say in all honesty that the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) is insane - you Texans know what I'm talking about).

As far as guns go, IIRC, you have to be 21 to buy a handgun or ammunition for a handgun. However, at 18 you can purchase a rifle or shotgun (as well as ammunition) since you're probably going to go huntin'.

Here's a couple of images for you: one is of Austin and the other is a QTVR of Enchanted Rock which is about 150 miles away.

I eat beef and I don't have a gun either, but I still have the right to go and buy as many as my heart desires. We have socialists here, they are unemployed university students.

Hook 'Em Horns
Mister Black

According to this, the Nashville population is 516,800 (est). According to this, the Austin population is 643,988 (est). Looks like Austin is actually larger than Nashville, which would skew things even more in support of my argument.