Calling Stephen Baxter, Ben Bova, others...
on
China Plans Moonbase
·
· Score: 1
So will we see a Chinese dominated future?
If the Chinese gain a toehold on the Lunar surface, they'll shortly have access to the mineral rich resources of the solar system... and a virtual monopoly on interplanetary exploration and development.
A fightening thought also occurred to me only a week ago. Perhaps there is a more pragmantic reason why we have not exploited resource rich space, as we could have since the 70s.... the Gold Markat. It seems to me that those in power may fear the huge influx of previously 'precious' metals that mining asteroids would bring to earth. The flood of gold would destroy markets overnight - for some people, it's enough of a concern to wage WAR to prevent.
Does anybody else think that mankind might actually be held back out of pure and simple greed?
For those who claimed I was daft in the PS2 Price Drop thread, I stated that Nintendo would need to drop their price in order to remain competitive.
It seems Nintendo agreed with that statement.
It's nice to see them stop making the same mistakes of the past. Still, I wish they had brought out a version of the GameCube more like the Panasonic 'full DVD' version.
OK, I've worked for years with automotive telematics/AutoPC systems, and here's what I want:
Household system handles menus and inventory, identifies the need to get groceries.
Using Bluetooth or WiFi, tells car what it needs, and the locations that the goods can be picked up NOTE: Locations will be based on best deals, and include E-Coupons and such, as well as projected route
Later, on the way home, I'm given choices of places to stop. I choose one, and the groceries are ordered and ready for pickup
I stop, the groceries are loaded into my trunk.
Using e-tags, the car determines that I got all the stuff I selected
within a minute of pulling in, I pull out with my groceries... never left the car!
I arrive home. The E-Tags also indicate to the home what I've purchased and updates the inventory
Painless, quick, and efficient. That's how grocery stores should operate. Forget fingerprint scanners. Eliminate the long checkout lines, crowded aisles, and rude people.
Yes, different must have for different people... and what I'm saying is that game-for-game, the PS2 has more great games in any genre than the Gamecube.
As for being a fanboy? I have to admit I did own a PSX, but I also have a N64, a Genesis and even an old SNES laying around. I have cash, and when I fele comfortable with a piece of equipment, I buy it.
Right now, the X-Box is barely attractive enough to buy... while I don't think it's met my expectations on the games, yet, I'm certain that M$ will pay developers enough to keep them in the game a bit longer.
A lot of it is economics. Why develop for the Gamecube, with Nintendo demanding exclusives?? Develop for X-Box and PS2 and get a MUCH larger customer base... or if it has to be an exclusive, do Sony for the sheer sales power or M$ for the up-front, guaranteed cash. Nintendo doesn't bring EITHER of those to the table (no matter how rich they are).
Nintendo made a serious misstep with the N64, using COSTLY cartridge-based games and overpricing the hardware (had to, since the games were such low margin). The PSX maintained it's momentum on the strength of outrageous margins on the software end. By the time Dreamcast came out, the Sony juggernaut was at full speed, rolling right over the N64 and Sega couldn't overcome their customer's distrust for a company that changed hardware platforms just about every year up till then.
Now Nintendo comes back with the Gamecube. You all say DVD isn't important... and I'm sure for those addicted to Mario and Pikmon, that is the case... but I, as well as 90% of Joe Consumers, won't buy a $200 system just to play one or two games. I bought 5 games with my PS2, which I purchased months later than the launch date... I had plenty to choose from. Plus it played DVDs out of the box - I personally know several people who use their PS2 as their DVD player, and it beats bringing an extra unit in the SUV for trips, too.
Nintendo screwed up. Until now, the ONLY thing keeping them in the game was the fact that little Johnny Rotencroch was able to afford a Gamecube 3 months earlier with his paper route money than an X-Box or PS2. That's no longer the case.
Now we see the Gamecube has been cracked (as has the X-Box). I doubt even this is enough to increase sales by much... again, price being equal, there are more games for the X-Box and a whole order of magnitude more games for the PS2. Games are cheaper for the PS2 (Classics only $20), yet Sony still makes money hand over fist...
I don't need to call Mistress Cleo to see that the Gamecube is doomed, as it stands. Nintendo should release the Panasonic version (with the full-sized disc player), get cracking with a dozen or so cute Mario games and hope for the best - but don't count on it.
Sorry, people, no matter how well the Gamecube is doing in Europe, that was yesterday, this is today.
Price being equal between the systems, right at the magic $199 mark, most people will find the PS2 irresistable. Both the X-Box and PS2 have it ALL OVER the Gamecube, and while it might have a few cool games, the other boxes have many MORE "must haves" from ALL genres.
I'm even tempted to pick up an X-Box, to suppliment the PS2 and Dreamcast consoles sitting next to my big screen, at that price.
Nintendo simply can't compete at the same pricepoint, without full DVD support and a bigger selection of games. Like most one-hit-wonders, Nintendo's Gamecube will fade into obscurity much like The Buggles or Toni Basil.
I don't think the X-Box is dead yet, but it's on the ropes. Only the incredible stamina (provided by M$ immense financial backing) will keep them around until the next box comes out. Still, there are more "must have" games on the PS2 than any other systems... not even counting the PSX compatibility! GTA3, GT3, FFX, MGS2, ATV-OF, Tekken series,... geez. Not to mention the prices on many of these games has fallen to below $20!!
Hmmmm.... and EXACTLY where is that done, short of messing with the registry directly?
I've tried to do that in the past. It doesn't use the same associations as the File Explorer; instead it loads the plugins and determines what to associate from them, at least that was the case when I tried to deal with it some time ago.
It's been a while since I've installed it as a plugin, but I don't recall being given the choice on WAV files the last time I installed it - I seem to recall only being allowed to deselect image formats, again, Quicktime had NO BUSINESS handling formats the native software could already handle; why should Quicktime need to handle my JPEGs and BITMAPs?
No applet or plugin should associate itself with a media type without some means to undo that specific association. Another annoying one was Beatnik, IIRC. That one was shareware that died after 30 days and then prevented you from listening to WAV files until you uninstalled it.
I'd be appreciative if M$ would kill the invasive practices of Quicktime and RealPlayer from taking over the duties of simple wav playback from the perfectly capable default media player applet.
Very annoying.
All I want Quicktime and RealPlayer to do is play back ONLY their respective proprietary formats.... nothing else!!!
I was an "early adopter" of Starband, getting mine installed in Janurary of 2001 with a 180 modem. I switched over to the 360 when they dropped the requirement to extend service, and very thankful for that.
We (my son and I) wanted gaming, and as mentioned countless times, it definitely is NOT for that... not that some luckless gamers didn't try to join Serious Sam games I served up on my machine for home lan play.
Other shortcomings include packet loss which often causes hangs during downloading. The 360 effectively doubled my data rates, though, and greatly reduced the packet loss. It really depended on which satellite and hub you were on.
All in all, it's GREAT if you don't have alternatives, but as soon as cablemodems became available, we switched. Just don't get tied down with an obligation of more than a year. Also, take advantage of the tie-ins with Dish Network; I kept my satTV service, only getting "lifeline" cable (which worked out well, because I actually get full analog cable now - they had to remove the channel filters for the cablemodem service) for $15/month in addition to the $40 for 1.5mbs.
Lucas changed the story in several ways when he tinkered with the first three stories in the special editions!! One blazing example would be Greedo's demise in SWIV:ANH.
Just when you think Lucas is coming around, he pulls this crap.
Personally, I'd prefer him to give the green light for others to pursue bringing the post-ROTJ novels to TV or the movies. He'd make a ton of cash (like he needs more, but whatever) and the fans would have an outlet to their desires to see MORE Star Wars. There's enough material out there to make a whole TV channel out of, with the X-Wing series and the Vong storylines!!
Another nice feature would be a GOOD MPEG2 *ENCODER* in hardware, available for video in encoding AND firewire encoding as well. Not software, and not quarter frame - full 720x480 30fps encoding at high quality for seamless editing. This is what I REALLY need for a complete home video suite.
My current set up consists of a 60gb 7200rpm drive (data), 30gb drive (OS and software), TV Wonder for basic VIVO and PVR fucntionality, Firewire card for my Digital8 camcorder, 20in monitor (ancient Nanao Flexscan), and a DVD-ROM drive running on a 1ghz P3 with 512MB RAM. The addition of a good MPEG2 encoder that can handle real-time capture of the DV stream into full-frame MPEG2 would be perfect.
Man, I'm getting a bit sick of waiting on ATI... the AIW Radion 8500 is the same as my original All-in-Wonder from 1996 with a new graphics chip plugged in.
ATI promised DTV a couple of years ago and has yet to deliver on the promise. Why deal with flaky drivers and questionable benchmark tactics when I can just get a TV wonder that does EVERYTHING the AIW adds and have the FREEDOM of selecting whatever graphics powerhouse card I want?
Meanwhile, NVidia has pretty much caught up to ATI in the All-In-Wonder type packaging with the Personal Cinema-based cards and fluid VIVO support. With an external tuner, NVidia can even potentially deliver DTV as a retro-fit.
Ugh. ATI disappointed me way too many times for me to ever get excited about their products again. Sadly, my first ever PC video card was an ATI EGA Wonder in 1988 (hooked up to a Mono TTL monitor simulating EGA with 16 shades of grey)... I still have it in a doorstop somewhere around here.
Of course, this film kind of blows away any chance for doing Time Ships, which gets deeper into the whole Time Travel issue (FTR: You certainly could, theoretically change the past - just not your own past - it's allowed because in changing the past, you create a new "split" in the time stream, thus a new "future")
The sweeping scale of Baxter's Time Machine sequel, along with the "reshaped" Moorlocks and their ultra-advanced technology would have been very cool to see visualized on the big screen.
Still, as simple popcorn and eye candy fare, this movie was decent enough.
US already taxes commercial truckers on mileage
on
Every Road a Toll Road
·
· Score: 2, Informative
IIRC, the U.S. DOT has truckers log their mileage in states, and they pay road taxes based on their travel. This is why they don't pay gas taxes.
It seems to me that the British plan is flawed.... the expense of outfitting cars with the "Black boxes" would cause a bigger hit than it would be worth to most people.
Of course, this is the same country that taxed TV viewing, so what can you expect from the crazy socialists there.
Why? Because in ramping down a few key variables to sacrifice image quality for speed, they have CHANGED the level playing field most benchmarks intend to set up.
If a tester KNOWS what image quality settings ATI dials down to make it faster, perhaps ramping down the same sorts of things (anti-aliasing, for example) might make an even MORE significant impact on another card. The trouble here is that there is no way to tell. ATI does this transparently and independnt of any settings the user CHOOSES to implement.
So a "Full Quality" benchmark between two cards is no longer fair, nor is it a valid comparison. If the driver ramps down settings no matter what, there may not be ANY fair comparisons at any quality.
To be sure, we don't even know if they are dropping frame renderings in these tests, providing absolutely false readings!!!
This practice is to be shunned as much as the "PR-Rating" for they are mere marketing tactics and do nothing for the consumer.
I have StarBand 2-way, and it works great..... now. Installers came out in January, but lacked the right equipment to adjust the dish perfectly, and after a few weeks, my service started getting interrupted constantly. They came back out, this time with the right tools, adjusted it, and now it works great.
It's not really about government control, it's about practicality.
Yes, breaks would have helped... an omission I discovered only AFTER submitting. Why doesn't Slashdot allow editing? - yeah yeah, I know there's preview, but it doesn't change the fact that I should be allowed to fix my mistakes when you are too impatient to go through the extra step!!
Now, as to your points:
My point was simple, I'm not allowed to view supposed "local" stations via Dish Network (see item 2) so why am I blocked out from watching the game on my digital satellite service?
No, I CAN'T get local channels. I can't get regional ala carte. This isn't Dish Network's fault, either. I don't qualify, yet I'm only 30 miles away from many of the stations I would get if I qualified. This is the feds fault... they are the ones who've backed up the cable companies with law and the courts. Further more, the government continues to screw dish owners....
Why? Because even though I'm only 30 miles from the signal, reception is horrible here. Too many hills and poor atmospheric conditions. Nobody uses antennas anymore, or else they get three or four stations.
Is this better? I often post to a Web Crossing forum, and I forgot that Slashdot handled HTML (the Web Crossing forum I frequent turned that off)
Now, as for "tiny brain" and "right-wing propaganda", get real. Our government, left and right sold out its people years ago. Only someone with a "tiny brain" would think that government regulation does no harm.
Well, at least in my town... my local cable company was all set to implement cable modems over 2 years ago, according to a tech I talked to back then. I immediately ordered digital cable, which used the infrastructure and basically meant my own home should have no trouble running a cable modem. UNFORTUNATELY - Charter BOUGHT my local cable company just before the modem rollout!!! Now we are still looking at another YEAR before they roll out... over a 3 year delay!!!
Not to mention that the Digital cable selection stagnated under Charter. Thy got rid of one of the two Fox affiliates (leaving 3 PBS affiliates for some bizarre reason) and our digital channel selection never grew under Charter.
Now I'm running Starband 2-way satellite, and except for the ping times, I'm VERY happy with it. I also ditched the digital cable and now run the full premium Dish Network package. Even keeping the local cable channels (since the Feds have screwed up satellite access to local channels) I am still CHEAPER than paying for digital cable/phone line/ISP and have TWICE the regular and premium digital channels.
Charter does indeed suck. So do the Feds.
BTW: I think it's interesting that recently, they blocked out a hockey game from my satellite feed, due to a local station carrying it, but oddly, the Feds say I'm not REALLY local to the station, because they won't allow me to carry ANY Metro-Detroit stations!!!! Luckily I kept the local stations form Cable, but it still sucks. I'd prefer my digital satellite feed to the crappy analog cable feed.
Satellite services have been raped by our government, thanks to big money from the cable companies. That's the legislation that REALLY needs to be struck down!
Slashdot Mirror
So will we see a Chinese dominated future?
If the Chinese gain a toehold on the Lunar surface, they'll shortly have access to the mineral rich resources of the solar system... and a virtual monopoly on interplanetary exploration and development.
A fightening thought also occurred to me only a week ago. Perhaps there is a more pragmantic reason why we have not exploited resource rich space, as we could have since the 70s.... the Gold Markat. It seems to me that those in power may fear the huge influx of previously 'precious' metals that mining asteroids would bring to earth. The flood of gold would destroy markets overnight - for some people, it's enough of a concern to wage WAR to prevent.
Does anybody else think that mankind might actually be held back out of pure and simple greed?
For those who claimed I was daft in the PS2 Price Drop thread, I stated that Nintendo would need to drop their price in order to remain competitive.
It seems Nintendo agreed with that statement.
It's nice to see them stop making the same mistakes of the past. Still, I wish they had brought out a version of the GameCube more like the Panasonic 'full DVD' version.
NOTE: Locations will be based on best deals, and include E-Coupons and such, as well as projected route
Painless, quick, and efficient. That's how grocery stores should operate. Forget fingerprint scanners. Eliminate the long checkout lines, crowded aisles, and rude people.
Yes, different must have for different people... and what I'm saying is that game-for-game, the PS2 has more great games in any genre than the Gamecube.
As for being a fanboy? I have to admit I did own a PSX, but I also have a N64, a Genesis and even an old SNES laying around. I have cash, and when I fele comfortable with a piece of equipment, I buy it.
Right now, the X-Box is barely attractive enough to buy... while I don't think it's met my expectations on the games, yet, I'm certain that M$ will pay developers enough to keep them in the game a bit longer.
A lot of it is economics. Why develop for the Gamecube, with Nintendo demanding exclusives?? Develop for X-Box and PS2 and get a MUCH larger customer base... or if it has to be an exclusive, do Sony for the sheer sales power or M$ for the up-front, guaranteed cash. Nintendo doesn't bring EITHER of those to the table (no matter how rich they are).
Nintendo made a serious misstep with the N64, using COSTLY cartridge-based games and overpricing the hardware (had to, since the games were such low margin). The PSX maintained it's momentum on the strength of outrageous margins on the software end. By the time Dreamcast came out, the Sony juggernaut was at full speed, rolling right over the N64 and Sega couldn't overcome their customer's distrust for a company that changed hardware platforms just about every year up till then.
Now Nintendo comes back with the Gamecube. You all say DVD isn't important... and I'm sure for those addicted to Mario and Pikmon, that is the case... but I, as well as 90% of Joe Consumers, won't buy a $200 system just to play one or two games. I bought 5 games with my PS2, which I purchased months later than the launch date... I had plenty to choose from. Plus it played DVDs out of the box - I personally know several people who use their PS2 as their DVD player, and it beats bringing an extra unit in the SUV for trips, too.
Nintendo screwed up. Until now, the ONLY thing keeping them in the game was the fact that little Johnny Rotencroch was able to afford a Gamecube 3 months earlier with his paper route money than an X-Box or PS2. That's no longer the case.
Now we see the Gamecube has been cracked (as has the X-Box). I doubt even this is enough to increase sales by much... again, price being equal, there are more games for the X-Box and a whole order of magnitude more games for the PS2. Games are cheaper for the PS2 (Classics only $20), yet Sony still makes money hand over fist...
I don't need to call Mistress Cleo to see that the Gamecube is doomed, as it stands. Nintendo should release the Panasonic version (with the full-sized disc player), get cracking with a dozen or so cute Mario games and hope for the best - but don't count on it.
Sorry, people, no matter how well the Gamecube is doing in Europe, that was yesterday, this is today.
... geez. Not to mention the prices on many of these games has fallen to below $20!!
Price being equal between the systems, right at the magic $199 mark, most people will find the PS2 irresistable. Both the X-Box and PS2 have it ALL OVER the Gamecube, and while it might have a few cool games, the other boxes have many MORE "must haves" from ALL genres.
I'm even tempted to pick up an X-Box, to suppliment the PS2 and Dreamcast consoles sitting next to my big screen, at that price.
Nintendo simply can't compete at the same pricepoint, without full DVD support and a bigger selection of games. Like most one-hit-wonders, Nintendo's Gamecube will fade into obscurity much like The Buggles or Toni Basil.
I don't think the X-Box is dead yet, but it's on the ropes. Only the incredible stamina (provided by M$ immense financial backing) will keep them around until the next box comes out. Still, there are more "must have" games on the PS2 than any other systems... not even counting the PSX compatibility! GTA3, GT3, FFX, MGS2, ATV-OF, Tekken series,
Ugh. Now I'm going to be forced to add rows of copper pennies to my burgeoning tin foil hat.
I'm running Win2k, and that DOES NOT WORK in IE.
FileExplorer, certainly. We are talking about IE associations, not File Explorer associations, which are ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.
Geez....
Hmmmm... I just tried it, to test, on an mp3 file link, and got no "Open With..." option in my context menu.
Thanks.... maybe I'll give it a shot once more.
Overbearing plugins have made me a bit gunshy about using them.
Hmmmm.... and EXACTLY where is that done, short of messing with the registry directly?
I've tried to do that in the past. It doesn't use the same associations as the File Explorer; instead it loads the plugins and determines what to associate from them, at least that was the case when I tried to deal with it some time ago.
It's been a while since I've installed it as a plugin, but I don't recall being given the choice on WAV files the last time I installed it - I seem to recall only being allowed to deselect image formats, again, Quicktime had NO BUSINESS handling formats the native software could already handle; why should Quicktime need to handle my JPEGs and BITMAPs?
No applet or plugin should associate itself with a media type without some means to undo that specific association. Another annoying one was Beatnik, IIRC. That one was shareware that died after 30 days and then prevented you from listening to WAV files until you uninstalled it.
I'd be appreciative if M$ would kill the invasive practices of Quicktime and RealPlayer from taking over the duties of simple wav playback from the perfectly capable default media player applet.
Very annoying.
All I want Quicktime and RealPlayer to do is play back ONLY their respective proprietary formats.... nothing else!!!
I was an "early adopter" of Starband, getting mine installed in Janurary of 2001 with a 180 modem. I switched over to the 360 when they dropped the requirement to extend service, and very thankful for that.
We (my son and I) wanted gaming, and as mentioned countless times, it definitely is NOT for that... not that some luckless gamers didn't try to join Serious Sam games I served up on my machine for home lan play.
Other shortcomings include packet loss which often causes hangs during downloading. The 360 effectively doubled my data rates, though, and greatly reduced the packet loss. It really depended on which satellite and hub you were on.
All in all, it's GREAT if you don't have alternatives, but as soon as cablemodems became available, we switched. Just don't get tied down with an obligation of more than a year. Also, take advantage of the tie-ins with Dish Network; I kept my satTV service, only getting "lifeline" cable (which worked out well, because I actually get full analog cable now - they had to remove the channel filters for the cablemodem service) for $15/month in addition to the $40 for 1.5mbs.
Lucas changed the story in several ways when he tinkered with the first three stories in the special editions!! One blazing example would be Greedo's demise in SWIV:ANH.
Just when you think Lucas is coming around, he pulls this crap.
Personally, I'd prefer him to give the green light for others to pursue bringing the post-ROTJ novels to TV or the movies. He'd make a ton of cash (like he needs more, but whatever) and the fans would have an outlet to their desires to see MORE Star Wars. There's enough material out there to make a whole TV channel out of, with the X-Wing series and the Vong storylines!!
Another nice feature would be a GOOD MPEG2 *ENCODER* in hardware, available for video in encoding AND firewire encoding as well. Not software, and not quarter frame - full 720x480 30fps encoding at high quality for seamless editing. This is what I REALLY need for a complete home video suite.
My current set up consists of a 60gb 7200rpm drive (data), 30gb drive (OS and software), TV Wonder for basic VIVO and PVR fucntionality, Firewire card for my Digital8 camcorder, 20in monitor (ancient Nanao Flexscan), and a DVD-ROM drive running on a 1ghz P3 with 512MB RAM. The addition of a good MPEG2 encoder that can handle real-time capture of the DV stream into full-frame MPEG2 would be perfect.
Man, I'm getting a bit sick of waiting on ATI... the AIW Radion 8500 is the same as my original All-in-Wonder from 1996 with a new graphics chip plugged in.
ATI promised DTV a couple of years ago and has yet to deliver on the promise. Why deal with flaky drivers and questionable benchmark tactics when I can just get a TV wonder that does EVERYTHING the AIW adds and have the FREEDOM of selecting whatever graphics powerhouse card I want?
Meanwhile, NVidia has pretty much caught up to ATI in the All-In-Wonder type packaging with the Personal Cinema-based cards and fluid VIVO support. With an external tuner, NVidia can even potentially deliver DTV as a retro-fit.
Ugh. ATI disappointed me way too many times for me to ever get excited about their products again. Sadly, my first ever PC video card was an ATI EGA Wonder in 1988 (hooked up to a Mono TTL monitor simulating EGA with 16 shades of grey)... I still have it in a doorstop somewhere around here.
Of course, this film kind of blows away any chance for doing Time Ships, which gets deeper into the whole Time Travel issue (FTR: You certainly could, theoretically change the past - just not your own past - it's allowed because in changing the past, you create a new "split" in the time stream, thus a new "future")
The sweeping scale of Baxter's Time Machine sequel, along with the "reshaped" Moorlocks and their ultra-advanced technology would have been very cool to see visualized on the big screen.
Still, as simple popcorn and eye candy fare, this movie was decent enough.
IIRC, the U.S. DOT has truckers log their mileage in states, and they pay road taxes based on their travel. This is why they don't pay gas taxes.
It seems to me that the British plan is flawed.... the expense of outfitting cars with the "Black boxes" would cause a bigger hit than it would be worth to most people.
Of course, this is the same country that taxed TV viewing, so what can you expect from the crazy socialists there.
...I turned on a light, thus flooding the room with a billion^billion times more photons than before.
Seems to me PC-LINT gives you the same contextual checking... but I could be mistaken.
Why? Because in ramping down a few key variables to sacrifice image quality for speed, they have CHANGED the level playing field most benchmarks intend to set up.
If a tester KNOWS what image quality settings ATI dials down to make it faster, perhaps ramping down the same sorts of things (anti-aliasing, for example) might make an even MORE significant impact on another card. The trouble here is that there is no way to tell. ATI does this transparently and independnt of any settings the user CHOOSES to implement.
So a "Full Quality" benchmark between two cards is no longer fair, nor is it a valid comparison. If the driver ramps down settings no matter what, there may not be ANY fair comparisons at any quality.
To be sure, we don't even know if they are dropping frame renderings in these tests, providing absolutely false readings!!!
This practice is to be shunned as much as the "PR-Rating" for they are mere marketing tactics and do nothing for the consumer.
ATI has just lost all of my respect today.
I have StarBand 2-way, and it works great..... now. Installers came out in January, but lacked the right equipment to adjust the dish perfectly, and after a few weeks, my service started getting interrupted constantly. They came back out, this time with the right tools, adjusted it, and now it works great.
It's not really about government control, it's about practicality.
And the government can inspect your e-mail. That is regulation. Do you like that?
Now, as to your points:
Now, as for "tiny brain" and "right-wing propaganda", get real. Our government, left and right sold out its people years ago. Only someone with a "tiny brain" would think that government regulation does no harm.
Well, at least in my town... my local cable company was all set to implement cable modems over 2 years ago, according to a tech I talked to back then. I immediately ordered digital cable, which used the infrastructure and basically meant my own home should have no trouble running a cable modem. UNFORTUNATELY - Charter BOUGHT my local cable company just before the modem rollout!!! Now we are still looking at another YEAR before they roll out... over a 3 year delay!!! Not to mention that the Digital cable selection stagnated under Charter. Thy got rid of one of the two Fox affiliates (leaving 3 PBS affiliates for some bizarre reason) and our digital channel selection never grew under Charter. Now I'm running Starband 2-way satellite, and except for the ping times, I'm VERY happy with it. I also ditched the digital cable and now run the full premium Dish Network package. Even keeping the local cable channels (since the Feds have screwed up satellite access to local channels) I am still CHEAPER than paying for digital cable/phone line/ISP and have TWICE the regular and premium digital channels. Charter does indeed suck. So do the Feds. BTW: I think it's interesting that recently, they blocked out a hockey game from my satellite feed, due to a local station carrying it, but oddly, the Feds say I'm not REALLY local to the station, because they won't allow me to carry ANY Metro-Detroit stations!!!! Luckily I kept the local stations form Cable, but it still sucks. I'd prefer my digital satellite feed to the crappy analog cable feed. Satellite services have been raped by our government, thanks to big money from the cable companies. That's the legislation that REALLY needs to be struck down!