Chest puffing wasn't my point, the point was that these cable companies are still acting like they're the only game in town, and in increasing areas (of the US at least), they aren't, and their competition has service that puts them to shame.
...but its an absolute shot in the foot for their business.
Right now, I could call up Verizon and get FiOS. In about 6 months I'll be able to call up Verizon and get FiOS TV. Hell, theyre currently installing FiOS in my parents tiny village of about 5000.
These cable companies are facing the first real competition they've ever had and instead of reacting by making their service better, they're planning out ways to make their service worse.
And no, this isn't some sort of viral FiOS ad. I'm just a dumbfounded consumer.
...what on earth is possessing these cable companies? FiOS Internet is being installed in more and more communities across the country. Their TV service is being installed more and more as well. And all the while these cable companies are not keeping up on HD capacity. They're introducing foolish tiered service plans that are designed to screw over any who does anything with their cable modem beyond checking their email once a day...all the while they advertise fast download speeds and how much bandwidth you'll get from their service.
Any sensible company would be doing the opposite. The cable companies are under the biggest threat they've ever seen from Verizon, and they apparently have yet to realize it.
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
You can be damn sure that if the American revolution were happening right now, with the news media the way it is, George Washington would be painted as badly as Osama Bin Laden.
Not to belittle 9/11 or what is happening in Iraq, or anything at all...its all a matter of perspective. I'm not sure of the date that Ben Franklin said what you quoted, but theres a good chance he was saying it as a member of what would, today, be considered a terrorist organization.
Before I started working, ie, while I was in college and was looking for a job post college, I had quite a few little projects going. I had a small application that joined together multiple P2P protocols (BT and DirectConnect, iirc). I had a little game in the style of Escape Velocity (the mac classic). I had my own chat channel bot that could work with any chat protocol you built plugins for.
Then I got a job, and found out my interest in these little projects dwindled off to zero. After 8 hours of programming, and in total a 10 hour day, between lunch and a commute, trying to get some sleep, enjoying other hobbies, and attempting to keep a somewhat active social life there just wasn't time or interest in working on them.
Now I'm living in my own house and theres even more tasks that need to be completed.
How many hours does this guy think there are in a day if he is defining a bad programmer as someone who only programs as a day job? Does he live off cheeto's in his parents basement?
Ah, the glasses spray painted black of someone who has very little idea exactly how dangerous the world really is.
No, its not as bad as the news says it is. Its also not as safe as the people who laugh at the news as being little more than alarmist drivel would like you to believe.
For gods sake. Every single one of you files taxes. Every single one of you pays into the SS administration. Every single one of you files a census. The government already knows all this information about you. You're all acting like were all anonymous and Uncle Sam has no idea about you or any of your activities.
Seen as how everyone wants to come back to 9/11 to point out how this wont do anything to help stop terrorism......just exactly how many bombs were used on 9/11? The three (four) planes don't really count....how many times have undercover investigators been able to outright bombs or bomb parts through airport security?
No, this isnt a perfect solution, but knowing (or at least having a better idea if) someone is who they say they are is a step in the right direction.
No, it probably wouldn't have. But, IMHO, the most important thing that having a national ID system will do is the following:
Before: Bad guy attempts to get an ID in NY. For whatever reason, he doesn't get an ID. Bad guy drives 30 miles to NJ. He gets an ID or he doesn't. If he doesn't he drives 30 miles to PA. He gets an ID or he doesnt. Rinse and repeat until he gets lucky or runs out of gas/states.
After: Bad guy attempts an ID in NY. His photo is taken, he goes to NJ and tries there and is detained and its discovered hes a terrorist or whatever. Yay, we stopped a terrorist plot.
Is it perfect? No. Is it in the interest of civil liberties? Nope. Is it a good step in a world full of people who would love to see you and I dead simply because of the country we were born in? You betcha.
Seriously people, I'm all for civil liberties, but theres nothing wrong with have a solid method of making sure people are who they say they are and verifying they are allowed to get the identification they are allowed to get. Additionally...look at some of the ID's issued by certain states. I live in NY where our ID is already almost up to this new standard. But some states are still issuing ID's that are literally little more than a laminated piece of paper.
Seriously people, I'm all for civil liberties, but theres nothing wrong with have a solid method of making sure people are who they say they are and verifying they are allowed to get the identification they are allowed to get.
Does it matter why someone is your friend? Theres little need to quantify a reason somoene is your friend. Either they are or they arent. All friendships are based on some sort of common intrest or common location. Does that common intrest being wow make the friendship any less valid?
400 dollars for windows was a random number i pulled outa my head. i actually think it was 300, but again, thats beside the point.
For me, its a matter of the disks. When I burn on tayo-yuriden (sp?) my disks last forever, not matter what i do to them (and i do take care of them), but what i was referring to are the cheaper cdrs, memorex, all the off brands, etc, that machines like this are likely to use, to save money. I have had numerous cdrs go bad that are these types of disks.
I'm a very active CD archiving person, with live music (think phish/dead/etc, its all legal, but thats really beside the point). In the long term, say 6-8 months, I find that alot of my burned disks become unreadable...which would annoy me alot more if my 400 dollar copy of windows XP pro was burned onto it. I wonder if this is addressed at all by this system, or is the buyer just screwed?
Slashdot Mirror
Chest puffing wasn't my point, the point was that these cable companies are still acting like they're the only game in town, and in increasing areas (of the US at least), they aren't, and their competition has service that puts them to shame.
...but its an absolute shot in the foot for their business.
Right now, I could call up Verizon and get FiOS. In about 6 months I'll be able to call up Verizon and get FiOS TV. Hell, theyre currently installing FiOS in my parents tiny village of about 5000.
These cable companies are facing the first real competition they've ever had and instead of reacting by making their service better, they're planning out ways to make their service worse.
And no, this isn't some sort of viral FiOS ad. I'm just a dumbfounded consumer.
...what on earth is possessing these cable companies? FiOS Internet is being installed in more and more communities across the country. Their TV service is being installed more and more as well. And all the while these cable companies are not keeping up on HD capacity. They're introducing foolish tiered service plans that are designed to screw over any who does anything with their cable modem beyond checking their email once a day...all the while they advertise fast download speeds and how much bandwidth you'll get from their service.
Any sensible company would be doing the opposite. The cable companies are under the biggest threat they've ever seen from Verizon, and they apparently have yet to realize it.
Well, I learned after my college years that /pub was not a great place to look for women.
grep -i 'single white female' /usr2/home/women/*
...is a very serious sport.
/post
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.
You can be damn sure that if the American revolution were happening right now, with the news media the way it is, George Washington would be painted as badly as Osama Bin Laden.
Not to belittle 9/11 or what is happening in Iraq, or anything at all...its all a matter of perspective. I'm not sure of the date that Ben Franklin said what you quoted, but theres a good chance he was saying it as a member of what would, today, be considered a terrorist organization.
"He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security." - Benjamin Franklin
Quoting Ben Franklin is fine and all, but when that quote was made, our country WAS the terrorist organization, not the other way around.Before I started working, ie, while I was in college and was looking for a job post college, I had quite a few little projects going. I had a small application that joined together multiple P2P protocols (BT and DirectConnect, iirc). I had a little game in the style of Escape Velocity (the mac classic). I had my own chat channel bot that could work with any chat protocol you built plugins for.
Then I got a job, and found out my interest in these little projects dwindled off to zero. After 8 hours of programming, and in total a 10 hour day, between lunch and a commute, trying to get some sleep, enjoying other hobbies, and attempting to keep a somewhat active social life there just wasn't time or interest in working on them.
Now I'm living in my own house and theres even more tasks that need to be completed.
How many hours does this guy think there are in a day if he is defining a bad programmer as someone who only programs as a day job? Does he live off cheeto's in his parents basement?
Ah, the glasses spray painted black of someone who has very little idea exactly how dangerous the world really is.
No, its not as bad as the news says it is. Its also not as safe as the people who laugh at the news as being little more than alarmist drivel would like you to believe.
For gods sake. Every single one of you files taxes. Every single one of you pays into the SS administration. Every single one of you files a census. The government already knows all this information about you. You're all acting like were all anonymous and Uncle Sam has no idea about you or any of your activities.
Who is the naive one here?
Seen as how everyone wants to come back to 9/11 to point out how this wont do anything to help stop terrorism... ...just exactly how many bombs were used on 9/11? The three (four) planes don't really count. ...how many times have undercover investigators been able to outright bombs or bomb parts through airport security?
No, this isnt a perfect solution, but knowing (or at least having a better idea if) someone is who they say they are is a step in the right direction.
And just exactly how much does doing nothing stop? Hmmm?
Please, enlighten us as to your fool proof plan to stop terrorism.
No, it probably wouldn't have. But, IMHO, the most important thing that having a national ID system will do is the following:
Before:
Bad guy attempts to get an ID in NY. For whatever reason, he doesn't get an ID. Bad guy drives 30 miles to NJ. He gets an ID or he doesn't. If he doesn't he drives 30 miles to PA. He gets an ID or he doesnt. Rinse and repeat until he gets lucky or runs out of gas/states.
After:
Bad guy attempts an ID in NY. His photo is taken, he goes to NJ and tries there and is detained and its discovered hes a terrorist or whatever. Yay, we stopped a terrorist plot.
Is it perfect? No. Is it in the interest of civil liberties? Nope. Is it a good step in a world full of people who would love to see you and I dead simply because of the country we were born in? You betcha.
Seriously people, I'm all for civil liberties, but theres nothing wrong with have a solid method of making sure people are who they say they are and verifying they are allowed to get the identification they are allowed to get. Additionally...look at some of the ID's issued by certain states. I live in NY where our ID is already almost up to this new standard. But some states are still issuing ID's that are literally little more than a laminated piece of paper.
THE BLACK HELICOPTERS ARE GOING TO GET US!
Seriously people, I'm all for civil liberties, but theres nothing wrong with have a solid method of making sure people are who they say they are and verifying they are allowed to get the identification they are allowed to get.
but with an LCD screen, a motion sensor, a GPS and a camera...how exactly do you come up with thousands of devices?
Neat idea, but definitely overhyped.
Because the company is microsoft, and the place is siberia...its like the odd couple with computers...and tundras.
I was about to add this comment as well.
This is just another person trying to paint Google in the same light as Microsoft.
Does it matter why someone is your friend? Theres little need to quantify a reason somoene is your friend. Either they are or they arent. All friendships are based on some sort of common intrest or common location. Does that common intrest being wow make the friendship any less valid?
Reading that article wasnt worth the time it took for the page to load.
400 dollars for windows was a random number i pulled outa my head. i actually think it was 300, but again, thats beside the point.
For me, its a matter of the disks. When I burn on tayo-yuriden (sp?) my disks last forever, not matter what i do to them (and i do take care of them), but what i was referring to are the cheaper cdrs, memorex, all the off brands, etc, that machines like this are likely to use, to save money. I have had numerous cdrs go bad that are these types of disks.
I'm a very active CD archiving person, with live music (think phish/dead/etc, its all legal, but thats really beside the point). In the long term, say 6-8 months, I find that alot of my burned disks become unreadable...which would annoy me alot more if my 400 dollar copy of windows XP pro was burned onto it. I wonder if this is addressed at all by this system, or is the buyer just screwed?
and yet...here you are posting on /.
odd. isnt it?
I don't much care for the invasion of privacy...but I do like the idea of not having to do taxes. Grumble. Grumble. Grumble.