This is exactly what Viacom is doing. Charging an extra fee in order to split the channel packages.
Actually it isn't. Viacom isn't letting dish split the packages. They're saying "If you want CBS you have to take all of our channels and carry them or nothing. We want them on DishNetwork and we also want you (Dish Network) to pay us for them, and since we have these CBS stations which we know you can't live without we think we can push the other channels down your throat".
Actually, the way I understand it is that part of the deal with the content providers is that the cable companies/satellite providers can't sell the channels ala carte.
What is actually hapening here is that Viacom is saying to Dish Network something like "We're not going to let you have the CBS stations and MTV and VH1 and the others you WANT unless you take the other 10 stations we offer which noone wants".
I bet Dish would love to be able to offer packages where you can pick and choose, but they are (in some cases) prevented from doing this by the Viacom's of the world.
Actually, this part is incorrect. Spews (and several other blacklist providers) don't even bother to notify the ISP before listing (or after for that matter). In spews particular case they don't send ANY email at all (you can't email them either).
> The best "patch" antenna on that page has 14
> dB of gain over isotropic (which almost nobody > bothers to make because isotropic antennas are > not generally useful on Earth; a much more realistic assessment is gain over a dipole)
The reason why almost all non-ham-radio antennas are specified in dBi's (decibels over isotropic) instead of dBd's (decibels over a dipole) is that you use dBi's when computing a link margin instead of dBd's. If you use dBd's you will be off by at least 2dB per end or 4dB on a total link - or over half (or double if you look at it the other way) of your power.
A isotropic antenna is basically a perfect omni. Imagine a perfectly round balloon (sphere shaped, not balloon shaped) A dipole (or any other antenna with gain) "squeezes" the balloon to make it "fatter" (higher gain) in the direction what the antenna is pointed. In the case of a dipole, the gain is increased by just over 2dB, making the "sphere" look like you had pushed in on opposite sides of the sphere (think sticking fingers in opposite sides of a balloon till they touch) causing the balloon/sphere to grow in diameter the other direction.
That case was not the same as what I'm talking about. HP (or any other inkjet company) has not tried to sue the companies selling inkjet refill kits. The Lexmark case is about how a laserprinter toner cartridge manufacturer (SCC) reverse-engineered the circuitry on the Lexmark toner carts and sold their own compatible toner carts.
As far as I can tell, that acutally ISN'T what the Lexmark case is about. Lexmark IS going after the refill industry.
More specifically, Lexmark has inserted a chip into their toner cartridges which basically lets Lexmark enforce a specific use limit for a given catridge. Once you print X pages (or X amount of toner, etc), the cartridge just won't work anymore. Not because it's out of toner (although the first time it probably is), but because the chip SAYS that the cartridge has no life left. You can't take an empty toner cartridge out and put more toner in it and stick it back in and have it work. The chip just tells the printer "cartridge empty".
Wired soda machines and all that brain-candy didn't come along until about 10 years ago..
Try 20 years ago. 1982. Or Earlier. See http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/. See "Ancient History" at the bottom. This pre-dates http. I remember fingering the coke machine back in 1990 or so.
Yep, the good 'ol Model M. Typing on one right now (wouldn't use anything else). The one I'm using right now is a '87 vintage, although I'm sure there are older ones in my pile of spares.
I find that it's the only keyboard I can get decent typing speed (I'm easily 60-70-80 WPM on most typing "tests" and peak out quite a bit higher than that when I'm not having to transcribe off of a test document.). I'm lucky to get 20-30 WPM on the newer "mushy wimpy" keyboards.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do when they finally elimiate the PS/2 keyboard port from computers. I guess I'll either have to adapt (good luck) or find a PS/2 to USB keyboard convertor of some sort.
Let me preface this with I'm a Wal-Mart Shopper. The prices on groceries and almost everything else is lower than everywhere else for the same cost, so I go there. So I might be a little biased. That said:
Every time we go its dirty, crowded, the employees don't give a damn about the customers and the isles (Which I'd like to see if it violates fire code) are full of pallets of stuff making it a maze to walk through
Can't vouch for the employees at your store (the employees at our store are almost always friendly and helpful). But the mess is directly related to the following statement of yours:
So if I need to get something after 10pm, I have to get it from Walmart
Believe me, if you walked into Target past 10pm, you'd find that it looks almost exactly the same. Or any store which is open past 10pm. They have to put more stuff on the shelf sometime, and that comes out of boxes on pallets. And yes, its a mess. But personally, I'd rather deal with a mess than the groves of customers which are typically in the store before 10pm. (Which I guess is your problem the rest of the time).
That said, I do agree that your analogy fits somewhat well. I've unfortunately got XP on my desktop because I have some apps which there is no reasonable open-source-compatible equivalent. If I want to use those apps, I have to run XP. True, I could do everything else in an Open Source OS, but then I'd be booting back and forth and/or spending $$$ on something like vmware.
What is going to be the breaking point at which point large groves of people switch to Open Source is when people can look around at what they *have* to have windows for and find that almost 100% of what they do can be done on Linux, and easily. If you look at the major switch stories, there is one common thread - everything which needed to be done in the evironment could be done with fairly mature open source tools. I.E. you need a word processor and a web browser and a couple of other minor things.
I think you misunderstood my response to the poster.
The poster was suggesting that we email the root nameserver operators and complain. All that is in the root nameservers are NS records for each of the Top Level Domains (.com,.net,.org,.us, etc.), NOT the.com and.net NS records.
As a result, there is absolutely nothing the root nameserver owners (I.E. [a-m].root-servers.net) can do about this wildcard resolution, short of removing.com and.net from the internet which would be worse than the current situation.
The.com and.net zones are on the [a-m].gtld-servers.net servers. These are 100% owned and operated by Verisign/Netsol last time I checked.
The wildcard is on the these.com and.net nameservers, and as such, nobody other than Verisign can make any changes to these zones.
The problem is that these operators don't run the dns for the.com/.net zone. Network Solutions does. Bothering the owners of the . domain won't accomplish anything other than most likely filling the mailboxes of some of the most level-headed and competent DNS administrators on the planet (who most likely don't like this idea any more than you do).
For postage, I use good 'ol fashioned stamps for letter-size first class mail, and the FREE web-based postage system on the USPS web site to print postage for my package-size mailings.
I've used this under Mozilla on windows. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to get my desktop machine completely converted to KDE on FreeBSD yet, so I can't say whether this works on non-Microsoft OS'es.
If there were an airline that didn't check passengers for weapons as they boarded, then which ones do you think the bad guys would fly?
The one where the passengers aren't permitted to have weapons. Seriously.
I think most criminals are smart enough to realize that if weapons are permitted on airplanes then they have an increased chance of getting shot. The potential rewards of successfully sneaking a weapon through security are much greater when noone else on the airplane has any sort of meaningful weapon.
Now if you mean "fly to get somewhere" as opposed to "fly with intent to hijack" then yeah, I suspect a higher percentage of the "bad guys" would fly on the weapons-permitted airline.
Libertarians I've met are in favor of abolishing minimum wages.
This is correct. Why should the government get involved in the relationship between employers and employees? If an employer wants to get the level of employee that they get for $1/hr then they should be able to do so.
abolishing OSHA
This is correct. Again, the government shouldn't be involved in the employee/employer relationship.
HOWEVER...
eliminating the right of workers to sue their employers
This is not correct. In absence of OSHA and government regulation, employees will have every right to sue employers in the case of negilence. If employees have the right to sue when they are injured, then there should be no need to have OSHA around. Plus, insurance companies will rate employers based upon safety issues - I.E. unsafe workplace, higher premiums.
eliminating all environmental regulations without exception,
This isn't correct either. The Libertarian party believes in a strict liability method of dealing with pollution. In addition, the party would like to modify the tort system so that polluting a neighbor's property - either by air, water, radiation, noise, etc. etc. etc - can be covered by trespass and nuisance laws which provide for a private right of action.
Or in other words - each person is responsible for the mess they make and the costs to clean it up if it leaves their property.
and even getting rid of the FAA.
This one is strictly true. However, it isn't as bad as it seems. A lot of the functions of the FAA can be handled by private industry (such as Air Traffic Control). In addition, consumers should be able to decide whether or not they want to be strip-searched before getting on a plane and airlines should be able to offer a "we don't check anyone" option if they desire.
The key most people miss about the Libertarian Party is that it is both about Personal Liberties and Personal Responsibility. YOU have the right to do anything you want, but you also have the responsibilty to not cause others harm. If you do, then you should pay for those actions.
Look ath the Libertarian Party also...
on
Joining the ACLU?
·
· Score: 1
A little bit less controversial group you may want to look at is the Libertarian Party. While they stand for many of the same things as the ACLU, they try to get them through the normal political process instead of through the court system. I hear a LOT of Libertarian-like viewpoints here on slashdot.
On the LP's web page there is also the "World's Smallest Political Quiz" which is basically a 10 question quiz which will help you know what political "area" you fall into.
Having just replaced a system much worse than described. (I.E. 40A service with no main breaker at all, entire kitchen + furnaces + Washer/Gas Dryer all on one breaker, mostly knob/tube wiring, etc). I'd agree that if you have to ask the question about how to do it, you probably ARE NOT qualified to replace it and should hire a professional or at least find someone with a clue to help.
In my case, I had to replace the entire entrance system - from the outside drop all the way into the brand new main breaker panel. Plus, I had to install a new ground system. Plus I had to replace most of the interior wire and/or add plugs where I needed them.
In my case, I've been doing electrical wiring for quite some time and I'm quite familiar with the codes. It also helps that my brother is a certified electrician (Almost Commerical Masters License) and I can call him if I get stuck on some nit picky issue.
There isn't much detail given about really how bad the wiring is, and without a digital picture or similar to tell exactly what is going on, it's really hard to tell if this is just a cleanup job or really a "the entire system is shot" issue.
That said, I will add a couple of notes in case someone is really thinking about doing this.
Get a copy of the current electrical code book. This will be very helpful. If you don't understand the codebook, then find someone who does to do the work.
Sometimes things are buried in the code book so you can't find them, or there are common practices which aren't even in the code book. For this, I use a book called "Electrical Wiring Residential" by Ray C Mullin. This is a textbook used in classes to teach electricians how to wire houses. It has all the nitty gritty details such as how many circuits you need per square feet, all of the nasty (but good) requirements for kitchen circuits (minimum of 2 serving outlets in kitchen, plus separate circuit for dishwasher/disposal, plus lighting on different circuit, plus optional separate refrigeration outlet), bathroom circuits (one for each bathroom, or in some cases they can be shared), Laundry Circuits, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
On the scale of the project described there will have to be a permit and inspection process. If you screw up, you'll be required to fix it. This can be more costly than hiring someone to do it correctly in the first place.
In addition to just replacing the breaker panel, you also usually end up replacing/adding circuits. This usually involves pulling wires through walls, etc. which requires some handyman skills which not everyone has.
I could go on and on and on and on. BUT, I guess the final thing I would add is that if you are trying to solve a safety problem, doing it yourself can actually cause a bigger one.
If the Amateur radio operators are out of compliance, believe me, the FCC will notify them and shut them down if they don't fix the problem.
That said, RFI problems like you described are usually NOT the fault of Amateur Radio operators. More specifically:
1. Many times the source of interference is someone operating illegally. Illegal CB operation (I.E. big huge amplifiers - which are against FCC rules, etc. etc.) is probably the biggest cause. Believe me, most Ham radio operators would love to take these people out back and teach them about respect for the rules.
2. Even if the source of the interference is an Amateur radio operator, many times the problem is tracked down to a low-quality piece of consumer equipment at the person being interfered with's end. As long as the Ham radio operator is operating within the rules, the owner of the equipment is responsible to fix the issue - as it is their equipment with the technical problem.
3. If it is in fact the amateur radio operator's problem, it is their duty to fix it. The FCC can and does pull licenses for this type of stuff.
If you are having problems along this line, contact your local Ham Radio Club a call. In most cases, they have a vested interest in finding the source of the problem and helping fix it. You can see clubs in your area by going to The club search page on the ARRL site.
Remember that Ham radio operators provide a valuable service when the crap hits the fan. Most Amateur radio operators are actually skilled in what they do and take great pains to insure they don't cause unwanted interference, as interference only hurts the Ham radio community.
The jukeboxes in bars -- they're obviously a public performance. Do they have to pay extra, or is there some exception that allows it?
Pay Extra - Most Jukeboxes will have a license issued by "The Jukebox License Office" which is a joint venture between ASCAP and BMI and others. Looks like the current fee is $364 for the first jukebox and less ($83 or $61) for additionals.
On the other questions, I'll have to defer for right now as although I have my opinion on them, I can't speak all that authoriatively on the specifics.
IF you are using 802.11b equipment, you will typically see an addition of ~10ms per hop.
13 miles is the outside edge with standard 802.11b equipment. 802.11b ACK's every packet and the timer which most AP's use to determine if the packet is lost is actually about the same amount of time which it takes light to travel 13 miles out and back.
So, 3000/13=230 hops (more or less).
230 hops * 10ms = 2300ms RTT. (or 2.3Sec).
This is considering an IDEAL situation. I'd probably suspect RTT times to be more typically around 4000ms for this path. PLUS you will likely see some packet loss (most likely over 50%) unless all the links are tuned.
Actually, the problem isn't that a pringle can antenna will put out too much power. The problem is that the *entire* part 15 system, including antenna, radio and any amplifier you might have has to be certified together as a system.
Even if the pringle can antenna attached to an AP is in specs technically, you are still not in compliance with the FCC rules.
I have a Dishplayer, which is basically a PVR hooked to a Sat reciever.
Actually, believe it or not, I actually pay attention to more ads at this point. As I skip ads, I only jump forward 30 secs at a time, and I have to see enough video to determine if the commercials are over. If I see something "interesting" in the scan, I will actually go BACK and watch the particular commerical.
Or in other words, I select which ads I watch based on my interest also.
I can participate in the "did you see the new advertisement for x" discussion just as well as the next guy, even though *all* of my tv viewing is through the PVR.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually it isn't. Viacom isn't letting dish split the packages. They're saying "If you want CBS you have to take all of our channels and carry them or nothing. We want them on DishNetwork and we also want you (Dish Network) to pay us for them, and since we have these CBS stations which we know you can't live without we think we can push the other channels down your throat".
What is actually hapening here is that Viacom is saying to Dish Network something like "We're not going to let you have the CBS stations and MTV and VH1 and the others you WANT unless you take the other 10 stations we offer which noone wants".
I bet Dish would love to be able to offer packages where you can pick and choose, but they are (in some cases) prevented from doing this by the Viacom's of the world.
Actually, this part is incorrect. Spews (and several other blacklist providers) don't even bother to notify the ISP before listing (or after for that matter). In spews particular case they don't send ANY email at all (you can't email them either).
The reason why almost all non-ham-radio antennas are specified in dBi's (decibels over isotropic) instead of dBd's (decibels over a dipole) is that you use dBi's when computing a link margin instead of dBd's. If you use dBd's you will be off by at least 2dB per end or 4dB on a total link - or over half (or double if you look at it the other way) of your power.
A isotropic antenna is basically a perfect omni. Imagine a perfectly round balloon (sphere shaped, not balloon shaped) A dipole (or any other antenna with gain) "squeezes" the balloon to make it "fatter" (higher gain) in the direction what the antenna is pointed. In the case of a dipole, the gain is increased by just over 2dB, making the "sphere" look like you had pushed in on opposite sides of the sphere (think sticking fingers in opposite sides of a balloon till they touch) causing the balloon/sphere to grow in diameter the other direction.
As far as I can tell, that acutally ISN'T what the Lexmark case is about. Lexmark IS going after the refill industry.
More specifically, Lexmark has inserted a chip into their toner cartridges which basically lets Lexmark enforce a specific use limit for a given catridge. Once you print X pages (or X amount of toner, etc), the cartridge just won't work anymore. Not because it's out of toner (although the first time it probably is), but because the chip SAYS that the cartridge has no life left. You can't take an empty toner cartridge out and put more toner in it and stick it back in and have it work. The chip just tells the printer "cartridge empty".
Try 20 years ago. 1982. Or Earlier. See http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/. See "Ancient History" at the bottom. This pre-dates http. I remember fingering the coke machine back in 1990 or so.
I find that it's the only keyboard I can get decent typing speed (I'm easily 60-70-80 WPM on most typing "tests" and peak out quite a bit higher than that when I'm not having to transcribe off of a test document.). I'm lucky to get 20-30 WPM on the newer "mushy wimpy" keyboards.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do when they finally elimiate the PS/2 keyboard port from computers. I guess I'll either have to adapt (good luck) or find a PS/2 to USB keyboard convertor of some sort.
Every time we go its dirty, crowded, the employees don't give a damn about the customers and the isles (Which I'd like to see if it violates fire code) are full of pallets of stuff making it a maze to walk through
Can't vouch for the employees at your store (the employees at our store are almost always friendly and helpful). But the mess is directly related to the following statement of yours:
So if I need to get something after 10pm, I have to get it from Walmart
Believe me, if you walked into Target past 10pm, you'd find that it looks almost exactly the same. Or any store which is open past 10pm. They have to put more stuff on the shelf sometime, and that comes out of boxes on pallets. And yes, its a mess. But personally, I'd rather deal with a mess than the groves of customers which are typically in the store before 10pm. (Which I guess is your problem the rest of the time).
That said, I do agree that your analogy fits somewhat well. I've unfortunately got XP on my desktop because I have some apps which there is no reasonable open-source-compatible equivalent. If I want to use those apps, I have to run XP. True, I could do everything else in an Open Source OS, but then I'd be booting back and forth and/or spending $$$ on something like vmware.
What is going to be the breaking point at which point large groves of people switch to Open Source is when people can look around at what they *have* to have windows for and find that almost 100% of what they do can be done on Linux, and easily. If you look at the major switch stories, there is one common thread - everything which needed to be done in the evironment could be done with fairly mature open source tools. I.E. you need a word processor and a web browser and a couple of other minor things.
They're just hiding in a grove of trees in australia .. and behind Dilbert's sofa.
The poster was suggesting that we email the root nameserver operators and complain. All that is in the root nameservers are NS records for each of the Top Level Domains (.com, .net, .org, .us, etc.), NOT the .com and .net NS records.
As a result, there is absolutely nothing the root nameserver owners (I.E. [a-m].root-servers.net) can do about this wildcard resolution, short of removing .com and .net from the internet which would be worse than the current situation.
The .com and .net zones are on the [a-m].gtld-servers.net servers. These are 100% owned and operated by Verisign/Netsol last time I checked.
The wildcard is on the these .com and .net nameservers, and as such, nobody other than Verisign can make any changes to these zones.
The problem is that these operators don't run the dns for the .com/.net zone. Network Solutions does. Bothering the owners of the . domain won't accomplish anything other than most likely filling the mailboxes of some of the most level-headed and competent DNS administrators on the planet (who most likely don't like this idea any more than you do).
(Google for heist60.mpeg if above if slashdotted)
I've used this under Mozilla on windows. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to get my desktop machine completely converted to KDE on FreeBSD yet, so I can't say whether this works on non-Microsoft OS'es.
The one where the passengers aren't permitted to have weapons. Seriously.
I think most criminals are smart enough to realize that if weapons are permitted on airplanes then they have an increased chance of getting shot. The potential rewards of successfully sneaking a weapon through security are much greater when noone else on the airplane has any sort of meaningful weapon.
Now if you mean "fly to get somewhere" as opposed to "fly with intent to hijack" then yeah, I suspect a higher percentage of the "bad guys" would fly on the weapons-permitted airline.
Libertarians I've met are in favor of abolishing minimum wages.
This is correct. Why should the government get involved in the relationship between employers and employees? If an employer wants to get the level of employee that they get for $1/hr then they should be able to do so.
abolishing OSHA
This is correct. Again, the government shouldn't be involved in the employee/employer relationship. HOWEVER...
eliminating the right of workers to sue their employers
This is not correct. In absence of OSHA and government regulation, employees will have every right to sue employers in the case of negilence. If employees have the right to sue when they are injured, then there should be no need to have OSHA around. Plus, insurance companies will rate employers based upon safety issues - I.E. unsafe workplace, higher premiums.
eliminating all environmental regulations without exception,
This isn't correct either. The Libertarian party believes in a strict liability method of dealing with pollution. In addition, the party would like to modify the tort system so that polluting a neighbor's property - either by air, water, radiation, noise, etc. etc. etc - can be covered by trespass and nuisance laws which provide for a private right of action.
Or in other words - each person is responsible for the mess they make and the costs to clean it up if it leaves their property.
and even getting rid of the FAA.
This one is strictly true. However, it isn't as bad as it seems. A lot of the functions of the FAA can be handled by private industry (such as Air Traffic Control). In addition, consumers should be able to decide whether or not they want to be strip-searched before getting on a plane and airlines should be able to offer a "we don't check anyone" option if they desire.
The key most people miss about the Libertarian Party is that it is both about Personal Liberties and Personal Responsibility. YOU have the right to do anything you want, but you also have the responsibilty to not cause others harm. If you do, then you should pay for those actions.
On the LP's web page there is also the "World's Smallest Political Quiz" which is basically a 10 question quiz which will help you know what political "area" you fall into.
In my case, I had to replace the entire entrance system - from the outside drop all the way into the brand new main breaker panel. Plus, I had to install a new ground system. Plus I had to replace most of the interior wire and/or add plugs where I needed them.
In my case, I've been doing electrical wiring for quite some time and I'm quite familiar with the codes. It also helps that my brother is a certified electrician (Almost Commerical Masters License) and I can call him if I get stuck on some nit picky issue.
There isn't much detail given about really how bad the wiring is, and without a digital picture or similar to tell exactly what is going on, it's really hard to tell if this is just a cleanup job or really a "the entire system is shot" issue.
That said, I will add a couple of notes in case someone is really thinking about doing this.
Get a copy of the current electrical code book. This will be very helpful. If you don't understand the codebook, then find someone who does to do the work.
Sometimes things are buried in the code book so you can't find them, or there are common practices which aren't even in the code book. For this, I use a book called "Electrical Wiring Residential" by Ray C Mullin. This is a textbook used in classes to teach electricians how to wire houses. It has all the nitty gritty details such as how many circuits you need per square feet, all of the nasty (but good) requirements for kitchen circuits (minimum of 2 serving outlets in kitchen, plus separate circuit for dishwasher/disposal, plus lighting on different circuit, plus optional separate refrigeration outlet), bathroom circuits (one for each bathroom, or in some cases they can be shared), Laundry Circuits, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
On the scale of the project described there will have to be a permit and inspection process. If you screw up, you'll be required to fix it. This can be more costly than hiring someone to do it correctly in the first place.
In addition to just replacing the breaker panel, you also usually end up replacing/adding circuits. This usually involves pulling wires through walls, etc. which requires some handyman skills which not everyone has.
I could go on and on and on and on. BUT, I guess the final thing I would add is that if you are trying to solve a safety problem, doing it yourself can actually cause a bigger one.
(Sorry, I just couldn't resist)
I was shocked. Apparently getting getting Approximately 4.48 million (Firefly), or 5.17 million (Futurama) or even 5.96 million people (John Doe) to watch a show on average is grounds to take it off the air because it's a failure.
I don't know about you, but I sure am impressed by anything which can get even a couple of million people interested in it.
You'd think *someone* could come up with a business model to continue to produce these shows.
That said, RFI problems like you described are usually NOT the fault of Amateur Radio operators. More specifically:
1. Many times the source of interference is someone operating illegally. Illegal CB operation (I.E. big huge amplifiers - which are against FCC rules, etc. etc.) is probably the biggest cause. Believe me, most Ham radio operators would love to take these people out back and teach them about respect for the rules.
2. Even if the source of the interference is an Amateur radio operator, many times the problem is tracked down to a low-quality piece of consumer equipment at the person being interfered with's end. As long as the Ham radio operator is operating within the rules, the owner of the equipment is responsible to fix the issue - as it is their equipment with the technical problem.
3. If it is in fact the amateur radio operator's problem, it is their duty to fix it. The FCC can and does pull licenses for this type of stuff.
If you are having problems along this line, contact your local Ham Radio Club a call. In most cases, they have a vested interest in finding the source of the problem and helping fix it. You can see clubs in your area by going to The club search page on the ARRL site.
Remember that Ham radio operators provide a valuable service when the crap hits the fan. Most Amateur radio operators are actually skilled in what they do and take great pains to insure they don't cause unwanted interference, as interference only hurts the Ham radio community.
Pay Extra - Most Jukeboxes will have a license issued by "The Jukebox License Office" which is a joint venture between ASCAP and BMI and others. Looks like the current fee is $364 for the first jukebox and less ($83 or $61) for additionals.
On the other questions, I'll have to defer for right now as although I have my opinion on them, I can't speak all that authoriatively on the specifics.
13 miles is the outside edge with standard 802.11b equipment. 802.11b ACK's every packet and the timer which most AP's use to determine if the packet is lost is actually about the same amount of time which it takes light to travel 13 miles out and back.
So, 3000/13=230 hops (more or less).
230 hops * 10ms = 2300ms RTT. (or 2.3Sec).
This is considering an IDEAL situation. I'd probably suspect RTT times to be more typically around 4000ms for this path. PLUS you will likely see some packet loss (most likely over 50%) unless all the links are tuned.
And yes, I do this for my day job.
Even if the pringle can antenna attached to an AP is in specs technically, you are still not in compliance with the FCC rules.
I have a Dishplayer, which is basically a PVR hooked to a Sat reciever. Actually, believe it or not, I actually pay attention to more ads at this point. As I skip ads, I only jump forward 30 secs at a time, and I have to see enough video to determine if the commercials are over. If I see something "interesting" in the scan, I will actually go BACK and watch the particular commerical. Or in other words, I select which ads I watch based on my interest also. I can participate in the "did you see the new advertisement for x" discussion just as well as the next guy, even though *all* of my tv viewing is through the PVR.