False. With the exception of Disney, which is no great loss, you can get every one of those channels from the Dish Family Plan for $20 a month which is only $240 a year. (You did say minimum.) If you really really desire Disney than upgrade to the $30/month plan.
People can afford $240 a year. It's cheaper than buying a new television. Cheaper than cellphone service (~600 a year). PBS is not needed.
>>>public broadcasting should be way far down the list.
Yeah I agree, but I think we should start with PBS and work our way up, killing every wasteful program in sight. Starting right now. Today. Why redline just one wasteful line item when we redline them all from top to bottom?
I switch to MPT (Maryland Public Television) which is the only decent PBS station I've ever seen in the whole country - although Oklahoma's Public Television was pretty good. Perhaps because these are statewide organizations rather than just being individual stations.
>>>None of those channels you mentioned even begin to 'compete' with PBS news or documentaries.
You're right. Discover, National Geographic, and History Channel documentaries are frequently *better* than PBS, which is why I sometimes see them getting rerun on PBS a few years later. PBS produces shows that are numbingly boring.
>>>a semi-balanced bent on the news PBS and NPR
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah right. They provide a viewpoint that insists the only good solution is a bigger and more government. Hardly balanced. I'm watching the Lehrer NewsHour right now and several times I've wanted to throw a brick at the screen, because the bias disgusts me. We don't need more government; we need less. We need non-interference so people can enjoy their lives, instead of being treated at every turn like children.
Anyway PBS is clearly biased in favor of the government that supplies them with half their money.
I don't need to dream. Facts shows that I earn - in real wealth - about twice as much as an electrical engineer did in the 1920s. That's the result of increasing efficiencies and cost-cutting, which allows more money to flow towards the employees, managers, and stock holders.
Prices have also dropped. My namesake the Commodore 64 cost about $1200 (in 2008 dollars) with the actual computer plus disk drive. That was the cheapest computer you could buy, whereas today the cheapest new computer is about $300. One-fourth as much.
Again this is the result of cost-cutting and increasing efficiency which benefits the consumers and society overall.
You're probably right, but the money saved won't go to waste. It will probably materialize as an extra $1/hour for some lucky engineers or managers, or extra health benefits. That's one of the advantages of competition over government - the constant pressure to reduce costs and thereby inprove efficiency which benefits not just that company, but also society as a whole.
My only concern is that these sensors might be abused.
For example I have some Lights of America CFLs that died after only one year of use. If these sensors were inside the base, I could easily imagine the LoA company refusing to replace the bulbs because "you had them in a hot area" even though I did not. Yes they died of excesive heat, but I used them in a prescribed manner - in my dining room. They died due to manaufacturer error not user error, but I can easily foresee the manufacturer blaming the user anyway.
>>>within a year I became hypersensitive to advertising
That's interesting, because I have adblocker on my dialup connection which makes the page looked "naked" to my eyes (lots of empty spots not filled in). When I go back to my home DSL connection the ads appear again, and it doesn't bother me at all.
In some cases the ads are quite pleasing, such as when a barely-clothed woman comes into view.;-)
>>>who is whipping out their credit card numbers at the pay porn sites?
Actually Playboy Magazine and playboy.com are in bad shape, and it's precisely the reason you gave - people can get these nude images for free. So if you're looking at porn as a possible model to rescue newspaper subscriptions, think again.
>>>That with quality content, public radio and TV stations have a (relatively) easy time getting people to *give* them money for their "free" content. >>>
False. Half the money that supports PBS, NPR, and other donation-supported stations comes from *compulsory* sucking of money from taxpayer wallets. In fact a lot of these stations in Pennsylvania are whining (yes that's the correct term) that they are doomed to disappear if the proposed budget goes through, because it means public broadcast will lose about 20% of their funds. My response which I sent to my representative(s) was:
"PBS frequently asks, 'If we don't do it, who will?' The answer is obvious. CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, CPSAN 1 and 2, History, Learning, National Geographic Channel, Bravo, Lifetime, Disney, Nickelodeon, Qubo, and so on. PBS was necessary in an era of 4 channels. It's not necessary in an era of 100+ channels and thousands of websites. I'm glad the budget is cutting funding, because PBS has a lot in common with other obsolete things..... like horsewhips and hoop skirts. Let it stand on its own two feet without taxpayer assistance."
>>>I'm just pointing out that once it dies we may notice a gap
I doubt it. I really have no desire to know that last night a 7-11 store was robbed, or a murderer sent to life imprisonment. This stuff happens all the time and I'm tired of hearing about it. Plus it doesn't affect me - I'm interested in news that matters, like hearing Congress wants to fine me 2000 dollars for not having health insurance, and I can get the information off the television. I don't need the paper.
As for advertising:
Most people think I'm weird but I like ads. They provide all kinds of free stuff like television, radio, and internet. Without advertising I'd have to pay an extra $5/month to NBC, $5/month to CW, $1 to FM97, $1 to MIX106.5, and so on. I don't feel shelling-out all that money when I can have ads provide this stuff for free.
>>>apple was a lot cheaper than every competitor on the 13" laptop market. almost 600$ less than a equivalent vaio, and a lot more powerful than the 600$ toshiba satellite pc >>>
Yeah but maybe I don't want an "equivalent" laptop. Maybe I'm happy just having half the power or features, and thereby saving money. Apple ignores us budget-conscious persons, which is a flaw.
Also Apple has the annoyance of the "apple tax" where you have to spend ~$100 every year to upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5 to 10.6 and so on. This is why my G4 Mac hasn't been updated with the latest sotware - I can't afford it.
In contrast I bought Windows XP in 2002 and haven't need to spend a dime on OS upgrades since then. Simply put - it's cheaper.
>>>So how long did it take you to research which parts on the more upscale, classy, refined and feature rich car had logos you could point out? >>>
About 5 minutes. The Honda logos are pretty obvious on the Acura if you have good eyesight, and your friend has invited you to "check out" his new car. After examining it and riding in it, I still prefer my Insight even though it's "only" a Honda and "only" cost me $14,000 to buy.
I need the obligatory insult to finish my previous post - "Stupid father fucker. Go back to sucking clit you nagging old dick-licking fudge-packing beeotch." There. Now I'm part of modern youth culture.
>>>Frankly, this is the standard sensationalist crap that Slashdot excels at now a days... >>>Slashdot, how about covering the fact that KDE 4.3 was just released today?
That was already covered yesterday. Don't know how to use the archived articles? Too busy criticizing I guess.
That's good! If Bing was the CNN or MSNBC of search engines, then virtually every search would lead to the National Socialists website. The CNN/NBC reporters love their "Big Daddy"* government, and their stories are all biased to the assumption we need more government.
You've been marked "informative" but I think the phrase "can't read" is more appropriate. If you Read The Frakking Article, it states that Bing is now returning non-biased results, due to their old biased system being exposed publicly.
Apparently Microsoft programmers did some quick cover-up, like a bunch of 1940s-era Germans digging-up bodies and burning them to hide the evidence. Microsoft was exposed by the media, and now MS is trying to pretend it never happened.
>>>The sad thing is the law enforcement would keep the data while telling the media they didn't, then justify keeping it
That's fine. As long as the government keeps good records, it will verify that I actually existed as a person after I've been gassed, incinerated and converted to a cloud of smoke. The non-erased data will be all that's left, and hopefully the officials can be prosecuted by their own records.
>>>Bing is just the fox news of search engines.
That's good! If Bing was the CNN or MSNBC of search engines, then virtually every search would lead to the National Socialists website. The CNN/NBC reporters love their "Big Daddy"* government, and their stories are all biased to the assumption we need more government.
*
*That's a Tennessee Williams reference.
Yes the Audi shocks are "better" than the VW, but it's easy to upgrade them at your dealer for about $400. You don't need to spend an extra ten thousand. And there's no difference between the VW and Audi engines or transmissions, which all come off the same line and with identical specs.
It's also worth nothing that a Jetta, Golf, and Beetle are all virtually identical, except the body style. They use identical chassis and engines and transmissions.
The Congressional mandate for RFIDs is similar to the stupidity that gave us a bunch of computer-controlled voting booths (which are easily hacked, or prone to errors). The politicians don't understand technology. To them it's just "magic" that will cure everything, therefore they mandate this stuff without putting any thought into it, basing their decision upon faith rather than reason. They don't realize this "magic" has serious flaws that makes it less-desirable than the old paper-based methods.
>>>going from 4.5 hours of battery life on OS X on a MBP to 2 hours on any other OS is a little extreme!
Agreed. I've been using Microsoft products off-and-on for the last 25 years......and they haven't made a superior product since BASIC 7.0 on my C=128. The Windows 1-to-3 releases were jokes, Win95 was decent but still inferior to the Amiga or Mac OSes, and the new Vista 6.1 (Win7) is a giant blob of amorphous code that refuses to run properly even with 1.5 gigs of RAM in my brother's computer. Even though my XP machine only has 1/3rd as much memory, it still runs faster.
Windows Vista 6.1 still needs some major rewriting for efficiency. Maybe by the time we get to NT 7.0 these issues will finally be resolved.
>>>As for thinking people just Apples because they want to brag, I don't understand that logic.
Apples used to be distinctive when they used 68000 or PowerPC central processors, but now that they use Intel CPUs and other generic video/sound cards, they are really no different from a Dell or Gateway machine except that they have an Apple logo attached. The hardware is so identical that now Apple machines can run Intel Windows, or vice-versa Intel PCs run Apple OS X.
It's similar to how a Chrysler Sebring is simply a rebadged Dodge Avenger.
>>>That's like a buddy getting a new girlfriend and pointing out all the flaws in her rather than the positives.
Yeah you're right, but I didn't know that at the time. I thought he'd be happy to have another quality Honda product, since his previous car was Honda, but apparently not.
To me, a Honda car is just as good as an Acura. Ditto Toyota v. Lexus or Dodge v. Chrysler. In fact my Dodge Avenger is virtually identical to the Chrysler variant. It's all the same engineering, typically with identical engines and chassis, but ~$10,000 cheaper.
any issue involving [government] is automatically the [politicians] fault. Why RTFA when [government] is to blame for [almost] everything that is wrong with the world.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>it costs around 500 a year, minimum
False. With the exception of Disney, which is no great loss, you can get every one of those channels from the Dish Family Plan for $20 a month which is only $240 a year. (You did say minimum.) If you really really desire Disney than upgrade to the $30/month plan.
People can afford $240 a year. It's cheaper than buying a new television. Cheaper than cellphone service (~600 a year). PBS is not needed.
>>>public broadcasting should be way far down the list.
Yeah I agree, but I think we should start with PBS and work our way up, killing every wasteful program in sight. Starting right now. Today. Why redline just one wasteful line item when we redline them all from top to bottom?
I switch to MPT (Maryland Public Television) which is the only decent PBS station I've ever seen in the whole country - although Oklahoma's Public Television was pretty good. Perhaps because these are statewide organizations rather than just being individual stations.
>>>None of those channels you mentioned even begin to 'compete' with PBS news or documentaries.
You're right. Discover, National Geographic, and History Channel documentaries are frequently *better* than PBS, which is why I sometimes see them getting rerun on PBS a few years later. PBS produces shows that are numbingly boring.
>>>a semi-balanced bent on the news PBS and NPR
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah right. They provide a viewpoint that insists the only good solution is a bigger and more government. Hardly balanced. I'm watching the Lehrer NewsHour right now and several times I've wanted to throw a brick at the screen, because the bias disgusts me. We don't need more government; we need less. We need non-interference so people can enjoy their lives, instead of being treated at every turn like children.
Anyway PBS is clearly biased in favor of the government that supplies them with half their money.
I don't need to dream. Facts shows that I earn - in real wealth - about twice as much as an electrical engineer did in the 1920s. That's the result of increasing efficiencies and cost-cutting, which allows more money to flow towards the employees, managers, and stock holders.
Prices have also dropped. My namesake the Commodore 64 cost about $1200 (in 2008 dollars) with the actual computer plus disk drive. That was the cheapest computer you could buy, whereas today the cheapest new computer is about $300. One-fourth as much.
Again this is the result of cost-cutting and increasing efficiency which benefits the consumers and society overall.
You're probably right, but the money saved won't go to waste. It will probably materialize as an extra $1/hour for some lucky engineers or managers, or extra health benefits. That's one of the advantages of competition over government - the constant pressure to reduce costs and thereby inprove efficiency which benefits not just that company, but also society as a whole.
My only concern is that these sensors might be abused.
For example I have some Lights of America CFLs that died after only one year of use. If these sensors were inside the base, I could easily imagine the LoA company refusing to replace the bulbs because "you had them in a hot area" even though I did not. Yes they died of excesive heat, but I used them in a prescribed manner - in my dining room. They died due to manaufacturer error not user error, but I can easily foresee the manufacturer blaming the user anyway.
>>>within a year I became hypersensitive to advertising
That's interesting, because I have adblocker on my dialup connection which makes the page looked "naked" to my eyes (lots of empty spots not filled in). When I go back to my home DSL connection the ads appear again, and it doesn't bother me at all.
In some cases the ads are quite pleasing, such as when a barely-clothed woman comes into view. ;-)
>>>who is whipping out their credit card numbers at the pay porn sites?
Actually Playboy Magazine and playboy.com are in bad shape, and it's precisely the reason you gave - people can get these nude images for free. So if you're looking at porn as a possible model to rescue newspaper subscriptions, think again.
>>>That with quality content, public radio and TV stations have a (relatively) easy time getting people to *give* them money for their "free" content.
>>>
False. Half the money that supports PBS, NPR, and other donation-supported stations comes from *compulsory* sucking of money from taxpayer wallets. In fact a lot of these stations in Pennsylvania are whining (yes that's the correct term) that they are doomed to disappear if the proposed budget goes through, because it means public broadcast will lose about 20% of their funds. My response which I sent to my representative(s) was:
"PBS frequently asks, 'If we don't do it, who will?' The answer is obvious. CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, CPSAN 1 and 2, History, Learning, National Geographic Channel, Bravo, Lifetime, Disney, Nickelodeon, Qubo, and so on. PBS was necessary in an era of 4 channels. It's not necessary in an era of 100+ channels and thousands of websites. I'm glad the budget is cutting funding, because PBS has a lot in common with other obsolete things..... like horsewhips and hoop skirts. Let it stand on its own two feet without taxpayer assistance."
>>>I'm just pointing out that once it dies we may notice a gap
I doubt it. I really have no desire to know that last night a 7-11 store was robbed, or a murderer sent to life imprisonment. This stuff happens all the time and I'm tired of hearing about it. Plus it doesn't affect me - I'm interested in news that matters, like hearing Congress wants to fine me 2000 dollars for not having health insurance, and I can get the information off the television. I don't need the paper.
As for advertising:
Most people think I'm weird but I like ads. They provide all kinds of free stuff like television, radio, and internet. Without advertising I'd have to pay an extra $5/month to NBC, $5/month to CW, $1 to FM97, $1 to MIX106.5, and so on. I don't feel shelling-out all that money when I can have ads provide this stuff for free.
>>>apple was a lot cheaper than every competitor on the 13" laptop market. almost 600$ less than a equivalent vaio, and a lot more powerful than the 600$ toshiba satellite pc
>>>
Yeah but maybe I don't want an "equivalent" laptop. Maybe I'm happy just having half the power or features, and thereby saving money. Apple ignores us budget-conscious persons, which is a flaw.
Also Apple has the annoyance of the "apple tax" where you have to spend ~$100 every year to upgrade from 10.4 to 10.5 to 10.6 and so on. This is why my G4 Mac hasn't been updated with the latest sotware - I can't afford it.
In contrast I bought Windows XP in 2002 and haven't need to spend a dime on OS upgrades since then. Simply put - it's cheaper.
>>>So how long did it take you to research which parts on the more upscale, classy, refined and feature rich car had logos you could point out?
>>>
About 5 minutes. The Honda logos are pretty obvious on the Acura if you have good eyesight, and your friend has invited you to "check out" his new car. After examining it and riding in it, I still prefer my Insight even though it's "only" a Honda and "only" cost me $14,000 to buy.
P.S.
Oooops I forgot this is the internet.
I need the obligatory insult to finish my previous post - "Stupid father fucker. Go back to sucking clit you nagging old dick-licking fudge-packing beeotch." There. Now I'm part of modern youth culture.
>>>Frankly, this is the standard sensationalist crap that Slashdot excels at now a days...
>>>Slashdot, how about covering the fact that KDE 4.3 was just released today?
That was already covered yesterday. Don't know how to use the archived articles? Too busy criticizing I guess.
[fixed formatting]
>>>Bing is just the fox news of search engines.
That's good! If Bing was the CNN or MSNBC of search engines, then virtually every search would lead to the National Socialists website. The CNN/NBC reporters love their "Big Daddy"* government, and their stories are all biased to the assumption we need more government.
*
*That's a Tennessee Williams reference.
You've been marked "informative" but I think the phrase "can't read" is more appropriate. If you Read The Frakking Article, it states that Bing is now returning non-biased results, due to their old biased system being exposed publicly.
Apparently Microsoft programmers did some quick cover-up, like a bunch of 1940s-era Germans digging-up bodies and burning them to hide the evidence. Microsoft was exposed by the media, and now MS is trying to pretend it never happened.
>>>The sad thing is the law enforcement would keep the data while telling the media they didn't, then justify keeping it
That's fine. As long as the government keeps good records, it will verify that I actually existed as a person after I've been gassed, incinerated and converted to a cloud of smoke. The non-erased data will be all that's left, and hopefully the officials can be prosecuted by their own records.
>>>Bing is just the fox news of search engines. That's good! If Bing was the CNN or MSNBC of search engines, then virtually every search would lead to the National Socialists website. The CNN/NBC reporters love their "Big Daddy"* government, and their stories are all biased to the assumption we need more government. * *That's a Tennessee Williams reference.
True, false, false.
Yes the Audi shocks are "better" than the VW, but it's easy to upgrade them at your dealer for about $400. You don't need to spend an extra ten thousand. And there's no difference between the VW and Audi engines or transmissions, which all come off the same line and with identical specs.
It's also worth nothing that a Jetta, Golf, and Beetle are all virtually identical, except the body style. They use identical chassis and engines and transmissions.
Is it possible to remove the RFID device?
The Congressional mandate for RFIDs is similar to the stupidity that gave us a bunch of computer-controlled voting booths (which are easily hacked, or prone to errors). The politicians don't understand technology. To them it's just "magic" that will cure everything, therefore they mandate this stuff without putting any thought into it, basing their decision upon faith rather than reason. They don't realize this "magic" has serious flaws that makes it less-desirable than the old paper-based methods.
It's easier to outlaw gadgets than to admit you're wrong.
That's why, thanks to recent laws, only criminals carry guns. Pretty soon only criminals will have webcameras or RFID sniffers.
>>>going from 4.5 hours of battery life on OS X on a MBP to 2 hours on any other OS is a little extreme!
Agreed. I've been using Microsoft products off-and-on for the last 25 years... ...and they haven't made a superior product since BASIC 7.0 on my C=128. The Windows 1-to-3 releases were jokes, Win95 was decent but still inferior to the Amiga or Mac OSes, and the new Vista 6.1 (Win7) is a giant blob of amorphous code that refuses to run properly even with 1.5 gigs of RAM in my brother's computer. Even though my XP machine only has 1/3rd as much memory, it still runs faster.
Windows Vista 6.1 still needs some major rewriting for efficiency. Maybe by the time we get to NT 7.0 these issues will finally be resolved.
>>>As for thinking people just Apples because they want to brag, I don't understand that logic.
Apples used to be distinctive when they used 68000 or PowerPC central processors, but now that they use Intel CPUs and other generic video/sound cards, they are really no different from a Dell or Gateway machine except that they have an Apple logo attached. The hardware is so identical that now Apple machines can run Intel Windows, or vice-versa Intel PCs run Apple OS X.
It's similar to how a Chrysler Sebring is simply a rebadged Dodge Avenger.
>>>That's like a buddy getting a new girlfriend and pointing out all the flaws in her rather than the positives.
Yeah you're right, but I didn't know that at the time. I thought he'd be happy to have another quality Honda product, since his previous car was Honda, but apparently not.
To me, a Honda car is just as good as an Acura. Ditto Toyota v. Lexus or Dodge v. Chrysler. In fact my Dodge Avenger is virtually identical to the Chrysler variant. It's all the same engineering, typically with identical engines and chassis, but ~$10,000 cheaper.
any issue involving [government] is automatically the [politicians] fault. Why RTFA when [government] is to blame for [almost] everything that is wrong with the world.
Now your statement is accurate.