Cisco had a consumer line not long ago (remember the 600 thru 800 series???). For under $200 you could get a consumer grade router from the other guys or pay $700 for the Cisco that was less robust than just about everything on the market.
It did have a cool looking case and lots of sparkly lights on the front tho...
The real value with this is connectivity within this network. Yeah, the Internet gateway will be limited to whatever pipes the provider is paying for and everyone shares the pool. On the other hand, if you happen to be an editor remotely rendering uncompressed NTSC video from home, this would be pretty handy.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. It's so easy to use anonymous potty mouth or mod down when you disagree with something posted.
My mistake about the government participation. The public housing attribute threw me off. As far as "villifying the poor", give me a break. Yeah there's a few unfortunate souls that, through handicaps or illness, are unable to support themselves and must live off the charity of others. Open your eyes the next time you pass thru the ghetto. For every one of those unfortunate souls are 10 healthy, able-bodied people who choose not to work. They continue to make the decisions that keep them in that state of entitlement, all the while pleading to the bleeding hearts about how damn unlucky and misfortunate they are. These people "ghettoize" themselves with a culture that glorifies violence and a predator mentality. It's got nothing to do with selfish people like me that choose to get an education, choose not to do drugs or alcohol, choose not to be sloven, and choose to be employed.
No matter though. It's still an income redistributing hand-out. So the money doesn't come from tax dollars - it is actually donated by "generous" corporations, which in turn increase the prices of their products and services to the people who actually pay for them. May as well call it a tax.
I have no problem with them spending that money upgrading public Internet access in places like libraries and community centers (part of which was done in this case). There is a minority of public housing residents that will seek out these centers and use them to gain a leg up from a bad home situation. That is truly a great and wonderful thing. However, funding wireless access for "home users" is just over the top and an abuse of charity. Computers and high speed Internet are enablers, not life's necessities. This is no different than someone in front of me at the grocery store buying premium cuts of meat with food stamps. It's a smack in the face to anyone that has to pay for those premium services out of pocket, or buys the products of the companies that subsidize the abuses.
How many public housing residents will actually have a computing device to plug a wireless NIC into? Or have the requisite 1st grade education to use one? Or even put the crack pipe down long enough to even care?
My kids are aged 11, 7 and 3. All of them are computer savvy.
I hate that statement. Savvy about what? Are they appliance users or problem solvers? If your kids are real good at finding free p0rn and chats with pedophiles but can't find the O-N-O-F-F switch do you think that's savvy?
I say give them ownership of a cheap Linux box (root and all) and have at it. Do your net-nanny filtering on a proxy/router. If they want to do anything they will learn how to do it or -perish the thought- go do something else less challenging.
What I was trying to say was, just because it's free, and open source, it does not mean it's going to be the panacea to the world's problems, IT or otherwise.
I agree. However you made remarks in your earlier post to the effect that Linux is a bust when it comes to a mass market desktop - which I think is what is attracting the flames. A year ago I would have fully agreed with those generalizations. I set up a couple of Linux desktops and they were just too much of a hassle to configure for my uses. Even a standard office-type workstation required a lot of hinking around with package dependencies and so on. Server apps were tight and - surprise - that's what most mainstream uses were all about. Bottom line there are two things that make an O/S successful to the masses:
The Killer App, otherwise known as a useful office suite.
Automated configuration. When you want to install the latest doodad it shouldn't require editing.conf files and creating scripts. Click on install and answer the dialogs when they pop up then sit back and enjoy your new stuff.
That being said, I just tried it again after reading some really positive press (namely WalMart selling $200 home systems with Linux). I downloaded and burned the Redhat 8.0 CDs and what a remarkable change! If it weren't for the fact that I would have to buy a $70 license to hit my Exchange server with Ximian, I could actually load this on my work laptop and be able to get my job done (in a shop married to M$). For home, this distribution works nearly perfectly. The biggest hassle was re-sizing the single Windows partition to accomodate another O/S and discovering the crappy webcam that was on my store bought system was trumping the soundcard. Aside from that, the "out-of-the-box" install was a breeze. All the office apps work well and will read/write M$ formats. Package manager makes software setup almost painless (as long as a binary package exists for what you want).
One or two more iterations with Redhat and the like and widespread acceptance is on the way.
Yes but they are already showing signs that they will follow the tracks already laid by Directv. For satellite radio there will come a time when you can shop out your choice of free or very inexpensive systems or pay premium for better high-end stuff... just like DTV. Not to mention the auto manufacturers picking them up with OEM availability.
IMO Sirius got their legs blown off by their late launch. I wouldn't be surprised to see them in bankruptcy inside of 6 months. XM already has the early adopters and continues to gain market share.
My prediction is that when Sirius goes bust that one of the major media players (Clear Channel, AOHell-Time-Warner, etc) will swoop in and buy for pennies on the $. Of course shit-canning the existing stock swapping shenanigan and busting the original investors.
Haven't I read this story before???
Oh yeah... I have XM and love it. Very robust choice of audio entertainment without the hassle of manuevering CDs or MP3s.
Re:GenX--Living up to the "whiners" sterotype
on
Generation Wrecked
·
· Score: 1
I hate reading articles like this. These people do the stupidest shit then lay blame on everything but their own poor decisions. Someone with $50k loans for art therapy and harp lessons needs a boot to the skull. What the fuk is art therapy anyway? And her loser husband with his $40k in school loans needs to get kicked in the head too. Might be a tech education but at the rate he's going he could have made out better in the long run making $10 an hour shoveling shit for his lifetime instead of having the deferred and amortized $40k loan suck away a chunk of his "better" earnings potential. It took me 7 years to finish a 4 year degree (bba at Georgia State) and $40k would have paid for it four times over. I don't understand how they have the stones to actually brag about their stupidity to Fortune Magazine. I finished my undergrad program paying as I went. I had to skip a quarter once in a while but I managed to do it.
An often overlooked lesson by many solution architects: a "system" is a method of getting something done and does not necessarily imply a technology solution.
Sometimes its ok to create a note on my iPaq, sync with my laptop, and even SMS something into my cell phone. Other times a #2 pencil and a sheet of paper(tm) does fine. I like the simple solution that gets the job done.
Ignore the hype and just use what works. If I had mod points to use today, your comment would have a +5 right now.
You need a degree to move your entry level resume to the top half of the pile. You don't need a degree to get started. Just don't be one of those guys that bags groceries for four years and can't figure out why he can't get a serious job offer after graduation.
With few exceptions you just have to do some time changing tapes or cleaning coffee out of keyboards (worst possible shift of course) before you will make good money. It's a good time to think about what you're really interested in and get some focus - maybe even adjust your course choices accordingly. If your lucky you can get a job where things are done right (free time cause everythings WORKING) so you can double-dip and get paid while working on your school stuff.
Besides that, blah blah cultural enrichment blah people skils blah blah blah communication skills blah business savvy blah blah blah and that about sums it up.
I don't understand why this thread perpetuates or why broadband providers and some users just don't get a clue.
Broadband providers: The web hosting companies have been charging for bandwidth for years. Don't block services. Instead charge for bandwitdh! If some luser wants to run their own ftp site or PTP host make them pay instead of reducing service for everyone else. It's common knowledge in the ISP biz that 5% of the users consume 80% of the resources. I do an occaisional download and use VPN to get e-mail from work. Don't penalize me because some dickhead next door runs a Kazaa server or uses their VPN connection to stream bitmapped X-rays or something.
Broadband users: There ain't no free lunch. You get a consumer grade connection for $40/mo. If you use it at commercial grade levels you should pay accordingly. I don't care what kind of Gigabytes you are moving, you need to pay for what you use. Oh, and you amateur lawyers out there ripping thru the terms of service: quit trying to preach about what your ISP rights to service are. At the end of the day you haven't paid for shit so don't expect to get a $2500 commercial grade pipe for the price of two 56k modem connections.
ISP customers have choices whether they choose to recognize them or not. Before AT&T brought cable to my neighborhood I was paying $80/mo for - get this - metered (200 channel-hours) ISDN plus a $40 ISP account to support 2 channel connections. If I thought 128k was too slow, there was always a half dozen tier 2 providers who would gladly put in a premise router and a CIR set to whatever ceiling I could afford. Even with $40/mo cable and ADSL now, those tier 2 providers are still in business for a reason.
This is just the next iteration of a$$holes that would tie up ISP modem banks with 24/7 dial-up connections. Now they are hogging cable and ADSL backbones and causing regular, low-bandwidth customers to lose service.
If your ISP kills all your Kazaa ports quit yer bitching and get your premise router installed.
But wait, here's a novel idea: Let's get several $mil from some VC's, put up this new service, and sell it at the same price as already established and more available cable and ADSL!
They need to stick to airports and hotels and quit making it seem like a cutting edge idea.
What the authors are observing is the change of computers from tools to appliances. The ignorance of the multi-player game comment was clearly written on a WebTV device.
99% of people buying new computers may as well be buying a new coffee maker. Plug in, turn on, coffees ready. In that respect, a $200 copy of Windows is way better than any flavor of Linux.
The 1% represented by people reading Slashdot are usually:
A. Literate
B. Adept at problem solving
which qualifies them to save their $200 in exchange for a bare-bones, but highly customizable & powerful tool. People that do not have A or B will try Linux, give up, and whine about how useless Linux is. Every time.
The real trouble here is the arbitrary application of a fee with no real value in return.
In some cases, yes you are right about VPN being a business activity. In many other cases there are home users that can take advantage of VPN access when their employer is not funding it, or provides a nominal kickback that is = to a $20/mo dialup fee. Or perish the thought, you run a VPN host at home so you can grab stuff off your personal machine when away.
I can agree with them nailing bandwidth hogs with a surcharge or higher (expensive) class of service. When I get tier 1 access from a GSP, I pay for volume and service level - and they don't care what the content is. I don't think it unreasonable to pass those charges down within reason.
Sure the phone company charges a higher business rate. But wait! they will put in a bare-bones 2nd line for $10/mo. That often gets used for fax (or dialup for broadband challenged). What they don't give you is a commercial level of service. Go figure.
Airlines charge higher business fares. Maybe because business travelers want to book at the last minute and make 6 itinerary changes during the trip. Cool... you get that extra service for a fee. If I plan a business trip in advance and get a restricted fare, they don't just upcharge because I used my corp AMEX. I just get the cheap fare and get upcharged if and when I need extras like last minute changes.
You Get What You Pay For - just don't charge me extra for crap I'm not using!!!
I think a lot of this audience loses sight of the "gadget challenged" that make up the majority of the market. I doubt my parents would ever be bothered with an mp3 player at home or in the car. The only time they ever use CD's or tapes is when there's no radio reception. Not to mention the fact that you have to go out and pay $10-20 for each CD and except for about 1 in 100, most CD's have 1 or 2 good selections and the rest are filler.
To them, satellite radio does what cable TV does: instant access to more channels to pick from. I'm even too lazy to bother with an mp3 player because my listening isn't that premeditated. I enjoy the digital audio channels I get on cable and think it would be cool in the car too.
I agree with the commercial free crowd though. If I subscribe to either service I want music not ads. I probably spend an hour a day in the car and don't care for the DJ banter and usually not in the mood for talk radio. The morning is worst - I can often cycle thru 6 presets and get no music.
Is it the corp that's a big crybaby or did the potential investors read the nasty web posts and chicken out on the deal? or....
OTOH, what if the posts made by some bad people did successfully derail their deal. Are they actually true statements?
Sort of like the difference between calling someone names versus yelling "fire" in a theater. The Big Issue should be A: Is the statement true and B: If not true, did it cause damages? then let the court decide it from there.
No - it's like the lights in the data center but more yellow and round and if it shines on you it ruins that attractive corpse-like pallor you work so hard at.
Don't ever go out in the sunlight, bathing is optional, answer all questions with a clear and concise grunt, and use one word e-mail replies (my personal favorite is "NO").
You'll know you're good when you are like a phantom and you're co-workers can't describe what you look like and are too afraid to try finding you.
The difference is that you didn't purchase the appliance to use AT&T cable. You lease the digital box (they own it) and subscribe to the service. If you don't like the slowness or the ads get something else. At least your not out a big cash outlay for a convertor box that doesn't work.
The funny thing is that I switched to AT&T because they were first to get HSD service in my neighborhood. I was using BellSouth Americast (microwave). BellSouth had an interactive guide that rocked, except for the 5 minutes or so at the top of the hour when it downloaded updates. Which was when I was usually looking at it and waiting 2 min between pressing the remote and seeing action on the screen. I don't really like AT&T's interactive menu, but I haven't had any problems with slowness. And the cable modem kicks ass over my old ISDN line!
Slashdot Mirror
Cisco had a consumer line not long ago (remember the 600 thru 800 series???). For under $200 you could get a consumer grade router from the other guys or pay $700 for the Cisco that was less robust than just about everything on the market.
It did have a cool looking case and lots of sparkly lights on the front tho...
The real value with this is connectivity within this network. Yeah, the Internet gateway will be limited to whatever pipes the provider is paying for and everyone shares the pool. On the other hand, if you happen to be an editor remotely rendering uncompressed NTSC video from home, this would be pretty handy.
The more I read, the more it sounds like a consipiracy theory.
One would think these aspiring students would try something a bit more profitable like a pr0n site instead of a dumb spam relay.
Sheeesh! what's happening with these damn kids anyway?
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. It's so easy to use anonymous potty mouth or mod down when you disagree with something posted.
My mistake about the government participation. The public housing attribute threw me off. As far as "villifying the poor", give me a break. Yeah there's a few unfortunate souls that, through handicaps or illness, are unable to support themselves and must live off the charity of others. Open your eyes the next time you pass thru the ghetto. For every one of those unfortunate souls are 10 healthy, able-bodied people who choose not to work. They continue to make the decisions that keep them in that state of entitlement, all the while pleading to the bleeding hearts about how damn unlucky and misfortunate they are. These people "ghettoize" themselves with a culture that glorifies violence and a predator mentality. It's got nothing to do with selfish people like me that choose to get an education, choose not to do drugs or alcohol, choose not to be sloven, and choose to be employed.
No matter though. It's still an income redistributing hand-out. So the money doesn't come from tax dollars - it is actually donated by "generous" corporations, which in turn increase the prices of their products and services to the people who actually pay for them. May as well call it a tax.
I have no problem with them spending that money upgrading public Internet access in places like libraries and community centers (part of which was done in this case). There is a minority of public housing residents that will seek out these centers and use them to gain a leg up from a bad home situation. That is truly a great and wonderful thing. However, funding wireless access for "home users" is just over the top and an abuse of charity. Computers and high speed Internet are enablers, not life's necessities. This is no different than someone in front of me at the grocery store buying premium cuts of meat with food stamps. It's a smack in the face to anyone that has to pay for those premium services out of pocket, or buys the products of the companies that subsidize the abuses.
How many public housing residents will actually have a computing device to plug a wireless NIC into? Or have the requisite 1st grade education to use one? Or even put the crack pipe down long enough to even care?
My kids are aged 11, 7 and 3. All of them are computer savvy.
I hate that statement. Savvy about what? Are they appliance users or problem solvers? If your kids are real good at finding free p0rn and chats with pedophiles but can't find the O-N-O-F-F switch do you think that's savvy?
I say give them ownership of a cheap Linux box (root and all) and have at it. Do your net-nanny filtering on a proxy/router. If they want to do anything they will learn how to do it or -perish the thought- go do something else less challenging.
It's one thing for the Industry to have legal sway to launch attacks... but I wonder if they realize the potential for retaliation that awaits them?
That being said, I just tried it again after reading some really positive press (namely WalMart selling $200 home systems with Linux). I downloaded and burned the Redhat 8.0 CDs and what a remarkable change! If it weren't for the fact that I would have to buy a $70 license to hit my Exchange server with Ximian, I could actually load this on my work laptop and be able to get my job done (in a shop married to M$). For home, this distribution works nearly perfectly. The biggest hassle was re-sizing the single Windows partition to accomodate another O/S and discovering the crappy webcam that was on my store bought system was trumping the soundcard. Aside from that, the "out-of-the-box" install was a breeze. All the office apps work well and will read/write M$ formats. Package manager makes software setup almost painless (as long as a binary package exists for what you want).
One or two more iterations with Redhat and the like and widespread acceptance is on the way.
Whatever happened to AM stereo? Sound familiar?
Yes but they are already showing signs that they will follow the tracks already laid by Directv. For satellite radio there will come a time when you can shop out your choice of free or very inexpensive systems or pay premium for better high-end stuff... just like DTV. Not to mention the auto manufacturers picking them up with OEM availability.
IMO Sirius got their legs blown off by their late launch. I wouldn't be surprised to see them in bankruptcy inside of 6 months. XM already has the early adopters and continues to gain market share.
My prediction is that when Sirius goes bust that one of the major media players (Clear Channel, AOHell-Time-Warner, etc) will swoop in and buy for pennies on the $. Of course shit-canning the existing stock swapping shenanigan and busting the original investors.
Haven't I read this story before???
Oh yeah... I have XM and love it. Very robust choice of audio entertainment without the hassle of manuevering CDs or MP3s.
I hate reading articles like this. These people do the stupidest shit then lay blame on everything but their own poor decisions. Someone with $50k loans for art therapy and harp lessons needs a boot to the skull. What the fuk is art therapy anyway? And her loser husband with his $40k in school loans needs to get kicked in the head too. Might be a tech education but at the rate he's going he could have made out better in the long run making $10 an hour shoveling shit for his lifetime instead of having the deferred and amortized $40k loan suck away a chunk of his "better" earnings potential. It took me 7 years to finish a 4 year degree (bba at Georgia State) and $40k would have paid for it four times over. I don't understand how they have the stones to actually brag about their stupidity to Fortune Magazine. I finished my undergrad program paying as I went. I had to skip a quarter once in a while but I managed to do it.
An often overlooked lesson by many solution architects: a "system" is a method of getting something done and does not necessarily imply a technology solution.
Sometimes its ok to create a note on my iPaq, sync with my laptop, and even SMS something into my cell phone. Other times a #2 pencil and a sheet of paper(tm) does fine. I like the simple solution that gets the job done.
Ignore the hype and just use what works. If I had mod points to use today, your comment would have a +5 right now.
Cheers!
You need a degree to move your entry level resume to the top half of the pile. You don't need a degree to get started. Just don't be one of those guys that bags groceries for four years and can't figure out why he can't get a serious job offer after graduation.
With few exceptions you just have to do some time changing tapes or cleaning coffee out of keyboards (worst possible shift of course) before you will make good money. It's a good time to think about what you're really interested in and get some focus - maybe even adjust your course choices accordingly. If your lucky you can get a job where things are done right (free time cause everythings WORKING) so you can double-dip and get paid while working on your school stuff.
Besides that, blah blah cultural enrichment blah people skils blah blah blah communication skills blah business savvy blah blah blah and that about sums it up.
I think he just misses the secret handshake and the decoder ring.
I don't understand why this thread perpetuates or why broadband providers and some users just don't get a clue.
Broadband providers: The web hosting companies have been charging for bandwidth for years. Don't block services. Instead charge for bandwitdh! If some luser wants to run their own ftp site or PTP host make them pay instead of reducing service for everyone else. It's common knowledge in the ISP biz that 5% of the users consume 80% of the resources. I do an occaisional download and use VPN to get e-mail from work. Don't penalize me because some dickhead next door runs a Kazaa server or uses their VPN connection to stream bitmapped X-rays or something.
Broadband users: There ain't no free lunch. You get a consumer grade connection for $40/mo. If you use it at commercial grade levels you should pay accordingly. I don't care what kind of Gigabytes you are moving, you need to pay for what you use. Oh, and you amateur lawyers out there ripping thru the terms of service: quit trying to preach about what your ISP rights to service are. At the end of the day you haven't paid for shit so don't expect to get a $2500 commercial grade pipe for the price of two 56k modem connections.
ISP customers have choices whether they choose to recognize them or not. Before AT&T brought cable to my neighborhood I was paying $80/mo for - get this - metered (200 channel-hours) ISDN plus a $40 ISP account to support 2 channel connections. If I thought 128k was too slow, there was always a half dozen tier 2 providers who would gladly put in a premise router and a CIR set to whatever ceiling I could afford. Even with $40/mo cable and ADSL now, those tier 2 providers are still in business for a reason.
This is just the next iteration of a$$holes that would tie up ISP modem banks with 24/7 dial-up connections. Now they are hogging cable and ADSL backbones and causing regular, low-bandwidth customers to lose service.
If your ISP kills all your Kazaa ports quit yer bitching and get your premise router installed.
*snort*
Smells like Ricochet's bastard step sibling.
But wait, here's a novel idea: Let's get several $mil from some VC's, put up this new service, and sell it at the same price as already established and more available cable and ADSL!
They need to stick to airports and hotels and quit making it seem like a cutting edge idea.
Phooey.
What the authors are observing is the change of computers from tools to appliances. The ignorance of the multi-player game comment was clearly written on a WebTV device.
99% of people buying new computers may as well be buying a new coffee maker. Plug in, turn on, coffees ready. In that respect, a $200 copy of Windows is way better than any flavor of Linux.
The 1% represented by people reading Slashdot are usually:
A. Literate
B. Adept at problem solving
which qualifies them to save their $200 in exchange for a bare-bones, but highly customizable & powerful tool. People that do not have A or B will try Linux, give up, and whine about how useless Linux is. Every time.
The real trouble here is the arbitrary application of a fee with no real value in return.
In some cases, yes you are right about VPN being a business activity. In many other cases there are home users that can take advantage of VPN access when their employer is not funding it, or provides a nominal kickback that is = to a $20/mo dialup fee. Or perish the thought, you run a VPN host at home so you can grab stuff off your personal machine when away.
I can agree with them nailing bandwidth hogs with a surcharge or higher (expensive) class of service. When I get tier 1 access from a GSP, I pay for volume and service level - and they don't care what the content is. I don't think it unreasonable to pass those charges down within reason.
Sure the phone company charges a higher business rate. But wait! they will put in a bare-bones 2nd line for $10/mo. That often gets used for fax (or dialup for broadband challenged). What they don't give you is a commercial level of service. Go figure.
Airlines charge higher business fares. Maybe because business travelers want to book at the last minute and make 6 itinerary changes during the trip. Cool... you get that extra service for a fee. If I plan a business trip in advance and get a restricted fare, they don't just upcharge because I used my corp AMEX. I just get the cheap fare and get upcharged if and when I need extras like last minute changes.
You Get What You Pay For - just don't charge me extra for crap I'm not using!!!
I think a lot of this audience loses sight of the "gadget challenged" that make up the majority of the market. I doubt my parents would ever be bothered with an mp3 player at home or in the car. The only time they ever use CD's or tapes is when there's no radio reception. Not to mention the fact that you have to go out and pay $10-20 for each CD and except for about 1 in 100, most CD's have 1 or 2 good selections and the rest are filler.
To them, satellite radio does what cable TV does: instant access to more channels to pick from. I'm even too lazy to bother with an mp3 player because my listening isn't that premeditated. I enjoy the digital audio channels I get on cable and think it would be cool in the car too.
I agree with the commercial free crowd though. If I subscribe to either service I want music not ads. I probably spend an hour a day in the car and don't care for the DJ banter and usually not in the mood for talk radio. The morning is worst - I can often cycle thru 6 presets and get no music.
Is it the corp that's a big crybaby or did the potential investors read the nasty web posts and chicken out on the deal? or....
OTOH, what if the posts made by some bad people did successfully derail their deal. Are they actually true statements?
Sort of like the difference between calling someone names versus yelling "fire" in a theater. The Big Issue should be A: Is the statement true and B: If not true, did it cause damages? then let the court decide it from there.
No - it's like the lights in the data center but more yellow and round and if it shines on you it ruins that attractive corpse-like pallor you work so hard at.
Don't ever go out in the sunlight, bathing is optional, answer all questions with a clear and concise grunt, and use one word e-mail replies (my personal favorite is "NO").
You'll know you're good when you are like a phantom and you're co-workers can't describe what you look like and are too afraid to try finding you.
I think they should apply colorful racing stripes and different types of aerodymic spoilers and wings to show their true processing speed.
The difference is that you didn't purchase the appliance to use AT&T cable. You lease the digital box (they own it) and subscribe to the service. If you don't like the slowness or the ads get something else. At least your not out a big cash outlay for a convertor box that doesn't work.
The funny thing is that I switched to AT&T because they were first to get HSD service in my neighborhood. I was using BellSouth Americast (microwave). BellSouth had an interactive guide that rocked, except for the 5 minutes or so at the top of the hour when it downloaded updates. Which was when I was usually looking at it and waiting 2 min between pressing the remote and seeing action on the screen. I don't really like AT&T's interactive menu, but I haven't had any problems with slowness. And the cable modem kicks ass over my old ISDN line!