...and soon after that, they leave me alone and move onto some other sucker who is willing to be badgered and browbeaten into funding their cause.
Wrong At that point they Sell your name to any number of organizations who then start their own spam campaign. You don't think they'd waste a valuable asset (your name/address/phone number/contribution amount) by dropping you flat. Silly boy.
Assuming you have usenet access, check comp.dcom.xdsl. Very active newsgroup. If you want to see the sorry state of xDSL, this is a good place to start.
I've had both cable and adsl. @home, before they started implementing their speed caps. 300-350 kB/sec (yes, that's bytes) was not uncommon. Relocated. No more cable access. Managed to get adsl through Concentric. 7??/3?? service (don't remember the numbers). It was expensive to install and is twice the price for 20% of the speed of the @home service I gave up. That said, they haven't been down for any significant amount of time in 12 months. Considering the horror stories surrounding Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic), I feel blessed to have found them.
Here's a link to an article at liberzine (originally posted at ars-technica). It's a good read. For those too lazy to follow the link here's the quote posted at ars:
The artist once again known as Prince was onto something when he sold his five-CD set "Crystal Ball" exclusively on the Web without the help of record companies, distributors, or record stores. On his website, he advertised the album and told his fans he would release not one song until he had 100,000 pre-orders for the entire record. He sold 250,000 copies and kept 95 percent of the revenue which industry experts estimate at $5 million.
Because recording artists only get 10 to 12 percent of a CD's retail price, selling directly to the fans is a boon to them. "We got paid!" Prince said, "More than for the last five to six albums on Warner. It's straight-up money, and the check's on time, not quarterly."
At the end of 1999 the Gates foundation stood at more than $17 billion. Gates is currently moving funds into the foundation at the rate of more than $1 billion a quarter. He has said on a number of occasions that he plans to donate 98% of his personal wealth - presumably most of it will go to the foundation.
Try this on: His Billness dies. Estate taxes take 50% of his net worth. If he can move his money into a "charitible" foundation he not only gets a tax deduction, but guess who is going to "manage" the foundation. Can you say Bill Jr.? Is Bill Jr. going to manage the foundation for free? Not likely.
The rich have been creating foundations to avoid inheritance taxes for as long as there have been inheritance taxes. Leave it to Bill to "innovate." Leave it his apologists to turn it into a saintly act.
At the end of 1999 the Gates foundation stood at more than $17 billion. Gates is currently moving funds into the foundation at the rate of more than $1 billion a quarter. He has said on a number of occasions that he plans to donate 98% of his personal wealth - presumably most of it will go to the foundation. Try this on: His Billness dies. Estate taxes take 50% of his net worth. If he can move his money into a "charitible" foundation he not only gets a tax deduction, but guess who is going to "manage" the foundation. Can you say Bill Jr.? Is Bill Jr. going to manage the foundation for free? Not likely. The rich have been creating foundations to avoid inheritance taxes for as long as there have been inheritance taxes. Leave it to Bill to "innovate." Leave it his apologists to turn it into a saintly act./flybait
So, to keep from slitting his own throat, he has to avoid a panic and is limited to selling only a small percent at a time. And Bill Gates doesn't just call his broker and just place an order to sell 900,000 shares, right? I imagine he might have to line up some institutional investor(s) to cross a large block like that.
He's done it before; here's a link to a May '98 ZDNet article. Admittedly, this is still a small percentage of his total holdings. I'm sure there are more recent articles; this was at the top of a quick Altavista search.
Thank you for pointing this out. If I'd read one more comparison of mp3=CD, tape=crap I would have posted myself. Mp3s sound great on my Rio or the Bose speakers on my PC; but, try running the average 128Kb mp3 through your receiver into some good speakers--it sounds like shit! It might as well be 8-track. If I find music on the Net that I like, I buy the CD./flybait
I caught this story this morning on the radio, here's a link to AP's version. The gist is that Ford passed out a 98-page book at it's annual shareholders meeting that, according to AP, "says sport utility vehicles are environmentally unfriendly, chug gas and can be a danger to drivers in smaller vehicles. The automaker also said its high-profit business in SUVs doesn't always jibe with its desire to be more environmentally responsible." They go on to say that they will continue to build SUVs, using that old corporate truism "[if Ford] limited its SUV sales in the name of environmental concerns, competitors would simply pick up more customers." However you may feel about Ford, SUVs and quality of life issues in general, I have to say that I'm a lot less annoyed by Ford's statements than by M$'s claims of "innovation." /flybait [only 4hrs to get through to/., you boys appear to have pissed someone off]
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...and soon after that, they leave me alone and move onto some other sucker who is willing to be badgered and browbeaten into funding their cause.
Wrong At that point they Sell your name to any number of organizations who then start their own spam campaign. You don't think they'd waste a valuable asset (your name/address/phone number/contribution amount) by dropping you flat. Silly boy.
What's next-- a .sig that reads "This e-mail generated by Outlook Express. Click "here" for details"?
Haven't patented that idea yet, I hope.
Damn, now where did I put Bill's e-address?
Assuming you have usenet access, check comp.dcom.xdsl. Very active newsgroup. If you want to see the sorry state of xDSL, this is a good place to start.
I've had both cable and adsl. @home, before they started implementing their speed caps. 300-350 kB/sec (yes, that's bytes) was not uncommon. Relocated. No more cable access. Managed to get adsl through Concentric. 7??/3?? service (don't remember the numbers). It was expensive to install and is twice the price for 20% of the speed of the @home service I gave up. That said, they haven't been down for any significant amount of time in 12 months. Considering the horror stories surrounding Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic), I feel blessed to have found them.
And that great support will only cost you...$35 per phone call. Good thing it's easy to use.
You go girl!
Here's a link to an article at liberzine (originally posted at ars-technica). It's a good read. For those too lazy to follow the link here's the quote posted at ars:
The artist once again known as Prince was onto something when he sold his five-CD set "Crystal Ball" exclusively on the Web without the help of record companies, distributors, or record stores. On his website, he advertised the album and told his fans he would release not one song until he had 100,000 pre-orders for the entire record. He sold 250,000 copies and kept 95 percent of the revenue which industry experts estimate at $5 million.
Because recording artists only get 10 to 12 percent of a CD's retail price, selling directly to the fans is a boon to them. "We got paid!" Prince said, "More than for the last five to six albums on Warner. It's straight-up money, and the check's on time, not quarterly."
oops...let's try it without html:
At the end of 1999 the Gates foundation stood at more than $17 billion. Gates is currently moving funds into the foundation at the rate of more than $1 billion a quarter. He has said on a number of occasions that he plans to donate 98% of his personal wealth - presumably most of it will go to the foundation.
Try this on: His Billness dies. Estate taxes take 50% of his net worth. If he can move his money into a "charitible" foundation he not only gets a tax deduction, but guess who is going to "manage" the foundation. Can you say Bill Jr.? Is Bill Jr. going to manage the foundation for free? Not likely.
The rich have been creating foundations to avoid inheritance taxes for as long as there have been inheritance taxes. Leave it to Bill to "innovate." Leave it his apologists to turn it into a saintly act.
/flybait
At the end of 1999 the Gates foundation stood at more than $17 billion. Gates is currently moving funds into the foundation at the rate of more than $1 billion a quarter. He has said on a number of occasions that he plans to donate 98% of his personal wealth - presumably most of it will go to the foundation. Try this on: His Billness dies. Estate taxes take 50% of his net worth. If he can move his money into a "charitible" foundation he not only gets a tax deduction, but guess who is going to "manage" the foundation. Can you say Bill Jr.? Is Bill Jr. going to manage the foundation for free? Not likely. The rich have been creating foundations to avoid inheritance taxes for as long as there have been inheritance taxes. Leave it to Bill to "innovate." Leave it his apologists to turn it into a saintly act. /flybait
only about 1/10th of what you can do on traditional cellulite.
/flybait
From Merriam Webster OnLine: "Cellulite: lumpy fat found in the thighs, hips, and buttocks of some women"
Excited? Not likely.
So, to keep from slitting his own throat, he has to avoid a panic and is limited to selling only a small percent at a time. And Bill Gates doesn't just call his broker and just place an order to sell 900,000 shares, right? I imagine he might have to line up some institutional investor(s) to cross a large block like that.
/flybait
He's done it before; here's a link to a May '98 ZDNet article. Admittedly, this is still a small percentage of his total holdings. I'm sure there are more recent articles; this was at the top of a quick Altavista search.
Thank you for pointing this out. If I'd read one more comparison of mp3=CD, tape=crap I would have posted myself. Mp3s sound great on my Rio or the Bose speakers on my PC; but, try running the average 128Kb mp3 through your receiver into some good speakers--it sounds like shit! It might as well be 8-track. If I find music on the Net that I like, I buy the CD. /flybait
Now remember children, before you go off half-cocked, take a deep breath and ask yourself: "What Would Lars Do?" Feel Better? I thought so.
And Thank You
I caught this story this morning on the radio, here's a link to AP's version. The gist is that Ford passed out a 98-page book at it's annual shareholders meeting that, according to AP, "says sport utility vehicles are environmentally unfriendly, chug gas and can be a danger to drivers in smaller vehicles. The automaker also said its high-profit business in SUVs doesn't always jibe with its desire to be more environmentally responsible." They go on to say that they will continue to build SUVs, using that old corporate truism "[if Ford] limited its SUV sales in the name of environmental concerns, competitors would simply pick up more customers." However you may feel about Ford, SUVs and quality of life issues in general, I have to say that I'm a lot less annoyed by Ford's statements than by M$'s claims of "innovation."
/flybait /., you boys appear to have pissed someone off]
[only 4hrs to get through to