Though I understand the FCC's motivation to promote development of the VOIP industry, why should those with high speed access find a loophole out of local telephony costs?
Because I don't have a telephone. Instead I buy a service where my ISP takes some bits from my home LAN, sends them somewhere else, and sends some new bits back to me.
My DSL comes over a line leased from Covad. I have no kind of account with the local telco.
It looks like a phone... it may work like a phone... but it's different.
(And so far I love it. $30 flat rate, no LD charges, not even to peace-loving Canada, and I get all the services like Caller ID that the telco wanted to nickel-and-dime me for.)
but you're right, if you call to cancel you're screwed.. you'll end up thinking you cancelled but you'll find out later you were given 2 more months free and satan owns your soul and your mom is pregnant with an aol executives child.
That happened in my family and let me tell you, the kid is a total dick.
The next cool thing in the blog world is pretty damn far from the next cool thing in general.
Blogs suck, and I can say that with authority since I have one. At least I don't delude myself into thinking anyone wants to look at it. Hell, I don't even want to.
My wife's best friend has a 9 year old kid. Kid and mom were over at mom's new boyfriend's place. While the adults were doing adult things, the Playstation 2 was babysitting the 9 year old. He was playing the boyfriend's copy of GTA Vice City. Until 5 in the morning. Unsupervised.
Mom was mortified when she learned what was in the game, but I can just imagine how damn happy that kid must have been with that forbidden fruit.
I did something similar in high school. We were suffering through some Shakespeare movie in the hated English teacher's class. The VCR in use was the same model as my girlfriend at the time owned. I had planned ahead and brought her remote with me. In the dark room it was trivial to make the VCR act up... pausing at random, that kind of thing.
Mysteriously, the troubles would always clear up as soon as the teacher approached the VCR.
By the end of the period she was fit to be tied.
A silly prank, sure, but it still makes me laugh today to think about it. Unlike the waitress mentioned above, Mrs. Dunbridge never got a nice tip either!
The educational part for my family came after I won the Neopoint contest. (It was first to get 250,000) My kids lost because they did not understand how the whole Neopia thing worked.
YES! HAHA! How do you like them apples, babies? Faced!
Campaign finance laws essentially say that political speech is DIFFERENT than "regular" speech. The implication is that is is harmful; else why does it need to be regulated?
I don't really agree with that, but there seem to be other precedents. "Hate speech," for example. Which I also think is a bad idea. People should be prosecuted for their actions, not their thoughts.
While this guy is on a spending spree, he ought to invest in some off-the-air HDTV technology, assuming his location is OTA-friendly. (see antennaweb.org)
* $100-150 for a Samsung HDTV receiver off eBay * $25 for a Zenith "Silver Sensor" antenna, which is a well-regarded inexpensive indoor model * a few more bucks for antenna coax cable
As a long-time sat customer, and one who was scarred by poor OTA experience as a child, I used to think the idea of getting broadcast TV was just NUTS... then I tried it. Now I find that I can get all my local stations digital transmissions and the picture quality is awesome. Even SD digital looks good. Not HD... but good.
I do have two marginal (but watchable) stations so it isn't quite perfect... One is upping their power in November though, and I can probably bring the other in perfectly if I throw $40 into a better antenna (eg Channelmaster 4xxx).
This doesn't get me Discovery HD, but I get all my prime-time stuff in HD and I love it. I am also not paying more to The Man on a monthly basis. In fact, I may drop locals from my sat programming package since I get them reliably off the ether now.
Choose the right HDTV box (eg Samsung SIR-T151) and you will even get a simultaneous downsampled SD 480i output. I record downsampled HD into my ReplayTV and the picture is great... Not HD, but SD that as good as the Replay can possibly produce.
PS: Whoever called the article author a smacktard: Yes. Thank you.
reading ebooks every single day... in bed, on the couch, on the can: uBook keeping track of miscellaneous bits of info (eg, project shopping lists): Noterrific Listening to my MP3 collection, via earphones, over WLAN, while reading in bed: BetaPlayer scientific calculator: Calc98 Getting online (via T-mo GSM phone & Bluetooth) anytime, anywhere. (In other words, I have Yahoo Yellow Pages in my pocket.) All of my contacts and appointments kept in sync with home & work desktops: organizer software is built in but I bought Pocket Informant Various games, of course Keeping track of how much I spend on lunch: Pocket Excel Taking notes in meetings: PhatPad Storing every single number and password that plagues my life in a secure format: eWallet
Sure, it isn't as good as a laptop, but I can (and do) take it everywhere.
I am upgrading to one of the new VGA models shortly after they hit the streets. I have my eye on the Dell Axim X50V, which has specs similar to the HP 4700, but is less expensive.
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Though I understand the FCC's motivation to promote development of the VOIP industry, why should those with high speed access find a loophole out of local telephony costs?
Because I don't have a telephone. Instead I buy a service where my ISP takes some bits from my home LAN, sends them somewhere else, and sends some new bits back to me.
My DSL comes over a line leased from Covad. I have no kind of account with the local telco.
It looks like a phone... it may work like a phone... but it's different.
(And so far I love it. $30 flat rate, no LD charges, not even to peace-loving Canada, and I get all the services like Caller ID that the telco wanted to nickel-and-dime me for.)
but you're right, if you call to cancel you're screwed.. you'll end up thinking you cancelled but you'll find out later you were given 2 more months free and satan owns your soul and your mom is pregnant with an aol executives child.
That happened in my family and let me tell you, the kid is a total dick.
The next cool thing in the blog world is pretty damn far from the next cool thing in general.
Blogs suck, and I can say that with authority since I have one. At least I don't delude myself into thinking anyone wants to look at it. Hell, I don't even want to.
The animals will undoubtedly be provided pre-neutered.
I am already staff for my wife, why would I want to be staff for a pet too? But I AM the boss of the DOG, oh YEAH. SIT!!!
True story:
My wife's best friend has a 9 year old kid. Kid and mom were over at mom's new boyfriend's place. While the adults were doing adult things, the Playstation 2 was babysitting the 9 year old. He was playing the boyfriend's copy of GTA Vice City. Until 5 in the morning. Unsupervised.
Mom was mortified when she learned what was in the game, but I can just imagine how damn happy that kid must have been with that forbidden fruit.
How about a "public defender" office for civil suits?
I did something similar in high school. We were suffering through some Shakespeare movie in the hated English teacher's class. The VCR in use was the same model as my girlfriend at the time owned. I had planned ahead and brought her remote with me. In the dark room it was trivial to make the VCR act up... pausing at random, that kind of thing.
Mysteriously, the troubles would always clear up as soon as the teacher approached the VCR.
By the end of the period she was fit to be tied.
A silly prank, sure, but it still makes me laugh today to think about it. Unlike the waitress mentioned above, Mrs. Dunbridge never got a nice tip either!
ReplayTV may have been crushed, but we few remaining users remain smugly superior in our vacant chat rooms! :)
But seriously -- what a cool product. I'm glad I chose Replay over Tivo.
Xbox Media Center is pretty darn cool. A modded Xbox set up to boot right into XBMC might be a good enough solution.
no need to seek the leak if you want a peek
FWIW I am a temp at MS. I have played Halo 2 multiplayer. It's a good game, but I am more of a PC guy and I prefer UT2004.
The educational part for my family came after I won the Neopoint contest. (It was first to get 250,000) My kids lost because they did not understand how the whole Neopia thing worked.
:)
YES! HAHA! How do you like them apples, babies? Faced!
Hmm, I guess this is why I don't have kids.
mean, what happens if a custom pizza gets ruined in the oven?
Sue the oven manufacturer and issue a press release, duh!
Campaign finance laws essentially say that political speech is DIFFERENT than "regular" speech. The implication is that is is harmful; else why does it need to be regulated?
I don't really agree with that, but there seem to be other precedents. "Hate speech," for example. Which I also think is a bad idea. People should be prosecuted for their actions, not their thoughts.
No, but it will be twice as expensive.
While this guy is on a spending spree, he ought to invest in some off-the-air HDTV technology, assuming his location is OTA-friendly. (see antennaweb.org)
* $100-150 for a Samsung HDTV receiver off eBay
* $25 for a Zenith "Silver Sensor" antenna, which is a well-regarded inexpensive indoor model
* a few more bucks for antenna coax cable
As a long-time sat customer, and one who was scarred by poor OTA experience as a child, I used to think the idea of getting broadcast TV was just NUTS... then I tried it. Now I find that I can get all my local stations digital transmissions and the picture quality is awesome. Even SD digital looks good. Not HD... but good.
I do have two marginal (but watchable) stations so it isn't quite perfect... One is upping their power in November though, and I can probably bring the other in perfectly if I throw $40 into a better antenna (eg Channelmaster 4xxx).
This doesn't get me Discovery HD, but I get all my prime-time stuff in HD and I love it. I am also not paying more to The Man on a monthly basis. In fact, I may drop locals from my sat programming package since I get them reliably off the ether now.
Choose the right HDTV box (eg Samsung SIR-T151) and you will even get a simultaneous downsampled SD 480i output. I record downsampled HD into my ReplayTV and the picture is great... Not HD, but SD that as good as the Replay can possibly produce.
PS: Whoever called the article author a smacktard: Yes. Thank you.
Will it be illegal to read a book and skip over the boring parts, like I might with a movie?
Only if it's an e-book!
Sounds like a job for the Proxomitron!
I don't understand why new regulations are needed.
Is it currently legal to shower flaming debris on uninvolved 3rd parties?
Is it currently legal to mislead customers or investors about risks?
If either answer is "yes," then sure, new laws, bring them on.
Isn't Accenture the company you hire when you want a really big project screwed up? Cool.
The X Prize was established in 1995. Ansari is a much more recent supporter.
You pay someone to explain it to you. It sucks, but that's how the system works.
What do I use it for? What do I NOT use it for?!
reading ebooks every single day... in bed, on the couch, on the can: uBook
keeping track of miscellaneous bits of info (eg, project shopping lists): Noterrific
Listening to my MP3 collection, via earphones, over WLAN, while reading in bed: BetaPlayer
scientific calculator: Calc98
Getting online (via T-mo GSM phone & Bluetooth) anytime, anywhere. (In other words, I have Yahoo Yellow Pages in my pocket.)
All of my contacts and appointments kept in sync with home & work desktops: organizer software is built in but I bought Pocket Informant
Various games, of course
Keeping track of how much I spend on lunch: Pocket Excel
Taking notes in meetings: PhatPad
Storing every single number and password that plagues my life in a secure format: eWallet
Sure, it isn't as good as a laptop, but I can (and do) take it everywhere.
I am upgrading to one of the new VGA models shortly after they hit the streets. I have my eye on the Dell Axim X50V, which has specs similar to the HP 4700, but is less expensive.
I can't imagine not owning a nice PDA.
On the other hand, I tell jokes because I am insensitive asshole.
This debate bores me. I want to go back to talking about how many frames per second the human eye can resolve.