Punch cards? Bah. I upgraded to a Commodore 1541 disk drive - holds about 2500 punchcards on a single disk!:-o
I'd like to get a 1581 with 880k of space but it's too costly for my budget. Think of all the SID tunes I could store on that thing! Probably hundreds of cool songs like Take On Me, Pleasure Principle, Beat It, and so on.
Pretty much. The network belongs to the College and just like any other ISP, if they want to allow downloading they should be able to. The US Government should not be seeking to damage the educational institution, but then the Federal government is filled with tyrannical Oligarchs so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Sovyet Union meet European Union meet United States. Same difference.
Or forget the expensive fiber and upgrade the existing phone lines to DSL instead. Or existing cable lines to Cable Internet instead. That could be done for less than 0.1 million
But politicians don't understand the concept of choosing cheaper options to save money. They just spend regardless of cost
Yeah but the Unlimited contract also says they can change the terms whenever they feel like it (such as imposing a 250 GB limit). If you don't like the new terms, cancel the contract.
>>>If the continued destruction of the middle class isn't ended
It's the growing national debt (from 10.5 trillion to 13 trillion just since Bush left office) that will destroy the middle class. That's the equivalent of $130,000 owed by each American home. This nonstop spending is causing us to self-destruct (like Greece).
>>>Our WWII spending brought us to 120% of GDP for our national debt,
Yes and when WW2 was over (1945), the Depression snapped right back and people were jobless again. The stock market and GDP did not return to 1928 levels until the early 1950s. So basically all the spending for WW2 cured nothing.
Also there's nothing productive about a war, which is basically equivalent to building a bunch of products and then blowing them up. A war is *destructive* not productive. It wastes resources and money and labor hours. It's the Glazier Paradox - smashing windows just to make work. It would be wiser not to smash the windows in the first place.
Similarly throwing a bunch of money at fiber installs, without considering whether the market will use them, or whether they will just sit unused (dark fiber) is about the same as building a bunch of bridges that lead to nowhere (don't connect to roads). That too is a waste.
>>>you'd have to have multiple runs of cable (impractical and physically destructive)
Yeah because a 50-fiber bundle (1 fiber per cable/internet company) really takes up a lot of room. A whole 2 cm in diameter./end sarcasm. But seriously: The logical course would to have this 50-fiber bundle run under every city street and owned by the government. Then lease 1 fiber to Comcast, 1 to Cox, 1 to Time-Warner, 1 to GoogleTV, and so on. Then, at last, we would have a pro-choice solution for customers.
As for the Ma Bell Breakup, I saw long distance calls drop from $1.40 when they had a monopoly to just 5 cents (2010 dollars).
The breakup also allowed for a boom in modem development, where you were no longer tied to Bell's approved 300/1200 modems (available for 30 years and never advanced). Instead you could buy experimental ~19k models from Cardinal or Rockwell or whoever. Competition spurred innovation and very rapid progress (from 1200 to 56000 in just ten years).
The US does not have that power to dictate what local governments can or can not do, but the Member States might have the power.
For example in Maryland the government runs virtually everything so they could easily outlaw cable and telephone monopolies at the local level. Or: They might try what they did with BGE, where BGE maintains ownership of the pipes/wires, but require that customers have choice from multiple sources.
I really wish people would stop spreading this myth.
It's as bad as those who keep repeating the "Betamax lost because it wouldn't allow porn" myth (holds up copy of Playboy on betamax). If you actually read the 1996 Telecommunications Act the money was allocated for upgrades to fiber -or- upgrades of poor quality telephone lines to 56k -or- upgrades quality (which was considered damn fast compared to the 14k modems most people at the time were using). The 56k upgrade from analog-to-digital telephones is where most companies chose to spend the cash. If you think that was a mistake, well then blame the 1996 Congress who wrote a poor law.
This act was somewhat similar to the "100,000 New Cops" that Clinton used to brag about. It sounds great until you read the actual bill, which allowed the money to be spent on cops -or- cop equivalents (computers, radios, et cetera). Most police departments used the money to buy new gadgets not actual cops.
AS FOR NOW: I was wondering where the money would come from: "In the Recovery Act, Congress allocated $7.2 billion to the NTIA and RUS for broadband grants and loans." In other words this new project was passed over a year ago but its only getting spent during the next few months. I wonder why they waited so long to act?
>>>If we're talking about the last 400 thousand years
That's it? Try 400 MILLION years. The earth had much higher levels of CO2, and yet animals survived just fine. Humans would be okay as well. In fact it used to be a tropical paradise with plants growing everywhere, since they had tons of CO2 to consume and thrive. I fail to see the drawback of higher CO2.
What you are doing is the equivalent of saying, "Watch out! If you sail too far you'll fall off the edge of the earth!" but in reality there's was nothing to fear. The earth was round and people did not fall off. Likewise the earth used to have much much higher levels of CO2 and life thrived.
>>>John Christy lead IPCC author: "I am mainly skeptical about those who claim to be so confident in understanding the climate system that they know what it is going to do in the next 100 years. >>>
Let's stone him!
No better yet, let's tie him to a stake!
Or we could toss him into a pond and see if he floats.
Alright. So that brings us 'round to the group of scientists who say "global warming is a natural part of earth's up-and-down cycle". These scientists get called idiots and they are not allowed to publish. Why are they being censored and insulted?
Oh and one more thought: Did you know that we're in the middle of an Ice Age? Earth's natural state, where it spent 80% of its lifespan, is without ice on the poles. Modern day earth has ice on the poles, so we're actually near one of earth's coldest points, when you look at the billion years.
Yes. And then they forced (or will force) me to spend $1000 to upgrade to a new TV, because they didn't include an S-video output on the Bluray player (or whatever). Bastards. I can't afford to just toss a $1000 set and buy a new one.
>>>That's because Netscape was pretty much the only browser you had to "buy".
Only upto 1996, and then Netscape moved to the free model because Microsoft was giving-away Internet Explorer. .
>>>IE was superior to Navigator
Bullshit. IE has never been superior to any other browser. For that matter Windows has never been superior to any other OS. I can't think of a single product Microsoft has ever made where I would label it "the best" product on the market.
>>>that was a tactic they needed when they wanted to drive Netscape out of the market,
That was a shame. Netscape was the best browser you could buy up 'til AOL took over the company, and made the stupid decision to release Netscape 6 in 2001 (really just Firefox 0.6 beta). But all the earlier Netscapes were superior to Internet Exploder and it's a shame Microsoft uses shitty tactics to drive Netscape to the brink of bankruptcy.
Overall my favorite browsers have been: Mosaic Amiga Mosaic Netscape Firefox 1.0-present
I sometimes use Opera X 10.5 too, but there's something not quite "right" about that browser. It consumes a lot of memory (according to task manager) and sometimes freezes-up for no apparent reason. Plus the Opera Turbo feature often doesn't work (stops loading the page at 95%) which is annoying when you're on a slow connection.
Well one nice thing about older programs is their compact size. For example I have Word 97 open right now, and it's only consuming 5 megabytes. i.e. Not slowing down the system with memory swapping/drive thrashing. Similarly IE6 usually stays under 100 megabytes..... only a third as much as Firefox or Opera consume.
>>>cable TV, FiOS/U-verse, DIRECTV, or DISH Network.
Not really. Where I live FiOS doesn't exist yet and satellite is not practical for internet. So really it's just two choices: DSL or Cable, which is a duopoly, which is about as pro-choice as the Republicrat Duopoly running Congress. My idea of having upto 50 companies serving each home would give us a true choice and true free market, just like we have with food markets or retail stores.
Slashdot Mirror
90%? Your number is suspect, even for state-owned schools. And for private schools the % would be near zero.
You never heard of wire tapping without warrant? And then arresting people based upon their phone conversations (badspeak and wrongthought).
Punch cards? Bah. I upgraded to a Commodore 1541 disk drive - holds about 2500 punchcards on a single disk! :-o
I'd like to get a 1581 with 880k of space but it's too costly for my budget. Think of all the SID tunes I could store on that thing! Probably hundreds of cool songs like Take On Me, Pleasure Principle, Beat It, and so on.
Seeing all the beautiful women at the Lilith Fair is WHERE I get HARD.
$100? More like $1000/semester. I bet some enterprising student (me) would simply download over the phone lines instead.
I for one will be happy when this fucking tyrant chimpanzee George Duh Bush gets out of office.
Oh. Wait.....
Pretty much. The network belongs to the College and just like any other ISP, if they want to allow downloading they should be able to. The US Government should not be seeking to damage the educational institution, but then the Federal government is filled with tyrannical Oligarchs so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Sovyet Union meet European Union meet United States. Same difference.
The Supreme Court has already ruled, multiple times, that it's not acceptable to punish states by saying "no" federal funding "of any kind".
>>>5.2 million for 60 folks?
Or forget the expensive fiber and upgrade the existing phone lines to DSL instead. Or existing cable lines to Cable Internet instead. That could be done for less than 0.1 million
But politicians don't understand the concept of choosing cheaper options to save money. They just spend regardless of cost
Yeah but the Unlimited contract also says they can change the terms whenever they feel like it (such as imposing a 250 GB limit). If you don't like the new terms, cancel the contract.
P.S.
>>>If the continued destruction of the middle class isn't ended
It's the growing national debt (from 10.5 trillion to 13 trillion just since Bush left office) that will destroy the middle class. That's the equivalent of $130,000 owed by each American home. This nonstop spending is causing us to self-destruct (like Greece).
>>>Our WWII spending brought us to 120% of GDP for our national debt,
Yes and when WW2 was over (1945), the Depression snapped right back and people were jobless again. The stock market and GDP did not return to 1928 levels until the early 1950s. So basically all the spending for WW2 cured nothing.
Also there's nothing productive about a war, which is basically equivalent to building a bunch of products and then blowing them up. A war is *destructive* not productive. It wastes resources and money and labor hours. It's the Glazier Paradox - smashing windows just to make work. It would be wiser not to smash the windows in the first place.
Similarly throwing a bunch of money at fiber installs, without considering whether the market will use them, or whether they will just sit unused (dark fiber) is about the same as building a bunch of bridges that lead to nowhere (don't connect to roads). That too is a waste.
>>>the best normal service we have is crappy AT&T DSL at 2Mbps down and 0.4 Mbps up.
They don't have faster speeds? My Verizon DSL offers 12 Mbit/s, and it's cheaper than Comcast's equivalent service.
>>>you'd have to have multiple runs of cable (impractical and physically destructive)
Yeah because a 50-fiber bundle (1 fiber per cable/internet company) really takes up a lot of room. A whole 2 cm in diameter. /end sarcasm. But seriously: The logical course would to have this 50-fiber bundle run under every city street and owned by the government. Then lease 1 fiber to Comcast, 1 to Cox, 1 to Time-Warner, 1 to GoogleTV, and so on. Then, at last, we would have a pro-choice solution for customers.
As for the Ma Bell Breakup, I saw long distance calls drop from $1.40 when they had a monopoly to just 5 cents (2010 dollars).
The breakup also allowed for a boom in modem development, where you were no longer tied to Bell's approved 300/1200 modems (available for 30 years and never advanced). Instead you could buy experimental ~19k models from Cardinal or Rockwell or whoever. Competition spurred innovation and very rapid progress (from 1200 to 56000 in just ten years).
The US does not have that power to dictate what local governments can or can not do, but the Member States might have the power.
For example in Maryland the government runs virtually everything so they could easily outlaw cable and telephone monopolies at the local level. Or: They might try what they did with BGE, where BGE maintains ownership of the pipes/wires, but require that customers have choice from multiple sources.
I really wish people would stop spreading this myth.
It's as bad as those who keep repeating the "Betamax lost because it wouldn't allow porn" myth (holds up copy of Playboy on betamax). If you actually read the 1996 Telecommunications Act the money was allocated for upgrades to fiber -or- upgrades of poor quality telephone lines to 56k -or- upgrades quality (which was considered damn fast compared to the 14k modems most people at the time were using). The 56k upgrade from analog-to-digital telephones is where most companies chose to spend the cash. If you think that was a mistake, well then blame the 1996 Congress who wrote a poor law.
This act was somewhat similar to the "100,000 New Cops" that Clinton used to brag about. It sounds great until you read the actual bill, which allowed the money to be spent on cops -or- cop equivalents (computers, radios, et cetera). Most police departments used the money to buy new gadgets not actual cops.
AS FOR NOW: I was wondering where the money would come from: "In the Recovery Act, Congress allocated $7.2 billion to the NTIA and RUS for broadband grants and loans." In other words this new project was passed over a year ago but its only getting spent during the next few months. I wonder why they waited so long to act?
THANKS. Downloaded to my hard drive for later viewing.
>>>If we're talking about the last 400 thousand years
That's it? Try 400 MILLION years. The earth had much higher levels of CO2, and yet animals survived just fine. Humans would be okay as well. In fact it used to be a tropical paradise with plants growing everywhere, since they had tons of CO2 to consume and thrive. I fail to see the drawback of higher CO2.
What you are doing is the equivalent of saying, "Watch out! If you sail too far you'll fall off the edge of the earth!" but in reality there's was nothing to fear. The earth was round and people did not fall off. Likewise the earth used to have much much higher levels of CO2 and life thrived.
>>>John Christy lead IPCC author: "I am mainly skeptical about those who claim to be so confident in understanding the climate system that they know what it is going to do in the next 100 years.
>>>
Let's stone him!
No better yet, let's tie him to a stake!
Or we could toss him into a pond and see if he floats.
- various religious zealots
Alright. So that brings us 'round to the group of scientists who say "global warming is a natural part of earth's up-and-down cycle". These scientists get called idiots and they are not allowed to publish. Why are they being censored and insulted?
BTW where I live (North America) 2009 was one of the coldest summers on record. I'm curious where all this supposed heat was? It certainly wasn't here.
http://www.examiner.com/x-3420-Cleveland-Weather-Examiner~y2009m9d10-2009-Coldest-US-summer-in-recent-history-300-lowtemp-records-set
Oh and one more thought: Did you know that we're in the middle of an Ice Age? Earth's natural state, where it spent 80% of its lifespan, is without ice on the poles. Modern day earth has ice on the poles, so we're actually near one of earth's coldest points, when you look at the billion years.
The logical course would be to tax money based upon where it is EARNED, not where the company resides.
>>>It was broke, they fixed it.
Yes. And then they forced (or will force) me to spend $1000 to upgrade to a new TV, because they didn't include an S-video output on the Bluray player (or whatever). Bastards. I can't afford to just toss a $1000 set and buy a new one.
>>>That's because Netscape was pretty much the only browser you had to "buy".
Only upto 1996, and then Netscape moved to the free model because Microsoft was giving-away Internet Explorer.
.
>>>IE was superior to Navigator
Bullshit. IE has never been superior to any other browser. For that matter Windows has never been superior to any other OS. I can't think of a single product Microsoft has ever made where I would label it "the best" product on the market.
>>>that was a tactic they needed when they wanted to drive Netscape out of the market,
That was a shame. Netscape was the best browser you could buy up 'til AOL took over the company, and made the stupid decision to release Netscape 6 in 2001 (really just Firefox 0.6 beta). But all the earlier Netscapes were superior to Internet Exploder and it's a shame Microsoft uses shitty tactics to drive Netscape to the brink of bankruptcy.
Overall my favorite browsers have been:
Mosaic Amiga
Mosaic
Netscape
Firefox 1.0-present
I sometimes use Opera X 10.5 too, but there's something not quite "right" about that browser. It consumes a lot of memory (according to task manager) and sometimes freezes-up for no apparent reason. Plus the Opera Turbo feature often doesn't work (stops loading the page at 95%) which is annoying when you're on a slow connection.
>>>IE6 can't die fast enough IMHO.
Well one nice thing about older programs is their compact size. For example I have Word 97 open right now, and it's only consuming 5 megabytes. i.e. Not slowing down the system with memory swapping/drive thrashing. Similarly IE6 usually stays under 100 megabytes..... only a third as much as Firefox or Opera consume.
>>>cable TV, FiOS/U-verse, DIRECTV, or DISH Network.
Not really. Where I live FiOS doesn't exist yet and satellite is not practical for internet. So really it's just two choices: DSL or Cable, which is a duopoly, which is about as pro-choice as the Republicrat Duopoly running Congress. My idea of having upto 50 companies serving each home would give us a true choice and true free market, just like we have with food markets or retail stores.