Generally, the House reps. all voted for the version of the bill with the ban and the Senators voted unanimously for the one without. (Action on the bill here... Section 54.202 was the much debated/amended area on muni wireless.)
Phil King is from Weatherford and while I think they would frown on big-city activists telling them what to do, I can't help but wonder just how good their own small-town Internet access is... or how much they read about King getting showered with money and food by the telecom lobbyists... or how cool they are about having the state tell Weatherford they can't provide themselves a service, even if they unanimously approved.
The influence in this case comes from telecom infrastructure folks looking to protect profit. Phil King, the committee chairman pushing this ban (as well as bills to let telecom compete unfairly against cable), is bought and paid for by SBC and Verizon, to the tune of many thousands in his campaign coffers, and lots of perks that don't end up in those books... he doesn't even seem to worry too much about hiding it (See this story which details the cozy dinner telecom folks made for his whole committee).
It's about SBC and Verizon maintaining their ability to serve whichever areas of Texas guarantee *their* preferred profit level. Sixteen counties in Texas have no provider at all and 93 counties have only one provider which serves who they choose (I'm in the center of *Austin* and after years of promises, DSL isn't available to many parts in the middle of town here). Unsurprisingly, it's those unserved/underserved counties that are saying "our citizens want this, maybe we should provide it." Phil King wants to ban that, so that when SBC feels like doing it, they get the profit from wiring a community.
"They cover Kerry" is a totally incorrect formulation. They are on a left-right political commentary program specifically because of their roles as campaign operatives. That's why they're there. Unlike Fox's Carl Cameron, where it's all in the family to work for Bush's campaign and "cover" him on Fox News. That's the difference in disclosure. No journalistic institution I've worked with would ever permit one spouse to cover the exact area of politics where the other spouse worked, to name just one example.
Why would their bureaucracy be partly to blame for Google's being denied a trademark? Agencies don't get much less bureaucratic than first come/first served.
Speaking of mistakes, I understand and tolerate Slashdot duping the hell out of stories, and I know how to read CmdrTaco posts without getting into a fit over his spelling, but can we maybe weed out people who are submitting their own sites to be Slashdotted -- especially when they stand to make a ton in ad money, and especially when the pointlessness in question is to talk about why movies aren't really real, man? Why is this on Slashdot?
What's next? "Demi Moore's breasts weren't always that big! Come hit my ad engine several thousand times! And that monster in Godzilla was CGI!"
Not to underestimate the effort, but with extensions this has got to be easier than I think it is. Ruven Gottlieb's Purity-of-Email project is out there to integrate Mozilla mail with CRM114.
Just to be clear: I don't think ATT has done anything wrong with this offer other than calling it a phone upgrade. It is not a phone upgrade. It MAY be a service upgrade in terms of better reception, but that has yet to be determined.
Strongly agree... the problem isn't the offer per se, it's that this (for many, not all customers) is not close to a phone upgrade. At best it is weaselly, at worst fraudulent to claim that. Is their own comparison chart not galling enough?
And I consider claims of a service upgrade the same, when the idea is to make the network work at the standard quality orginally promised in contracts/coverage maps/etc. -- none of which were supported by their actual network buildout at the time many of us subscribed, expecting standard service, but rather by the buildout they expected to have "someday" while we were chained to long-term contracts.
I doubt a blackout would last that long, but I see EchoStar posted a news release saying that affected customers who lose CBS will get $1/month, and the rest of them (MTV/Comedy Central/BET/etc.) would discount another $1/month.
Seems a little light for losing up to one-ninth of the programming, but again, no way that they will go without for a month anyway...
The stories I'm seeing on the Web say the deadline is midnight PST, so 3 a.m. EST I guess is the "dark hour."
Considering they've gone up to this deadline a few times before, it would be interesting to see if they did go dark... whatever happens I expect it will embolden one side or the other the next time this happens.
What you say is half true, in the sense that if one's service sucks 100 percent of the time, it should be returned. But I can't spend the first 30 days driving all over North America to check out their coverage map for myself, nor should I.
That's where reading my contract actually does come in... it legally binds them *not* to bald-faced lie about what they are offering. Maybe I'm a whiner for objecting to poor service instead of going with nothing, but I'm a whiner who is informing others about what they're getting into with AT&T. And to say that when companies use market power to screw people, it doesn't necessarily mean it's because the customer is a moron.
When I signed up there was no T616 available. I bought the best worldphone available, I found after best diligence that the coverage map I was counting on wasn't remotely close to half-right (I'm talking 100-mile misses), even before forming agreements with Cingular, and in response to my and others' issues with that, I get an offer that couldn't even reasonably be considered a sidegrade rather than a downgrade. Yeah, what a moron I am!
And the best prices in the business aren't much good if a company turns around and says "all that stuff we promised in our contract and materials? We were just kidding! Sucks to be you!" That's arguably fraudulent... glad to see you think the customers are to blame though.
Not to beat a dead horse in these stories, but the RIAA's Brad Buckles says "Copyright infringement is theft."
And I thought copyright infringement is copyright infringement, and theft was theft. Is nobody there satisfied with actually describing crimes/torts/violations/whatever with their actual descriptions?
... for a policy Sen. Hatch probably doesn't really endorse himself. Think politically and you realize this is just the textbook trial balloon:
1) a comment that carries no significant political/voting booth cost from his base constituency of Utahns, but
2) serves to give the national debate a swift kick to one side. The reactions to such a goofy extreme comment will immediately draw more attention to the issue than one could buy, and (very subtly) draw all sides to quicker DRM "solutions" (because by defining the crazy as a "possibility," the borders have been redrawn).
Hatch is full of it in many ways but isn't stupid. This is a calculated, no-cost public statement (he's a pro at it, the average/.er is not) that he doesn't intend to pursue. Not to be cynical, but it's certainly nothing to get apoplectic about. Write your representatives about the DMCA instead.
Boy, does this take me back. One of the better articles in Wired magazine's history, in my opinion, was the one on "Netheads vs. Bellheads" highlighting an internal battle at Sprint as a microcosm of a bigger battle of packet-switching vs. circuit-switching. It's long but entertaining and worth it, talking about philosophical differences and ATM and IP.
Or get a PlayStation 2 and Qcast Tuner software for $50 (one-time) from BroadQ. Total cost $250, if you don't already have a PS2. I suppose that TiVo might have an interface advantage depending on how they implement it, compared to loading a disc in the PS2. But then the TiVo won't do digital video as well as photos and.mp3 -- the Qcast Tuner will.
If the submitter had read the story they would have seen that it talks about separate rumors about separate purchases. In particular the Borland rumor has an IBM Rational purchase as its reason for being.
If there were any rumor about MS thinking about bidding for both Rational and Borland as part of the same universe (and bear in mind that even the separate rumors are just rumors), it would surely have been in the first paragraph of Reuters' story, instead of what is (Rational), which is the more important rumor of the two.
What you're describing happens to the best of relationships... sometimes things seem stale and you're wondering what happened to the heady days, and how it ended up being just CSI.:)
If you're really ready... go into preferences and just flush out all the thumb ratings. It's too bad you can't see what all you've thumbed over the years, but getting rid of the ratings would bring that fresh, out-of-the-box quality to you and your TiVo's relationship. Put a spark in your TV life!
See this while you can.
on
Meet The Leonids
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If you're not surrounded by insane light pollution... make a point of watching this while you can. It may not be the same for years, maybe decades...
I still have my disks too, and the manuals. Nothing like typing "Meet w/Laura tomorrow re: Project X" and having it automatically file entries on tomorrow's calendar page, and in Laura and Project X files. (or "next Thursday," etc.)
Have you tried the shareware Zoot? James Fallows was an Agenda fan, and he was raving about Zoot five years ago in the Atlantic Monthly and elsewhere. Cold shower, Jimbo!
Correct... I was a happily licensed Agenda owner until Lotus wrote us and told us that while they were killing Agenda, they would give us a discount on Lotus Organizer. That is *not* a real migration path. Well, maybe to them... then they could move me to Notes later...
And contrary to other posts, while Agenda is *freely downloadable* I don't think it's actually licensed for free and unfettered use. Though I don't know why it wouldn't since the DOS disks, if they could be found out there, couldn't bring more than a few dollars in sale.
Try Zoot, a Windows app with Agenda-like association. (At least go for the developer's sense of humor.) The learning curve is steep, so maybe Kapor's program will make this technology finally friendly.
Maybe it's time (again) to ask for whose interests friend-of-Verizon Michael Powell is really working? And whether our economy (especially the communications industry) can thrive during his tenure?
There are 3rd party apps that tie into tv listings just like TiVo does.
Can you name some? SnapStream I noticed offers "limited integration... via 3rd party... site" and snapstream.NET, their planned service, I see has an undetermined fee and should be coming soon in... Q2 of 2002.
In other words, the cost of getting/providing those listings is gigantic and it looks like SnapStream is having a harder time than it thought getting it going. If SnapStream.NET charges $10-$13 a month, then what's the advantage over TiVo again?
Slashdot Mirror
Phil King is from Weatherford and while I think they would frown on big-city activists telling them what to do, I can't help but wonder just how good their own small-town Internet access is ... or how much they read about King getting showered with money and food by the telecom lobbyists ... or how cool they are about having the state tell Weatherford they can't provide themselves a service, even if they unanimously approved.
It's about SBC and Verizon maintaining their ability to serve whichever areas of Texas guarantee *their* preferred profit level. Sixteen counties in Texas have no provider at all and 93 counties have only one provider which serves who they choose (I'm in the center of *Austin* and after years of promises, DSL isn't available to many parts in the middle of town here). Unsurprisingly, it's those unserved/underserved counties that are saying "our citizens want this, maybe we should provide it." Phil King wants to ban that, so that when SBC feels like doing it, they get the profit from wiring a community.
"They cover Kerry" is a totally incorrect formulation. They are on a left-right political commentary program specifically because of their roles as campaign operatives. That's why they're there. Unlike Fox's Carl Cameron, where it's all in the family to work for Bush's campaign and "cover" him on Fox News. That's the difference in disclosure. No journalistic institution I've worked with would ever permit one spouse to cover the exact area of politics where the other spouse worked, to name just one example.
Why would their bureaucracy be partly to blame for Google's being denied a trademark? Agencies don't get much less bureaucratic than first come/first served.
What's next? "Demi Moore's breasts weren't always that big! Come hit my ad engine several thousand times! And that monster in Godzilla was CGI!"
Not to underestimate the effort, but with extensions this has got to be easier than I think it is. Ruven Gottlieb's Purity-of-Email project is out there to integrate Mozilla mail with CRM114.
I for one object to blaming all this on Phish. I'm sure that Mr. Anastasio et al. have no connection to this illegal and extremely harmful activity.
Strongly agree ... the problem isn't the offer per se, it's that this (for many, not all customers) is not close to a phone upgrade. At best it is weaselly, at worst fraudulent to claim that. Is their own comparison chart not galling enough?
And I consider claims of a service upgrade the same, when the idea is to make the network work at the standard quality orginally promised in contracts/coverage maps/etc. -- none of which were supported by their actual network buildout at the time many of us subscribed, expecting standard service, but rather by the buildout they expected to have "someday" while we were chained to long-term contracts.
Seems a little light for losing up to one-ninth of the programming, but again, no way that they will go without for a month anyway ...
Considering they've gone up to this deadline a few times before, it would be interesting to see if they did go dark ... whatever happens I expect it will embolden one side or the other the next time this happens.
That's where reading my contract actually does come in ... it legally binds them *not* to bald-faced lie about what they are offering. Maybe I'm a whiner for objecting to poor service instead of going with nothing, but I'm a whiner who is informing others about what they're getting into with AT&T. And to say that when companies use market power to screw people, it doesn't necessarily mean it's because the customer is a moron.
And the best prices in the business aren't much good if a company turns around and says "all that stuff we promised in our contract and materials? We were just kidding! Sucks to be you!" That's arguably fraudulent ... glad to see you think the customers are to blame though.
And I thought copyright infringement is copyright infringement, and theft was theft. Is nobody there satisfied with actually describing crimes/torts/violations/whatever with their actual descriptions?
1) a comment that carries no significant political/voting booth cost from his base constituency of Utahns, but
2) serves to give the national debate a swift kick to one side. The reactions to such a goofy extreme comment will immediately draw more attention to the issue than one could buy, and (very subtly) draw all sides to quicker DRM "solutions" (because by defining the crazy as a "possibility," the borders have been redrawn).
Hatch is full of it in many ways but isn't stupid. This is a calculated, no-cost public statement (he's a pro at it, the average /.er is not) that he doesn't intend to pursue. Not to be cynical, but it's certainly nothing to get apoplectic about. Write your representatives about the DMCA instead.
Boy, does this take me back. One of the better articles in Wired magazine's history, in my opinion, was the one on "Netheads vs. Bellheads" highlighting an internal battle at Sprint as a microcosm of a bigger battle of packet-switching vs. circuit-switching. It's long but entertaining and worth it, talking about philosophical differences and ATM and IP.
Or get a PlayStation 2 and Qcast Tuner software for $50 (one-time) from BroadQ. Total cost $250, if you don't already have a PS2. I suppose that TiVo might have an interface advantage depending on how they implement it, compared to loading a disc in the PS2. But then the TiVo won't do digital video as well as photos and .mp3 -- the Qcast Tuner will.
If there were any rumor about MS thinking about bidding for both Rational and Borland as part of the same universe (and bear in mind that even the separate rumors are just rumors), it would surely have been in the first paragraph of Reuters' story, instead of what is (Rational), which is the more important rumor of the two.
What you're describing happens to the best of relationships ... sometimes things seem stale and you're wondering what happened to the heady days, and how it ended up being just CSI. :)
... go into preferences and just flush out all the thumb ratings. It's too bad you can't see what all you've thumbed over the years, but getting rid of the ratings would bring that fresh, out-of-the-box quality to you and your TiVo's relationship. Put a spark in your TV life!
If you're really ready
If you're not surrounded by insane light pollution ... make a point of watching this while you can. It may not be the same for years, maybe decades ...
I'm curious about how notable librarian Laura Bush would weigh in on the matters of the Patriot Act and such.
Get your Fats straight! Heh.
Have you tried the shareware Zoot? James Fallows was an Agenda fan, and he was raving about Zoot five years ago in the Atlantic Monthly and elsewhere. Cold shower, Jimbo!
And contrary to other posts, while Agenda is *freely downloadable* I don't think it's actually licensed for free and unfettered use. Though I don't know why it wouldn't since the DOS disks, if they could be found out there, couldn't bring more than a few dollars in sale.
Try Zoot, a Windows app with Agenda-like association. (At least go for the developer's sense of humor.) The learning curve is steep, so maybe Kapor's program will make this technology finally friendly.
Maybe it's time (again) to ask for whose interests friend-of-Verizon Michael Powell is really working? And whether our economy (especially the communications industry) can thrive during his tenure?
Can you name some? SnapStream I noticed offers "limited integration ... via 3rd party ... site" and snapstream.NET, their planned service, I see has an undetermined fee and should be coming soon in ... Q2 of 2002.
In other words, the cost of getting/providing those listings is gigantic and it looks like SnapStream is having a harder time than it thought getting it going. If SnapStream.NET charges $10-$13 a month, then what's the advantage over TiVo again?