TPP didn't say that access to the Internet was a right. It said that access to Internet content and applications is a right. That might seem like a trivial distinction, but it's not. Access to information is a fundamental right, and if the only way an individual has to access that information is through an ISP, it makes perfect sense to insist that the ISP not play the role of censor.
If you want to stream some music produced by some heavy metal band you just heard about, and your ISP says, "Sorry, we don't carry packets from that server, how about some nice Britney Spears?" then they're interfering with your first amendment rights. Also committing a crime against nature, but that's another issue.
It's almost impossible to pay for a deal through "synergies."
No shit. And yet synergy is always cited — and accepted — as a key reason to do a merger or acquisition. So the question I have to ask is this: why hasn't the investing community caught on to this?
Personally, I'd much rather be able to send out a bill and then say RTFM when the complaint comes in...
I think you'll find that "RTFM" ranks with "read the fine print" in popularity among customers.
As for cell phones, paying by the minute may be normal, but it's hardly popular. Or haven't you noticed all the ads for complicated rollover schemes, free weekends, and free calls to family members?
. All they would have to do is A.) set up QOS properly to prevent high-bandwidth users from degrading low-latency applications and B.) charge for high bandwidth usage.
Well, to my inexpert ears that sounds like a really good idea. But in fact no ISP of any kind, does that. (Not to my knowledge, anyway.) There seems to be a huge resistance to paying anything other than a flat fee for internet access. Which brings us back to my point about people not understanding that bandwidth costs.
Well, your school has a two-tier system, which is both a good idea and which negates my argument about not all students wanting to pay for a gaming capable network. Indeed, for $35/month I'd expect a pretty responsive network, even from a for-profit provider.
It's also evident that your school's decision-makers are forward thinking. But not all schools are so lucky. I doubt that all Universities have a system like yours. Indeed, I would expect the typical U administrator to say something like, "We'll give them a network that's good enough for email and for getting class materials, and that's it. Students aren't here to watch videos and play games." Yes, you can make a case for a top quality network having educational uses, but that's not going to appeal to the educational bureaucrat. And from the tone of the submitter's story ("we've been shaping TCP packets but forgot to shape UDP packets") they're probably a low-budget operation.
Maybe I've just blundered into supporting your original point, which was (forgive me if I misinterpret) that a good school really needs to have a good network. Then again, there are a lot of factors that can make that difficult (besides the brain-dead administrator). Like having an out-of-date network infrastructure that you can't find the money to upgrade. Or having a political mandate to keep fees down (particularly important for a state-run school).
There's also the fact that you can saturate any network if you try hard enough. Even the biggest resource is still finite.
...usually including a telecommunications fee that more than covers the cost of a high speed network connection...
There's a difference between "high speed" and "on-demand maximum bandwidth with low latency". The latter is what serious gamers need, and it costs a lot more to implement and support. I suspect most dorm telecom fees don't begin to cover it. If they did, students who just want basic high speed web and email access would be up in arms, since they'd be paying for network capacity they don't use.
He was referring to adult white males. We used to be the only people in this country. No really, it's true. Why else was every single public office held by an AWM just 50 years ago? But now there are only 300,000 of us left! It's very sad.
The story is that evil network administrators have interfered with dormies' fundamental right to use up all the bandwidth they want! We should be grateful to this guy for reporting himself to us!
(Sigh.) I said that S&L's used to be cooperatives, you disputed that. If you can't even keep track of your own opinions, why should I waste any more time talking to you?
Dude, check out the Britannica link I provided. They were called Savings and Loan Associations for a reason.
When I opened my first bank account (a very long time ago) it was at an S & L. I had to sign a form saying that the directors could vote for themselves on my behalf, unless I actually came to the depositor's meetings.
To those who are wondering, "what happened to the FDIC?": The FDIC supervises regular banks. NetBank was a "thrift" a weird institution that appeared when the Reagan administration deregulated banking, allowing depositor-owned savings and loan associations to convert to a sort of commercial bank that specializes in mortgages. Thrifts have a long history of getting in over their heads, and creating real estate "booms" that price most people out of the home market. But a lot of folks got rich off them, so I guess that's OK.
When people talk about the United States lagging behind the world in broadband speed and access, they're talking about the last-mile problem.
The author throws this out to explain why the "last-mile problem" is such a big deal. Then he goes on to talk about "sunk costs" and other economic explanations for the dominance of a few large, technologically backwards local providers. But he never really explains why the US lags. Is it because other countries are metric, and the kilometer is shorter than the mile?
(Depressing number of posts propound somebody's pet theory about why municipal WiFi isn't working out, written by people who obviously haven't read TFA.)
You're right to listen to your conscience, but...
on
Replacing a Thinkpad?
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· Score: 1
It doesn't make sense to stop buying from Lenovo and continue buying goods made by other Chinese companies. Are you going to boycott all Chinese-made goods? Then be ready for some serious inconvenience.
Also, it's kind of sad that you're focusing on what's happening in Burma. It's evil, all right, but it also happens every day, all over the world. (And a lot of it is perpetrated by our very own beloved leaders.) If you really give a shit about human rights, stop reacting to headlines and start doing stuff day-to-day. Like joining the organization linked above, or one like it.
Like I said, org was the original "catch all" generic tld, intended for any use. One of the stated foreseen usages at inception was for individuals, actually, more so than anything.
They named a domain for individuals ".org"? Yeah, that makes sense.
It would be nice if you cited some source for your strange pronouncements, instead of speaking ex cathedra.
.org was NEVER intended to be restricted to non-profit organizations. It was actually the first catch-all TLD, intended for anything that didn't fit well under the other two...
Dude, what do you think a "non-profit" is? It's an organization that doesn't make a profit. If.com is for for-profit organizations, and.edu is for schools, what does that leave?
Windows ME was only supposed to be a stopgap. It was a replacement for the consumer version of Windows 2000 that didn't happen. (That's why Windows 2000 wasn't called Windows NT 5: it was supposed to be the successor to Windows 95.) ME was the temporary replacement, to help consumer-level retailers move product until XP Home came along. Microsoft didn't have much at stake if ME wasn't a success. A little ill will among early adopters and resellers, all people who were too dependent on MS to seriously think of rebellion.
Microsoft had everything at stake with Vista. Not only was it supposed to replace XP for both home and business users, it was supposed to showcase a whole bunch of stunning new technologies and serve as a platform for a whole generation of new applications.
Where ME was a short and simple disaster, Vista was a big complicated disaster that started 5 years ago and shows no sign of ending. First they were criticized for setting the hardware requirements so high, few existing machines could be upgraded. Then it fell behind schedule. Then they had to strip out a bunch of stuff even to meet the new schedule. Then they fell behind the new schedule. Then beta testers started complaining about how obnoxious all the new security features were. Then, despite the extended development period, they still managed to deliver an OS full of glitches, crashes, and compatibility issues.
Now people are actually beginning to seriously question the wisdom of giving one company an effective monopoly of the desktop. Good for users (if anything comes of it), bad, awful, disastrous for Microsoft.
ME isn't in the same ballpark as Vista. Hell, it's not even in the same universe!
Good lord. It costs five times as much to register a.su domain as it does to register.ru domain. (Good thing I was joking about commierat.su.) Obviously many Russians refuse to admit that the USSR is dead.
United forever in friendship and labour, Our mighty republics will ever endure. The great Soviet Union will live through the ages. The dream of a people their fortress secure.
Long live our Soviet Motherland, built by the people's mighty hand. Long live our People, united and free. Strong in our friendship tried by fire. Long may our crimson flag inspire, Shining in glory for all men to see.
Generally the U.N. is pretty good with standards (english for pilots) and lists (like ISO country codes)
Actually, ISO country codes are the result of an International Standards Organization standard. The ISO is not an arm of the U.N.; it's a sort of international federation of national standards organizations, many of which are private entities like the American National Standards Institute.
There's some difference of opinion over whether Puerto Rico is a country or not. True, they're a dependency of the U.S. but they have a lot of autonomy. They have a distinct culture, geography, and a constitution they wrote themselves. That makes them at least as country-like as Scotland and Wales, both of which are considered constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
Even if they're not a "country" they're entitled to a TLD because they're on the ISO 3166 list. There are many "dependent territories" on this list.
The UN is somewhat corrupt, but that is not why I'd oppose them running it. Nor because they are political at heart. Look up the Whaling Commission on Wikipedia as an example.
Ok, some pretty basic mistakes here. First, you should never take anything on Wikipedia as gospel. A Wikipedia article is only as credible, reliable, or objective as the last person to edit it.
Secondly, when you read this kind of info, you need to read stuff a little more carefully, regardless of the source. The article has some convoluted argument about the relationship between the IWC and the UN, but nowhere does it state that the IWC is part of the UN. And in fact, it's not.
I agree with the rest of your post though. The fact is, many TLDs are messed up, including the one you and I are using at this very moment:.org is supposed to be for non-profit organizations, which Slashdot hasn't been for a long time, if it ever was. But who cares? As you say, it's just a routing mechanism.
Particularly "misused" are the two-letter national TLDs, such as.md and.tv. I find it especially hard to get worked up about this because many of the countries that are selling domains to foreigners really need the money. Tuvalu, for example, only joined the UN after they were allocated the.tv domain, because before they got that revenue stream, they couldn't afford to send an ambassador to New York.
Anybody know where I can register an.su domain? I hope commierat.su isn't taken!
Slashdot Mirror
TPP didn't say that access to the Internet was a right. It said that access to Internet content and applications is a right. That might seem like a trivial distinction, but it's not. Access to information is a fundamental right, and if the only way an individual has to access that information is through an ISP, it makes perfect sense to insist that the ISP not play the role of censor.
If you want to stream some music produced by some heavy metal band you just heard about, and your ISP says, "Sorry, we don't carry packets from that server, how about some nice Britney Spears?" then they're interfering with your first amendment rights. Also committing a crime against nature, but that's another issue.
This isn't mixed company, this is Slashdot.
As for cell phones, paying by the minute may be normal, but it's hardly popular. Or haven't you noticed all the ads for complicated rollover schemes, free weekends, and free calls to family members?
Jeez, you have been around a long time. the NP/NP meme was already dead by the time I started following Slashdot in 2000.
I guess I don't really belong on Slashdot, because I just realized that "meme" is just a pretentious way of referring to a tired, childish joke!
Well, your school has a two-tier system, which is both a good idea and which negates my argument about not all students wanting to pay for a gaming capable network. Indeed, for $35/month I'd expect a pretty responsive network, even from a for-profit provider.
It's also evident that your school's decision-makers are forward thinking. But not all schools are so lucky. I doubt that all Universities have a system like yours. Indeed, I would expect the typical U administrator to say something like, "We'll give them a network that's good enough for email and for getting class materials, and that's it. Students aren't here to watch videos and play games." Yes, you can make a case for a top quality network having educational uses, but that's not going to appeal to the educational bureaucrat. And from the tone of the submitter's story ("we've been shaping TCP packets but forgot to shape UDP packets") they're probably a low-budget operation.
Maybe I've just blundered into supporting your original point, which was (forgive me if I misinterpret) that a good school really needs to have a good network. Then again, there are a lot of factors that can make that difficult (besides the brain-dead administrator). Like having an out-of-date network infrastructure that you can't find the money to upgrade. Or having a political mandate to keep fees down (particularly important for a state-run school).
There's also the fact that you can saturate any network if you try hard enough. Even the biggest resource is still finite.
Klatu Barata Nikto!
He was referring to adult white males. We used to be the only people in this country. No really, it's true. Why else was every single public office held by an AWM just 50 years ago? But now there are only 300,000 of us left! It's very sad.
The story is that evil network administrators have interfered with dormies' fundamental right to use up all the bandwidth they want! We should be grateful to this guy for reporting himself to us!
(Sigh.) I said that S&L's used to be cooperatives, you disputed that. If you can't even keep track of your own opinions, why should I waste any more time talking to you?
Dude, check out the Britannica link I provided. They were called Savings and Loan Associations for a reason.
When I opened my first bank account (a very long time ago) it was at an S & L. I had to sign a form saying that the directors could vote for themselves on my behalf, unless I actually came to the depositor's meetings.
To those who are wondering, "what happened to the FDIC?": The FDIC supervises regular banks. NetBank was a "thrift" a weird institution that appeared when the Reagan administration deregulated banking, allowing depositor-owned savings and loan associations to convert to a sort of commercial bank that specializes in mortgages. Thrifts have a long history of getting in over their heads, and creating real estate "booms" that price most people out of the home market. But a lot of folks got rich off them, so I guess that's OK.
(Depressing number of posts propound somebody's pet theory about why municipal WiFi isn't working out, written by people who obviously haven't read TFA.)
It doesn't make sense to stop buying from Lenovo and continue buying goods made by other Chinese companies. Are you going to boycott all Chinese-made goods? Then be ready for some serious inconvenience.
Also, it's kind of sad that you're focusing on what's happening in Burma. It's evil, all right, but it also happens every day, all over the world. (And a lot of it is perpetrated by our very own beloved leaders.) If you really give a shit about human rights, stop reacting to headlines and start doing stuff day-to-day. Like joining the organization linked above, or one like it.
It would be nice if you cited some source for your strange pronouncements, instead of speaking ex cathedra.
Windows ME was only supposed to be a stopgap. It was a replacement for the consumer version of Windows 2000 that didn't happen. (That's why Windows 2000 wasn't called Windows NT 5: it was supposed to be the successor to Windows 95.) ME was the temporary replacement, to help consumer-level retailers move product until XP Home came along. Microsoft didn't have much at stake if ME wasn't a success. A little ill will among early adopters and resellers, all people who were too dependent on MS to seriously think of rebellion.
Microsoft had everything at stake with Vista. Not only was it supposed to replace XP for both home and business users, it was supposed to showcase a whole bunch of stunning new technologies and serve as a platform for a whole generation of new applications.
Where ME was a short and simple disaster, Vista was a big complicated disaster that started 5 years ago and shows no sign of ending. First they were criticized for setting the hardware requirements so high, few existing machines could be upgraded. Then it fell behind schedule. Then they had to strip out a bunch of stuff even to meet the new schedule. Then they fell behind the new schedule. Then beta testers started complaining about how obnoxious all the new security features were. Then, despite the extended development period, they still managed to deliver an OS full of glitches, crashes, and compatibility issues.
Now people are actually beginning to seriously question the wisdom of giving one company an effective monopoly of the desktop. Good for users (if anything comes of it), bad, awful, disastrous for Microsoft.
ME isn't in the same ballpark as Vista. Hell, it's not even in the same universe!
Good lord. It costs five times as much to register a .su domain as it does to register .ru domain. (Good thing I was joking about commierat.su.) Obviously many Russians refuse to admit that the USSR is dead.
Good idea. I propose .bg.
United forever in friendship and labour,
Our mighty republics will ever endure.
The great Soviet Union will live through the ages.
The dream of a people their fortress secure.
Long live our Soviet Motherland, built by the people's mighty hand.
Long live our People, united and free.
Strong in our friendship tried by fire. Long may our crimson flag inspire,
Shining in glory for all men to see.
Music
There's some difference of opinion over whether Puerto Rico is a country or not. True, they're a dependency of the U.S. but they have a lot of autonomy. They have a distinct culture, geography, and a constitution they wrote themselves. That makes them at least as country-like as Scotland and Wales, both of which are considered constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
Even if they're not a "country" they're entitled to a TLD because they're on the ISO 3166 list. There are many "dependent territories" on this list.
Secondly, when you read this kind of info, you need to read stuff a little more carefully, regardless of the source. The article has some convoluted argument about the relationship between the IWC and the UN, but nowhere does it state that the IWC is part of the UN. And in fact, it's not.
I agree with the rest of your post though. The fact is, many TLDs are messed up, including the one you and I are using at this very moment:
Particularly "misused" are the two-letter national TLDs, such as
Anybody know where I can register an