Any time someone talks about how some data collection is OK because it's "anonymized", the only logically correct reaction is laughter.
Modern databases and analytics has ensured that it is literally impossible to effectively anonymize data while still retaining the usefulness of the data.
There's too many, and since you don't trust the WSJ, I can't predict which ones you will trust. I suggest researching it yourself. For a general overview and links to sources, this isn't a bad writeup: http://www.todayifoundout.com/...
Interestingly, if you search for "dummy office thermostats", you'll find numerous places that sell them for this exact purpose.
Yes. It used to be that if you wanted the fastest commercially available internet, you got a T1 for a few thousand a month, which gave to 1.5 Mbps. Times change.
Do you believe that 10 mbps is not enough as an absolute minimum to be counted as broadband? That's the fundamental question you should be arguing.
Yes, it's too low, as the FCC itself used to acknowledge before it began serious efforts to throw us all under the bus. Perhaps the issue is the use of the term "broadband". It's essentially a marketing term that means whatever the person using it intends for it to mean.
Yep. My experience with an open office plan was no cube walls, unless you count the little one foot wall around the edge of some (but not all) of the desks.
You can't receive or transmit (or do anything at all) with no power.
Crystal radios get their power from the radio signal itself, and you absolutely can power a transmitter the same way. It just transmits a really, really weak signal. In fact, if you're using a crystal radio, the leads for the earphone are doing exactly that -- only as a side effect rather than by design.
Well, it's Apple, and Apple is all about trendiness. They probably saw other companies doing it and figured that if all the other cool kids are doing it, they should too.
No! No! No! Everyone should contact them and encourage them not to do this.
They have shown that couldn't give less of a shit what the people actually want. Telling them is pointless.
At this point, the best option is to constantly raise hell with your congresscritter. Congress can absolutely force the FCC to do the right thing, no matter how much the FCC doesn't want to.
When I was trying to make the open floor plan work, I tried using noise-cancelling headphones. But that just made everything worse because then people had to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention, which startled me every time. It made my hypersensitive to everything around me as I was constantly on guard in case someone wanted me.
So, the headphones had to go. As did the job, in the end.
I will not accept any job that requires me to work in a cubicle or open office
I don't mind a cube if the walls are tall enough.
It's interesting that people have forgotten that when cubicles were invented, office workers rejoiced -- because cubicles brought an end to the nightmare of the open floor plans that used to be the standard office environment.
Yes, they save the company some money in the short term, but in the long term, they're very expensive in terms of lost productivity and loss of talent as people quit.
I had a great position at major company that moved to an open floor plan. I gave it an honest try, but in the end it was crippling, and I quit because of it. Along with about 40% of the other engineers.
Internet access in the US is already a joke compared with most other industrialized nations, and has been for years now.
Not content with showing their contempt for the citizenry with their net neutrality positions, now they're arguing that the US should remain in the backwater as a matter of official policy?
This is ridiculous. We already pay more for less than other nations, and the FCC wants us to pay even more for even less.
That would count as a conscious design decision, though, not laziness. Laziness is just taking the path of least resistance without considering the tradeoffs involved.
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Any time someone talks about how some data collection is OK because it's "anonymized", the only logically correct reaction is laughter.
Modern databases and analytics has ensured that it is literally impossible to effectively anonymize data while still retaining the usefulness of the data.
There's too many, and since you don't trust the WSJ, I can't predict which ones you will trust. I suggest researching it yourself. For a general overview and links to sources, this isn't a bad writeup: http://www.todayifoundout.com/...
Interestingly, if you search for "dummy office thermostats", you'll find numerous places that sell them for this exact purpose.
You can't go by average. What is the median? The last report I saw placed the US in the 31st place.
That speed used to be lower at one time.
Yes. It used to be that if you wanted the fastest commercially available internet, you got a T1 for a few thousand a month, which gave to 1.5 Mbps. Times change.
Do you believe that 10 mbps is not enough as an absolute minimum to be counted as broadband? That's the fundamental question you should be arguing.
Yes, it's too low, as the FCC itself used to acknowledge before it began serious efforts to throw us all under the bus. Perhaps the issue is the use of the term "broadband". It's essentially a marketing term that means whatever the person using it intends for it to mean.
Yep. My experience with an open office plan was no cube walls, unless you count the little one foot wall around the edge of some (but not all) of the desks.
Who said it was?
The problem is that the FCC is taking active measures to ensure that I'll be paying the highest possible amount.
Tell me about it. In my area, my only realistic choices for broadband are Comcast, Comcast, or Comcast.
The problem with that is it would only increase the power of those other abusive entities that govern us: corporations.
You can't receive or transmit (or do anything at all) with no power.
Crystal radios get their power from the radio signal itself, and you absolutely can power a transmitter the same way. It just transmits a really, really weak signal. In fact, if you're using a crystal radio, the leads for the earphone are doing exactly that -- only as a side effect rather than by design.
You wouldn't need a battery. An ultracapacitor would store the gathered energy just fine.
uBeam? Apple wouldn't use something like that.
It would have to be iBeam.
Don't even get me started about how evil Agile is.
I know for a fact that I will never again have to work in an open floor plan, because I will not accept any position that requires it.
Well, it's Apple, and Apple is all about trendiness. They probably saw other companies doing it and figured that if all the other cool kids are doing it, they should too.
That would be about 90% of the time I'm at my desk.
Why didn't they just do what the majority of office buildings do? Don't connect the thermostats to the HVAC system.
No! No! No! Everyone should contact them and encourage them not to do this.
They have shown that couldn't give less of a shit what the people actually want. Telling them is pointless.
At this point, the best option is to constantly raise hell with your congresscritter. Congress can absolutely force the FCC to do the right thing, no matter how much the FCC doesn't want to.
I have no problem with reliability.
But I would give up both some reliability and some speed if it meant I didn't have to do business with Comcast (or their ilk) anymore.
The intent of the FCC policy in the article is not for improving speeds, but rather increasing access to broadband at at defined minimum speed.
But achieving that goal by redefining the minimum speed is simply cheating. And lying.
Yep.
This is why I prefer doing business with smaller companies, even if they cost a bit more. They're much less likely to try to screw you.
When I was trying to make the open floor plan work, I tried using noise-cancelling headphones. But that just made everything worse because then people had to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention, which startled me every time. It made my hypersensitive to everything around me as I was constantly on guard in case someone wanted me.
So, the headphones had to go. As did the job, in the end.
I will not accept any job that requires me to work in a cubicle or open office
I don't mind a cube if the walls are tall enough.
It's interesting that people have forgotten that when cubicles were invented, office workers rejoiced -- because cubicles brought an end to the nightmare of the open floor plans that used to be the standard office environment.
Yes, they save the company some money in the short term, but in the long term, they're very expensive in terms of lost productivity and loss of talent as people quit.
I had a great position at major company that moved to an open floor plan. I gave it an honest try, but in the end it was crippling, and I quit because of it. Along with about 40% of the other engineers.
Internet access in the US is already a joke compared with most other industrialized nations, and has been for years now.
Not content with showing their contempt for the citizenry with their net neutrality positions, now they're arguing that the US should remain in the backwater as a matter of official policy?
This is ridiculous. We already pay more for less than other nations, and the FCC wants us to pay even more for even less.
That would count as a conscious design decision, though, not laziness. Laziness is just taking the path of least resistance without considering the tradeoffs involved.