That's NOT free. You have to pay a monthly bill, and if you go over ~250 gigabytes per month (which would be easy to do if internet == television in your home), then you have to pay even more money.
In contrast my broadcast television has NO monthly free and I get all of these channels: MAIN channels: 2 (BaltimoreTV) 3 (ion) 6 (news) 8 (NBC) 10 (Xena, Hercules, and other 90s classic) 11 (syndicated/independent shows) 12 (PhillyTV) 13 (baseball) 15 (CW) 17 (MyNetworkTV) 21 (ABC) 27 (CBS) 33 (PBS) 35 (MIND) 43 (fox) 45 (sports) 48 (tbn) 49 (family) 51 (ads) 57 (reruns) 61 (ion) 65 (univision)
SUBchannels (X-2, X-3, X-4, X-5) Wellness This movie channel Weather NBC Sports PBSkids PBSinfo PBSarts RetroTV IndiaTV WorldTV Megahertz (world news) FOX News (local 24 hour news) Smile of a Child (SOAC) JCTV (music vids) TBN Spanish Telemundo
So that's what? About 40 channels? And they are all free-of-charge and takeup very little space on the spectrum (about 0.4 gigahertz). I don't see any reason to kill off broadcast, free TV as some companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple want to do.
I thought maybe I should expand on this. I used to work for the FAA... part of a 4 man team. I received a year of pay, but did only 2 months of actual work. The rest of the time I and my colleagues surfed the net, or read magazines, or whatever. On top of that we got expensive boondoggle trips with $115 hotel rooms that had free room service, et cetera.
And as I looked around, I noticed that other FAA workers were doing the same thing: Surfing the net. When my one-year stint was up I asked my boss, "Why did you hire 4 guys when there was so little work?" and he replied, "I had a little over $1 million to spend and didn't want it to go back to Congress, so instead I spent it." I realized this is what a government job entails - waste.
That same kind of waste will be involved in this Uncle Sam-run broadband organization too. And it's inherent in nearly all government-run programs.
Actually a communist paradise DOES cost money. You earn it - the government takes it and "serves" you with free grocery stores (with long lines), free housing (with 10 people squeezed inside), free apartments (the size of a dorm room), and on and on. Just see Soviet Union circa 1980.
As for this broaband plan:
I still don't see why it's my responsibility to fund a fiber optic hookup for some farmer living in the middle of noplace (the Wyoming/Idaho border for example). There's a much cheaper way to get broadband out there, and it will be done in typical free market efficiency (read: as cheap as possible), rather than through the corruption of government employees that spend most of their day surfing the net (see my job at the FAA):
- Congress mandates that Verizon/ATT/whoever must provide DSL to any customer that requests it. - WAIT. If the farmer is happy with dialup, then he keep dialup, but if he requests highspeed then: - Verizon installs a DSLAM. The phone lines are already there. so it should be a simple 1-2 day job. Like so: Fiber--> DSLAM--> serves neighborhood/rural district
If the local company balks at the expense, remind them they received billions from the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and suggest they use that money to buy those ~$1000 DSLAMs. I think that's a MUCH better solution than some Amtrak-style government program. I certainly can't afford to have my taxes raised (again). And my children/grandchildren can't afford to payoff the soon-to-be ~$200,000 per home government debt*. We need to spend LESS money, not more, else we'll soon endup like Greece or Iceland. .
Not correct. I don't want a government-run school that teaches me kids to sing, "Barack Hussein Obama (or George Dubya Bush). He'll save our land. Mmmm mmmm mmmm". Neither do I want Medisuck or social insecurity that increases healthcare costs (paperwork and labor). In my opinion ALL of this should be eliminated and replaced with private, customer-run services with a "safety net" to help the bottom 2-3% that can't afford to pay the bill. So..... definitely not "everyone" as you claimed.
I'm pro-choice. Government is anti-choice. It's monopoly. :-)
* * Estimated debt per home in 2020 according to the CBO.
Back when I was Libertarian I tried to run one of our party members for Congressman, but the state requires 5% of the population to sign a petition. In a big state like Maryland that requires about 1/2 a million people to sign for a candidate (or party) they've never heard of.
After going through this process twice (and failing both times) I finally just gave up. The Reps and Dems have locked-up the ballot.
Which is ridiculous. It's not like the old days when we were trying to save paper: We have computers now - there's no reason to limit the number of names on the screen.
"I could think of worse ways to die, but none as embarassing as autoerotic asphyxiation." - Clyde Bruckman "Why are you looking at me when you say that?" - Mulder
Nope. Oftentimes you'll spend time in jail, even if it's only for one night, so that's a loss of your right to liberty. - And typically the cops will obtain a search warrant and enter your home and peruse your PC. That's another right you've lost. And so on.
I've often wondered the same thing about Social Security. Virtually all parents now apply for an SS Number at birth, but since some adults might choose *not* to participate in the program, that effectively takes away their choice.
(Yes SS is voluntary. For example if you are self-employed, such as a farmer or Amish or other fringe community, you need not join. You won't be able to get a job, but that IS your choice.)
Either that or sneak into this student's dorm/apartment, fill it with underage porn (like those nude Disney girls), and then call the FBI or state police (or both). Let him be a victim of his own faulty "I have nothing to hide" philosophy.
Don't worry. I'm sure he'll get off. Eventually. No real harm will be done, but it will be a valuable life lesson for the student and the other ~10,000 students in his community - you cannot trust government to invade your personal privacy. Even if you're innocent, you're likely to get screwed in an uncomfortable place.
>>>Vast numbers of sex offenders and other criminals would be swiftly caught and punished
Like those nasty vermin Jews and Japanese Nisei and Chinese Intellectuals. Round 'em up and throw them into concentration camps!!! We'll line them in front of the firing squad next week. POINT:
- You have to think not only of the positive effects of your ideas, but also the negative effects when some Future nutjob takes over as leader. No reason to make his job easy by giving him a convenient database for 100 million Germans, 300 million Americans, or 900 million Chinese. Better to make that database never exist.
Arrested people forfeit their rights. Like the right of liberty (they are thrown in prison) or the right to be secure in their homes (the judge searches for evidence), or secure in their persons (collection of prints and DNA).
They still retain SOME of their rights, such as a trial by jury, but not all of them.
>>>Hell, certain agencies "change their minds" between approval and collection
And this why we have a U.S. Constitution, to specifically state what the central agencies Can Do (enumerated power) and Can Not do (Bill of Rights 9 and 10). Too bad nobody bothers to pay any attention to their Oath to obey constitutional law.
Again, this is why we need the 50 State Legislatures to stand up and act as a "check" on the central government, and restore "balance" to our political system, as well as enforcing the constitution that they created. If they don't do it, history shows that nobody will.
"Ya wants me to break some more windows and provide Job Stims to the glass makers???" - government thug. Or maybe just junk some perfectly functional cars, which passed emissions inspections flawlessly, but we have to make work for those Government Motors employees.
The Elected Nobility won't keep their promises. "Oh it's only 26 markers... we can't predict your health from that," and then in ten or twenty years they'll want to sequence your entire genome, so they can create a society like GATTACA.
I've seen this before. The Nobles promised income tax would only affect people over $100,000 not the commoners. They said Medicare would only cost 60 billion, and that it would REDUCE healthcare costs, which of course it did the exact opposite. And they claimed the social security number would Never be used for anything else, but the SS administration.
Yeah when I moved from Opera 10.10 to 10.50 I was disappointed. The menu design is rather dumb. I tried clciking on the big "O" to access the Edit-->Find menu and discovered it's no longer there. How lame is that? It reminds me of the broken menu design that existed on Netscape 6.
At this point I'd probably quit Opera if I didn't need its Turbo/compression mode for my laptop's dialup connection. Why must programmers mess with good products and break them?!?!?
Well Microsoft is the sponsor behind several of those 6-through-12 browsers, since they are just IE with overlays. They should be excluded too. Oh well. (shrug)
seaMonkey could solve this problem quite easily by spinning off their work from the Mozilla envelope and creating a separate organization.
Nah. You may choose to disbelieve me if you want. (shrug). Here's a few links to provide a starting point if you really want to know (which I suspect you don't): BUDGET - http://www.google.com/search?q=barack+obama's+budget
Message to jayme: The individuals that make up "the people" have plenty to hide. I'm sure that there are plenty of things that some individuals know that should not be known by by the general populace, or more importantly the corrupt leaders at the top. Therefore:
Stop tracking my cellphone. Stop monitoring my PC or net connection. Stop entering my home wtihout warrant, or peering inside with external cameras. Stop subjecting my to groinal patdowns when I enter an airport or train terminal. Stop taking my blood so you can trace or identify me (see GATTACA for why that's a bad idea).
I want my liberty not harassment; nor serfdom to the noble class (US congress/EU parliament).
QUOTE from the settlement: "The five main web browsers with the highest usage share, ordered alphabetically [later changed to randomized] according to the vendor's company name, would be prominently displayed, and seven additional web browsers, also ordered alphabetically according to the vendor's company name, would be displayed if the user scrolls sideways." - http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/decisions/39530/final_decision_en.pdf
- The top 5 are the most popular. - The remaining 7 are apparently random.
It appears MS picked those browsers that are least usable (or outdated), and that might explain why SeaMonkey and Netscape 9 were not included even though they are probably the 6th and 7th most popular browsers in EU.
I'm glad the EU politicians wasted a couple million of my dollars on this. Well, not MY dollars, but somebody's dollars (european taxpayers' euros).
No. The person making the claim ALSO has the responsibility to back it up with citations. If no citations are provided, then the claim is null and void as if it never existed. (And I was going to say "thanks for the helpful link" but now you can just forget it.)
Slashdot Mirror
>>>"Free" broadcast is alive and well - online.
That's NOT free. You have to pay a monthly bill, and if you go over ~250 gigabytes per month (which would be easy to do if internet == television in your home), then you have to pay even more money.
In contrast my broadcast television has NO monthly free and I get all of these channels:
MAIN channels:
2 (BaltimoreTV)
3 (ion)
6 (news)
8 (NBC)
10 (Xena, Hercules, and other 90s classic)
11 (syndicated/independent shows)
12 (PhillyTV)
13 (baseball)
15 (CW)
17 (MyNetworkTV)
21 (ABC)
27 (CBS)
33 (PBS)
35 (MIND)
43 (fox)
45 (sports)
48 (tbn)
49 (family)
51 (ads)
57 (reruns)
61 (ion)
65 (univision)
SUBchannels (X-2, X-3, X-4, X-5)
Wellness
This movie channel
Weather
NBC Sports
PBSkids
PBSinfo
PBSarts
RetroTV
IndiaTV
WorldTV
Megahertz (world news)
FOX News (local 24 hour news)
Smile of a Child (SOAC)
JCTV (music vids)
TBN Spanish
Telemundo
So that's what? About 40 channels? And they are all free-of-charge and takeup very little space on the spectrum (about 0.4 gigahertz). I don't see any reason to kill off broadcast, free TV as some companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple want to do.
>>>my job at the FAA
I thought maybe I should expand on this. I used to work for the FAA... part of a 4 man team. I received a year of pay, but did only 2 months of actual work. The rest of the time I and my colleagues surfed the net, or read magazines, or whatever. On top of that we got expensive boondoggle trips with $115 hotel rooms that had free room service, et cetera.
And as I looked around, I noticed that other FAA workers were doing the same thing: Surfing the net. When my one-year stint was up I asked my boss, "Why did you hire 4 guys when there was so little work?" and he replied, "I had a little over $1 million to spend and didn't want it to go back to Congress, so instead I spent it." I realized this is what a government job entails - waste.
That same kind of waste will be involved in this Uncle Sam-run broadband organization too. And it's inherent in nearly all government-run programs.
Actually a communist paradise DOES cost money. You earn it - the government takes it and "serves" you with free grocery stores (with long lines), free housing (with 10 people squeezed inside), free apartments (the size of a dorm room), and on and on. Just see Soviet Union circa 1980.
As for this broaband plan:
I still don't see why it's my responsibility to fund a fiber optic hookup for some farmer living in the middle of noplace (the Wyoming/Idaho border for example). There's a much cheaper way to get broadband out there, and it will be done in typical free market efficiency (read: as cheap as possible), rather than through the corruption of government employees that spend most of their day surfing the net (see my job at the FAA):
- Congress mandates that Verizon/ATT/whoever must provide DSL to any customer that requests it.
- WAIT. If the farmer is happy with dialup, then he keep dialup, but if he requests highspeed then:
- Verizon installs a DSLAM. The phone lines are already there. so it should be a simple 1-2 day job. Like so: Fiber--> DSLAM--> serves neighborhood/rural district
If the local company balks at the expense, remind them they received billions from the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and suggest they use that money to buy those ~$1000 DSLAMs. I think that's a MUCH better solution than some Amtrak-style government program. I certainly can't afford to have my taxes raised (again). And my children/grandchildren can't afford to payoff the soon-to-be ~$200,000 per home government debt*. We need to spend LESS money, not more, else we'll soon endup like Greece or Iceland.
.
>>>Everybody wants services (public schools, Medicare, military, etc),
Not correct. I don't want a government-run school that teaches me kids to sing, "Barack Hussein Obama (or George Dubya Bush). He'll save our land. Mmmm mmmm mmmm". Neither do I want Medisuck or social insecurity that increases healthcare costs (paperwork and labor). In my opinion ALL of this should be eliminated and replaced with private, customer-run services with a "safety net" to help the bottom 2-3% that can't afford to pay the bill. So..... definitely not "everyone" as you claimed.
I'm pro-choice.
:-)
Government is anti-choice.
It's monopoly.
*
* Estimated debt per home in 2020 according to the CBO.
PRINT "thank you"
thank you
READY.
It's not that easy.
Back when I was Libertarian I tried to run one of our party members for Congressman, but the state requires 5% of the population to sign a petition. In a big state like Maryland that requires about 1/2 a million people to sign for a candidate (or party) they've never heard of.
After going through this process twice (and failing both times) I finally just gave up. The Reps and Dems have locked-up the ballot.
Which is ridiculous. It's not like the old days when we were trying to save paper: We have computers now - there's no reason to limit the number of names on the screen.
Because "Show Menu" doesn't display the traditional Windows pulldown-menu bar. It displays a bunch of useless icons.
"I could think of worse ways to die, but none as embarassing as autoerotic asphyxiation." - Clyde Bruckman
"Why are you looking at me when you say that?" - Mulder
"Corpse man Joe Smith did an admirable job..... Let's hear it for Corpse Man Smith!" - Barack Obama
>>>This is not the fault of lawmakers, is it?
Yes. They set the precedent when they started using SS numbers to track your Medicare and your IRS tax returns. The lawmakers did it first.
>>>You retain all your rights upon arrest.
Nope. Oftentimes you'll spend time in jail, even if it's only for one night, so that's a loss of your right to liberty. - And typically the cops will obtain a search warrant and enter your home and peruse your PC. That's another right you've lost. And so on.
I've often wondered the same thing about Social Security. Virtually all parents now apply for an SS Number at birth, but since some adults might choose *not* to participate in the program, that effectively takes away their choice.
(Yes SS is voluntary. For example if you are self-employed, such as a farmer or Amish or other fringe community, you need not join. You won't be able to get a job, but that IS your choice.)
Either that or sneak into this student's dorm/apartment, fill it with underage porn (like those nude Disney girls), and then call the FBI or state police (or both). Let him be a victim of his own faulty "I have nothing to hide" philosophy.
Don't worry. I'm sure he'll get off. Eventually. No real harm will be done, but it will be a valuable life lesson for the student and the other ~10,000 students in his community - you cannot trust government to invade your personal privacy. Even if you're innocent, you're likely to get screwed in an uncomfortable place.
>>>Vast numbers of sex offenders and other criminals would be swiftly caught and punished
Like those nasty vermin Jews and Japanese Nisei and Chinese Intellectuals. Round 'em up and throw them into concentration camps!!! We'll line them in front of the firing squad next week. POINT:
- You have to think not only of the positive effects of your ideas, but also the negative effects when some Future nutjob takes over as leader. No reason to make his job easy by giving him a convenient database for 100 million Germans, 300 million Americans, or 900 million Chinese. Better to make that database never exist.
Arrested people forfeit their rights. Like the right of liberty (they are thrown in prison) or the right to be secure in their homes (the judge searches for evidence), or secure in their persons (collection of prints and DNA).
They still retain SOME of their rights, such as a trial by jury, but not all of them.
>>>Hell, certain agencies "change their minds" between approval and collection
And this why we have a U.S. Constitution, to specifically state what the central agencies Can Do (enumerated power) and Can Not do (Bill of Rights 9 and 10). Too bad nobody bothers to pay any attention to their Oath to obey constitutional law.
Again, this is why we need the 50 State Legislatures to stand up and act as a "check" on the central government, and restore "balance" to our political system, as well as enforcing the constitution that they created. If they don't do it, history shows that nobody will.
>>>Overton Window
"Ya wants me to break some more windows and provide Job Stims to the glass makers???" - government thug. Or maybe just junk some perfectly functional cars, which passed emissions inspections flawlessly, but we have to make work for those Government Motors employees.
The Elected Nobility won't keep their promises. "Oh it's only 26 markers... we can't predict your health from that," and then in ten or twenty years they'll want to sequence your entire genome, so they can create a society like GATTACA.
I've seen this before. The Nobles promised income tax would only affect people over $100,000 not the commoners. They said Medicare would only cost 60 billion, and that it would REDUCE healthcare costs, which of course it did the exact opposite. And they claimed the social security number would Never be used for anything else, but the SS administration.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.....
Ooops. Forgot to include the link. Sorry about that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#ADTECH_.28Europe.2C_2004_to_Q1_2009.29
Yeah when I moved from Opera 10.10 to 10.50 I was disappointed. The menu design is rather dumb. I tried clciking on the big "O" to access the Edit-->Find menu and discovered it's no longer there. How lame is that? It reminds me of the broken menu design that existed on Netscape 6.
At this point I'd probably quit Opera if I didn't need its Turbo/compression mode for my laptop's dialup connection. Why must programmers mess with good products and break them?!?!?
Well Microsoft is the sponsor behind several of those 6-through-12 browsers, since they are just IE with overlays. They should be excluded too. Oh well. (shrug)
seaMonkey could solve this problem quite easily by spinning off their work from the Mozilla envelope and creating a separate organization.
Nah. You may choose to disbelieve me if you want. (shrug). Here's a few links to provide a starting point if you really want to know (which I suspect you don't):
BUDGET - http://www.google.com/search?q=barack+obama's+budget
BANKRUPT - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=greece+iceland+bankrupt
COMCAST GRANTED MONOPOLY - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=comcast+cable+given+license
FDR WORSED DEPRESSION - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=economists+say+FDR+made+depression+worse
The only difference between these governments is that the US leaders pretend to hold an election every 2 years. That's it.
Message to jayme: The individuals that make up "the people" have plenty to hide. I'm sure that there are plenty of things that some individuals know that should not be known by by the general populace, or more importantly the corrupt leaders at the top. Therefore:
Stop tracking my cellphone.
Stop monitoring my PC or net connection.
Stop entering my home wtihout warrant, or peering inside with external cameras.
Stop subjecting my to groinal patdowns when I enter an airport or train terminal.
Stop taking my blood so you can trace or identify me (see GATTACA for why that's a bad idea).
I want my liberty not harassment; nor serfdom to the noble class (US congress/EU parliament).
QUOTE from the settlement: "The five main web browsers with the highest usage share, ordered alphabetically [later changed to randomized] according to the vendor's company name, would be prominently displayed, and seven additional web browsers, also ordered alphabetically according to the vendor's company name, would be displayed if the user scrolls sideways." - http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/decisions/39530/final_decision_en.pdf
- The top 5 are the most popular.
- The remaining 7 are apparently random.
It appears MS picked those browsers that are least usable (or outdated), and that might explain why SeaMonkey and Netscape 9 were not included even though they are probably the 6th and 7th most popular browsers in EU.
I'm glad the EU politicians wasted a couple million of my dollars on this. Well, not MY dollars, but somebody's dollars (european taxpayers' euros).
>>>do your own research
No. The person making the claim ALSO has the responsibility to back it up with citations. If no citations are provided, then the claim is null and void as if it never existed. (And I was going to say "thanks for the helpful link" but now you can just forget it.)