How true. When I was in Beirut in the early eighties it became common NOT to beleive the documentation we were supplied. Nothing as bad as Panama or China, but it could have been. Over there everyone was a "bad guy". Even the intelligence community. They have seemed to have toned it down quite a bit over the last few years though. It's nothing like it was in the late 70's or mid 80's. That's why the China embassy bombing surprised me. I had thought as a country we greq up a little and were beyond all that.
I agree to a point. But in reference to the first part of your post, I really miss the old days of NASA. I grew up watching the Gemini and Apollo missions on TV. What an era. I was pretty close to it, my dad was head of AI for NASA for about twenty years until he passed away in 92. It's just not the same, the general public doesn't seem to have the passion for the support anymore. The last big event was Sogurner(sp?) which had a lot of people excited again. But now it seems all they get is flames in the press and it's hard to get dollars and support when your not amazing the public. And unfortunately the public has a very short memory. A very "What have you done for me lately" attitude.
A retrofit from the shuttle could be an answer on an as needed basis. Either fic it or strap on some Wiley Coyote rockets and send it on it's way like "Veger".
Although I agree with your overall post, I had a thought on this part
You're supposed to beat the competiton, not buy them. blah blah.
That's more than likely in all their business plans. They have to keep the VC's happy and that means profit margin and product expansion. In todays economy it's buy vs build and 9 times out of 10 it makes more sense to buy. Sad but true.
It was CSX, and just to set the recod straight MCI was originally Microwave Communications Inc..
This said, I must also add that I was a Sr. Manager with them for about ten years, they used to be great, but when Worldcom came in, the place went to shit. What a horrible marriage. MCIWorldcom has got to be one of the worst places to work, a complete sweatshop, no reward unless your an ass kissing exec.
I agree with your last statement, very nicely worded.
However I don't find any reference to Exodus on any Web based search in relation to BeOpen or to AboveNet. Exodus was founded by a couple of former IBM execs and from what I can find out in th short time since the stroy posted, they appear to be competitors (Exodus and AboveNet) not partners.
As for AboveNet owning BeOpen, I beleive you are correct in your statement, but the controlling interest is held by AboveNet execs. That would be about as close to ownership as you could get. IMO.
In the pits baby, I work for a Nascar broadcasting service. We run the audio and video uplinks, mixing etc. Even though I get to go to a lot of races the coolness of going never wears off. I'll wave to you next sunday, I'll be the one in the tacky Nascar t-shirt, you'll be able to pick me out. . . err, no, nevermind.
With DSL access routing through sometimes many switches and tpp's it's sometimes amazing yoiu can get service at all. Most are local resellers with carrier agreements with the RBOC's and use a hodge podge of equipment that seriously comprimizes reliability and security.
With the ones I have been involved with from an engineering and implementation standpoint they mostly used a redback switch as the main engine and in very cludgy ways wired in the authentication systems such as Radius. Most of the tpp are also selling batter and ground for local loop service that adds to the complication and because of this they don't own any repeaters because the costs are to high to integrate the DSL repeater with the local loop. This rsults in only getting access within a couple of miles of the CoLo. Anything further is done through resale agreements with still other DSL providers.
I finally had enough in my Bell Atlantic service area and went with a cable modem instead. So far service has been great the speeds are more than fast enough and as long as you secure your box in a reasonable manner it seems to be pretty secure. I get the service for about $34 a month and have wired all the workstations in the house through the one cable modem and this turned out to be much cheaper than the DSL service and with the exception of one outage when a telephone pole was hit near my house, service has been 100%.
The impression I get from your post is that IT=Help Desk. This is a rather narrow view. There's is more to IT than Help Desk. . . Most of it, is very rewarding. I stay in it because I enjoy it, Although I'd have to admit Help Desk work really sucks ass, I'm glad I don't do that anymore. But it is an honorable profession which serves a business critical purpose.
I disagree. I've been in IT management going on twenty years now and like it just as much now as I did when I was just getting started and everything was "new and cool".
Fact is, for me, I run operations shops and a few development teams and get to stay close to both "the fire of the hour" and the "new technology". This sort of keeps the scales balanced. Projects come and go, business cycles and technology as well, there is rarely more than a moth or two where things stay static and I get bored.
The money is good and I get to code when I feel like it, and I'm continuesly learning which is the big draw for me.
All of the marketing information is already available
I respectfully disagree. Some marketing information is already out there, not all marketing information. Surfing habit's, purchasing patterns, times on-line, features used, etc. etc. and that's just the advertisers, not bigco that gave you the hypothetical PC. Each little sniglet of information gathered is just a clue. Add them up and the picture paints oof co-branding, cross and up selling and DB's that are chock full of not just real data on you but also autogenerated assumptions based upon profiling.
We pay way too much in taxes now. It's not that they're not needed, or at least a percentage of them anyway, speaking only for myself, I'm tired of paying and time after time, the government turns things like universal service into a socialistic welfare like program. IMO if the drunk down in the halfway house wants net access and a pc, let him get a job and pay for it himself. I'm already paying over 35% in taxes now.
As for supporting the schools and librarys being connected, I think it's a great idea, but the monies we have to spend is rediculusly high. The money is being mis-managed and mis-spent. If the government regulates/mandates universal access like universal service why would it be any different?
Always on Internet connections via the local telcos?...
Interesting idea, but I don't see the Bell Atlantics, US West's and the Switch manufactures like Nortel and Mitel supporting it. It would kill their cashflow and leave them as wirehaul leasing companies renting copper pairs instead of how they operate now with mass cusomized products and serives all based on analog swtiching. Anything other than plain old battery and ground is going to cost you. Especially when they sell these capabilities wholesale to CLEC's and the like. They are making a killing and also holding on to the monopolies they have created. If they put digital capability standard into every home, they would need to rebuild the whole infrastructure which in most cases is still based on 1930's technology, at least for the last mile.
This would be hugely expensive and they would lose their only remaining competetive edge which is they own the last mile and all switching, ploes, templates right up to the MPOP. They will never give this up. If they were to rebuild, there are many companies out there which would do it better, faster and cheaper than the Ma Bell companies.
Unfortunately they are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to vision. Most of the Senior Execs and upper management in the RBOCS are old time telephone guys. They're still chasing dial tone. On the advantage side, they have one of the most powerful lobby's on the hill. These guys own the FCC.
Funny? Yeah, but I would have modded it Insightful. Heres why.
Universal access won't be brought to the masses by Ford or Intel or Jimmy's towing service. Universal Access will be brought to you by Uncle Sam. Just as Universal Service was brought to you by Uncle Sam via the Telecom Reform act. Universal Service gets paid for by who? You guessed it, the average taxpayer.
Universal Access is just the @home version of Universal Service (HR 7317). The goverment will end up pushing the effort to brag we're the best most connected country on the planet! Rah Rah Rah. So what? So little average 8 year old Billy can surf pr0n?
I'm so sick of paying more taxes to fund programs like this.
We're (in the US) already getting screwed by Universal Service, Schools and Libraries version of Universal Access. You pay every moth on both your local and long distance bill. It's a5% tax which goes to wire schools and libraries with pc's and connectivity. Just another socialist program brought to you by good old lobbyists. My question is who will pay for Universal Access? Bet you it'll be the average taxpayer.
Sure universal access would be great if everyone was connected, if everyone had a workstation, etc. I think it's very good of Ford, Intel and the rest for making this possible for their emplyees and their families.
Hoewver
It's not free. Promoting univeral access, especially when viewed as a right will in the lkong run cost Joe Average taxpayer a ton of money. Who benefits? Politicians will claim "look what I did, I brought technology to the masses". Big corporations will claim " Look what we did, we gave all our employees and their families pc's and access". What really will happen, bejhind the scenes is that the politicians will be spending gazillions of our tax dollars to fund another social program. Universal service for access to the homes will be paid for just as it is now as part of the furiously opposed "Schools and Libraries" Bill HR 7317. Basically your telecom bill gets additional taxes levied against it so we can pay for wiring schools and libraries with some token out of date clone pc with a 9600 baud modem and an AOL account.
Secondly the big businesses (especially tech companies) love this stuff. They will sell more product to the general public and also grab and keem a customer base for the future. The kids. Just like Mcdonalds does with it's happy meals. You get the favort of the kids when their young and you have them for life.
Universal Access, Just like Universal Service (Schools and Libraries Bill) is bad for the country and bad for the general public. Society is unfortunately made up of different levels of classes, financial and otherwise, having taxpayers pay so that Trailer park Tammy can have broadband brought into the doublewide is not the right way to get the public up to step with todays technology, that's a very socialist approach. This is all to similar to other social reform programs like Welfare, where I pay through taxes enough to support 10 kids a year, not my kids, I never see 'em and I never get a fathers day card. Universal Access will just be another program that has Joe middle class supporting those who are too lazy to work for what they want.
I can't help but think of the similarities between this incident and that where M$ asked/. to remove posters comments. Grated the situatiion and environment are a little different, whereas PH is going directly to the poster and not the ISP, but in many cases such as when AC posts, the easier way to file suit is to file against the ISP and have them disclose information on how to contact the poster, such as IP or account information. I'm glad/. didn't cave in the M$ pressures, but the base is still strikingly similar. Taking copyrighted or licenced property and putting it into the wild or linking to it without permission. Ironic.
Come on mods, it's sort of/. on topic. There was a related story earlier on the potato computer, and this poster at least made the effort to port it to an otherwise lame thread.
Moderation Totals: Funny=1, Off-Topic=1, Showed a little effort=2, Insightful=1, Total=5
I'm sure microsoft would want to be first in line.:)
Seriously that's not a bad idea as long as you had your ducks in a row first. Things like insuring licensing was under GPL and the product, if hardware had full *nix support.
Slashdot Mirror
How true. When I was in Beirut in the early eighties it became common NOT to beleive the documentation we were supplied. Nothing as bad as Panama or China, but it could have been. Over there everyone was a "bad guy". Even the intelligence community. They have seemed to have toned it down quite a bit over the last few years though. It's nothing like it was in the late 70's or mid 80's. That's why the China embassy bombing surprised me. I had thought as a country we greq up a little and were beyond all that.
I agree to a point. But in reference to the first part of your post, I really miss the old days of NASA. I grew up watching the Gemini and Apollo missions on TV. What an era. I was pretty close to it, my dad was head of AI for NASA for about twenty years until he passed away in 92. It's just not the same, the general public doesn't seem to have the passion for the support anymore. The last big event was Sogurner(sp?) which had a lot of people excited again. But now it seems all they get is flames in the press and it's hard to get dollars and support when your not amazing the public. And unfortunately the public has a very short memory. A very "What have you done for me lately" attitude.
A retrofit from the shuttle could be an answer on an as needed basis. Either fic it or strap on some Wiley Coyote rockets and send it on it's way like "Veger".
Huh? How so? The hot chocolates good.
You're supposed to beat the competiton, not buy them. blah blah.
That's more than likely in all their business plans. They have to keep the VC's happy and that means profit margin and product expansion. In todays economy it's buy vs build and 9 times out of 10 it makes more sense to buy. Sad but true.
thank you
Just curious.
It was CSX, and just to set the recod straight MCI was originally Microwave Communications Inc..
This said, I must also add that I was a Sr. Manager with them for about ten years, they used to be great, but when Worldcom came in, the place went to shit. What a horrible marriage. MCIWorldcom has got to be one of the worst places to work, a complete sweatshop, no reward unless your an ass kissing exec.
However I don't find any reference to Exodus on any Web based search in relation to BeOpen or to AboveNet. Exodus was founded by a couple of former IBM execs and from what I can find out in th short time since the stroy posted, they appear to be competitors (Exodus and AboveNet) not partners.
As for AboveNet owning BeOpen, I beleive you are correct in your statement, but the controlling interest is held by AboveNet execs. That would be about as close to ownership as you could get. IMO.
Go Dale!
With the ones I have been involved with from an engineering and implementation standpoint they mostly used a redback switch as the main engine and in very cludgy ways wired in the authentication systems such as Radius. Most of the tpp are also selling batter and ground for local loop service that adds to the complication and because of this they don't own any repeaters because the costs are to high to integrate the DSL repeater with the local loop. This rsults in only getting access within a couple of miles of the CoLo. Anything further is done through resale agreements with still other DSL providers.
I finally had enough in my Bell Atlantic service area and went with a cable modem instead. So far service has been great the speeds are more than fast enough and as long as you secure your box in a reasonable manner it seems to be pretty secure. I get the service for about $34 a month and have wired all the workstations in the house through the one cable modem and this turned out to be much cheaper than the DSL service and with the exception of one outage when a telephone pole was hit near my house, service has been 100%.
E tickets were orange, and were discontinued in Disneyworld in FL in '82 and in Disneyland in CA in 85.
The impression I get from your post is that IT=Help Desk. This is a rather narrow view. There's is more to IT than Help Desk. . . Most of it, is very rewarding. I stay in it because I enjoy it, Although I'd have to admit Help Desk work really sucks ass, I'm glad I don't do that anymore. But it is an honorable profession which serves a business critical purpose.
Fact is, for me, I run operations shops and a few development teams and get to stay close to both "the fire of the hour" and the "new technology". This sort of keeps the scales balanced. Projects come and go, business cycles and technology as well, there is rarely more than a moth or two where things stay static and I get bored.
The money is good and I get to code when I feel like it, and I'm continuesly learning which is the big draw for me.
I respectfully disagree. Some marketing information is already out there, not all marketing information. Surfing habit's, purchasing patterns, times on-line, features used, etc. etc. and that's just the advertisers, not bigco that gave you the hypothetical PC. Each little sniglet of information gathered is just a clue. Add them up and the picture paints oof co-branding, cross and up selling and DB's that are chock full of not just real data on you but also autogenerated assumptions based upon profiling.
As for supporting the schools and librarys being connected, I think it's a great idea, but the monies we have to spend is rediculusly high. The money is being mis-managed and mis-spent. If the government regulates/mandates universal access like universal service why would it be any different?
Interesting idea, but I don't see the Bell Atlantics, US West's and the Switch manufactures like Nortel and Mitel supporting it. It would kill their cashflow and leave them as wirehaul leasing companies renting copper pairs instead of how they operate now with mass cusomized products and serives all based on analog swtiching. Anything other than plain old battery and ground is going to cost you. Especially when they sell these capabilities wholesale to CLEC's and the like. They are making a killing and also holding on to the monopolies they have created. If they put digital capability standard into every home, they would need to rebuild the whole infrastructure which in most cases is still based on 1930's technology, at least for the last mile.
This would be hugely expensive and they would lose their only remaining competetive edge which is they own the last mile and all switching, ploes, templates right up to the MPOP. They will never give this up. If they were to rebuild, there are many companies out there which would do it better, faster and cheaper than the Ma Bell companies.
Unfortunately they are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to vision. Most of the Senior Execs and upper management in the RBOCS are old time telephone guys. They're still chasing dial tone. On the advantage side, they have one of the most powerful lobby's on the hill. These guys own the FCC.
Universal access won't be brought to the masses by Ford or Intel or Jimmy's towing service. Universal Access will be brought to you by Uncle Sam. Just as Universal Service was brought to you by Uncle Sam via the Telecom Reform act. Universal Service gets paid for by who? You guessed it, the average taxpayer.
Universal Access is just the @home version of Universal Service (HR 7317). The goverment will end up pushing the effort to brag we're the best most connected country on the planet! Rah Rah Rah. So what? So little average 8 year old Billy can surf pr0n?
I'm so sick of paying more taxes to fund programs like this.
We're (in the US) already getting screwed by Universal Service, Schools and Libraries version of Universal Access. You pay every moth on both your local and long distance bill. It's a5% tax which goes to wire schools and libraries with pc's and connectivity. Just another socialist program brought to you by good old lobbyists. My question is who will pay for Universal Access? Bet you it'll be the average taxpayer.
Sure universal access would be great if everyone was connected, if everyone had a workstation, etc. I think it's very good of Ford, Intel and the rest for making this possible for their emplyees and their families.
Hoewver
It's not free. Promoting univeral access, especially when viewed as a right will in the lkong run cost Joe Average taxpayer a ton of money. Who benefits? Politicians will claim "look what I did, I brought technology to the masses". Big corporations will claim " Look what we did, we gave all our employees and their families pc's and access". What really will happen, bejhind the scenes is that the politicians will be spending gazillions of our tax dollars to fund another social program. Universal service for access to the homes will be paid for just as it is now as part of the furiously opposed "Schools and Libraries" Bill HR 7317. Basically your telecom bill gets additional taxes levied against it so we can pay for wiring schools and libraries with some token out of date clone pc with a 9600 baud modem and an AOL account.
Secondly the big businesses (especially tech companies) love this stuff. They will sell more product to the general public and also grab and keem a customer base for the future. The kids. Just like Mcdonalds does with it's happy meals. You get the favort of the kids when their young and you have them for life.
Universal Access, Just like Universal Service (Schools and Libraries Bill) is bad for the country and bad for the general public. Society is unfortunately made up of different levels of classes, financial and otherwise, having taxpayers pay so that Trailer park Tammy can have broadband brought into the doublewide is not the right way to get the public up to step with todays technology, that's a very socialist approach. This is all to similar to other social reform programs like Welfare, where I pay through taxes enough to support 10 kids a year, not my kids, I never see 'em and I never get a fathers day card. Universal Access will just be another program that has Joe middle class supporting those who are too lazy to work for what they want.
Didn't realize I did that, does look pretty bad. . .
I can't help but think of the similarities between this incident and that where M$ asked /. to remove posters comments. Grated the situatiion and environment are a little different, whereas PH is going directly to the poster and not the ISP, but in many cases such as when AC posts, the easier way to file suit is to file against the ISP and have them disclose information on how to contact the poster, such as IP or account information. I'm glad /. didn't cave in the M$ pressures, but the base is still strikingly similar. Taking copyrighted or licenced property and putting it into the wild or linking to it without permission. Ironic.
Moderation Totals: Funny=1, Off-Topic=1, Showed a little effort=2, Insightful=1, Total=5
Seriously that's not a bad idea as long as you had your ducks in a row first. Things like insuring licensing was under GPL and the product, if hardware had full *nix support.
I agree, but it's always been like this. I personally would rather have some mindless poll, those are at least entertaining.