I don't think young people are *that* bad. When we were kids, only people that could understand the lower level operation of a computer could use one, because there was no "high level" interface, i.e. they were not user-friendly. Since modern computers are relatively friendly and they are more useful to your average person now (the web, social platforms, etc.), you have many more people from *all* generations using computers. There are probably more young people today that understand computers well at a low level than in the past but they are outnumbered by all of their clueless peers, peers that didn't exist when we were kids.
Recently I attempted to download a user manual (pdf) for some old device from a shady website and it ended up having an.exe extension. As it was downloading it popped-up a nice graphic showing me step-by-step how to "view" the document. Which included me clicking on the "document", saying "yes, I'd like to run this" at the first dialog, and then saying "yes, I allow this application to make changes to my computer" at the second dialog. I'm hoping anyone under the age of 60 sees this and laughs whilst deleting the "document" but (most) older people will follow these steps to the letter.
He probably contacted Comcast and some time during the call(s) he played the "I'm a lawyer" card and maybe hinted at legal action. At this point, the customer service representative would be required to turn over the call logs to internal legal counsel. Comcast's counselors did their homework and figured out who this individual was and then contacted his firm to discuss the threat of litigation. His firm was probably like, "WTF?" and canned him because they would rather their employees didn't go around trying to intimidate others and/or get preferential treatment just because they have a law degree.
“I was in Nashville, Tennessee last year. After the show I went to a Waffle House. I'm not proud of it, I was hungry. And I'm alone, I'm eating and I'm reading a book, right? Waitress walks over to me: 'Hey, whatcha readin' for?' Isn't that the weirdest fuckin' question you've ever heard? Not what am I reading, but what am I reading FOR? Well, goddamnit, ya stumped me! Why do I read? Well . . . hmmm...I dunno...I guess I read for a lot of reasons and the main one is so I don't end up being a fuckin' waffle waitress.” -- Bill Hicks
But seriously, why? Why buy from Amazon or why buy at all (i.e. pirate)? Or is it why buy 1300 books? I know several people that can easily read an entire (200-300 page) book in just a few hours. One of them reads at least one book per day -- this is in addition to having a life. I'll never read 1300 books but they will have no problem doing it.
Risk - Odds are everything will go fine but my eyes are pretty important to me. Is it that big of an inconvenience wearing contacts? Not for me. Been wearing them for over 25 years with no issues. If I couldn't wear contacts though, laser surgery would have been more tempting. I don't like the narrow field of vision and other visual aberrations you get with glasses.
Age - I talked about laser surgery with my eye doctor when I was in my mid-to-early-30's. He said don't bother because you will need glasses for reading before long. I'm 40 now and still on my same prescription, but my eye(s) did start to decline slightly on my last visit. I'll be using bifocal contacts / reading glasses in the not-so-distant future.
I had the optical output on my motherboard run into my home theater receiver in the living room (where the computer was too). After 3 years of the PC always being on and the optical LED being lit, the LED brightness had diminished (yes, this happens) to a point where it could not signal reliably over the cheap 30 foot optical cable I was using (I did a lot of troubleshooting). To remedy the problem I bought the cheapest sound card I could find with an optical output. That solved the problem.
I have since moved the PC into a different room (and upgraded the motherboard, CPU, etc) and went back to using analog headphones. I kept the sound card in the PC and used that with my headphones. Then one day that sound card quit working. So, now I use the analog out on my motherboard.
They're coming after us now -- the hardcore gamer, PC using, hipster, Facebook holdouts. Screw this, if Zuckerberg wants to infiltrate my computer with some Facebook authentication required "oculus configuration tool" and track all of my processes, keystrokes, and mouse-clicks, he can do what every other soulless marketing company does and just buy that information from Valve!
I don't know if it is necessarily law. Perhaps only one company is given access to the existing infrastructure by law, but there can be multiple cable companies.
My town (Cedar Rapids, IA) has 2 cable providers. Imon and Mediacom. Imon just serves our metropolitan area (Imon is not municipal -- they are an independent, for-profit company), whereas Mediacom is a regional cable provider and serves many other metro areas. There are 2 sets of cable infrastructure run side-by-side throughout the city. I have 2 cable feeds terminating at my house.
The problem is, who wants to come in as an unestablished second provider and foot the bill to re-wire the entire city again? Probably not many companies. Cedar Rapids' situation is definitely unique and it may not last as there were (are) rumors about Mediacom leaving the city because of the local competition.
I'm coming out with an application called "Solitary Confinement".
Required hardware will be a VR headset, noise-cancelling headphones, and a typical closet or shower (shower/tubs will not work). You can play single player but it's much more realistic if a friend or family member takes on the role of the warden. I'm integrating it with the steam API and am currently ironing out the achievements.
In this movie the user and the AI grow to love each other. Can't the opposite also happen? How about the AI likes you, but just as a friend. Is the AI going to hang out with the AI down the street more than it spends time with it's "owner"?
If the AI is truly intelligent than isn't this the same as human relationships, only at near light-speed?
EPIRBs are generally used for maritime incidents. They float, can be activated manually but automatically activate when they enter the water. PLBs are Personal Locator Beacons. Similar to an EPIRB except they are usually smaller, less expensive, and most do not float. ELTs are used for aircraft related incidents.
They all perform the same function which is to alert rescuers to the location of the beacon. For terrestrial use it is generally recommended (required?) that you use a PLB.
The system is expensive to maintain since (unless you are abusing the system) the search and rescue usually comes at no cost to the beacon owner. Because of this, you should really only use these devices in situations that may involve the loss of life or limb. Running out of gas on a remote Australian road is not necessarily an emergency. There may be help nearby or other vehicles that may come along within a relatively short time frame. The beacon should only be used if you think that there is a good chance you will end up dead or permanently disabled as a result of your situation.
Of course, one would hope that if you have the presence of mind to carry a locator beacon that you would also make sure to fill up your gas tank before a long trip into an unfamiliar, remote area.
There are (at least) 3 things that lead to bad code: 1) Poor Planning. 2) Time Constraints. 3) Mediocre (and even bad) Developers.
Planning takes time and it is difficult. We employ "Systems Engineers" to capture requirements, understand the existing code base, and then determine what work actually has to be done. Then the developer takes those plans and turns them into code. Unfortunately, and especially as complexity increases, you are going to: 1) miss things, 2) break existing things, and 3) run into conflicts that often require complete refactoring of some part of the code or an ugly kludge to get you by. On a large development effort you usually hit all 3 of those.
Time. Obviously time affects everything. There's never enough time, so it's very important to get the planning stage right. If you skimp on time with planning you will pay it back 10-fold over the course of maintaining your software. And then there's just the obvious stuff. How many of us are juggling multiple projects, bug fixes, documentation, etc. Priorities change week to week, day to day. Is it management's fault? Ultimately, yes, but their jobs aren't easy either.
Developers. Hey, most of us have been mediocre at some stage during our careers. Hopefully we all get better with age (I've only met one person who got worse) but some progress much more slowly than others. I've been coding since I was 9 (I'm nearing 40 now) and if I look at code I did even 5-10 years ago, it makes me cringe a little. The code works, but it is not as efficient or well organized as I would do it today (or so I've convinced myself).
We code in C++ where I work. Most of the developers have been coding for a long time. But they coded for a long time in 80's languages and transitioned with no training at all to C++ (which I consider a 90's language). People still roll their own lists (i.e. don't use or aren't aware of the STL), misuse the object paradigm, don't understand templates, still use pointers when they should use references, etc. Most are basically still C developers and they are perfectly competent C developers -- but we're using C++ in a highly threaded environment.
So, imagine, if you will, the state of a decade+ old code base for a massive, monolithic application which has to communicate with a (very) random and ever-changing assortment of hardware devices, protocols, etc. written in C++ by developers who never really learned C++. Also, the poor bastards that have to do the planning in this quagmire and the managers that are taking fire from all sides.
Yes, bad code is the norm (and, yes, I do enjoy my job).
I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and we pay by the CCF (100 cubic feet or 748 gallons). Oddly, water consumption is a fairly small part of my water bill.
In January 2011 here's what I paid (note: we pay bi-monthly, so this is roughly 2 months worth of charges):
Water - Residential: 68 days at $0.31 per day = $21.08 (this is just for having water hooked up regardless of usage) 4 CCF (about 3000 gallons) at $1.62 per CCF = $6.48 -- this is the only figure affected by my consumption (aside from the subsequent taxes) Tax = $1.93 (I don't know what this tax is) Total Charges: $29.49
Sewer - Residential: 68 days at $0.35 per day = $23.80 -- this is allegedly influenced by my consumption, but they do not show the math. I think the 4 CCF figure above probably includes both supply and sewer costs. I think this fee is a fixed maintenance fee. Total Charges: $23.80
Storm Sewer - Residential: 68 days at $0.14 per day = $9.52 (maintenance fee) Total Charges: $9.52
Sub Total: $62.81 Tax (7%) (state + county): $4.40 Grand Total: $67.21 of which about 10% is for actual water usage - the rest I owe even if I never turn on a tap.
Past: 1) Slackware (yes, on floppies) 2) RedHat (for quite a while) -- this was also the only time (until recently) I ran Linux as a desktop OS 3) Gentoo (for quite a while) 4) Debian
Present: 5) Debian (headless server/nas), Ubuntu (laptop) & Amazon Linux (in the "cloud":P)
I've played with most of the available distros at one time or another. I also ran FreeBSD for a while (alongside Linux).
My current setup has my Windows 7 64-bit PC (main workstation) with an Ubuntu laptop (embedded development) and a Mac OSX laptop (general purpose use & music recording). My headless Debian server/firewall and my headless Debian 16 TB NAS. I used to host DNS, HTTP/S, etc. locally but have since moved those to Amazon's EC2 service and am running Amazon's Linux AMI there on my virtual server.
In many places in my neck of the woods I cannot get 3G and my phone has to fall back to EDGE in order for me to have any data whatsoever. So, if by discontinuing EDGE they mean they are going to increase their 3G/4G coverage then that's just great but, more than likely, that is not what this means.
Not that any of this matters to me anymore because my next phone will be on Verizon's network. AT&T's coverage is truly pathetic where I live. I've been with AT&T for 4 years and the same dead spots that existed 4 years ago are still dead spots today. If I go back home most of the county my grandparents live in has no service (voice or data) at all for AT&T -- you can get a Verizon signal everywhere. Also, there are many areas in the mid-sized cities in my region where your average person would just expect a signal (shopping districts, heavily trafficked recreational areas, etc) yet time and time again AT&T gives me the unexpected.
If it weren't for sports I think that number would be at least 10x higher.
There was a thread about "cutting the cord" on one of the AV forums recently and sports was the primary argument for sticking with cable. ESPN and its ilk are well aware of the clout they have. Networks like HBO have influence too, but if you can wait a year all of the shows worth watching on those networks are going to be out on DVD/Bluray/streaming.
I ditched cable 5 years ago and I've had to make a few sacrifices. I used to be able to watch my local BigTen basketball and football games on network TV until the BigTen Network came along. Then ESPN took Monday Night Football. Yeah, NBC has Sunday Night Football, but there was something special about MNF. I just don't watch most those games now. I also don't get to see college football bowl games or march madness games unless I go out or to a friend's house. You do miss that a little but then you remember the 100 other things you could be doing with your time and life goes on.
I do subscribe to a number of streaming services and my over the air selection is pretty decent. So, I really watch about the same amount of television that I did before I got rid of cable. I just pay a heck of a lot less now.
Some retort, "Yeah, but you still have to pay for Internet access..." Like I wasn't going to do that anyway? Yes, of course, now there is no "bundle" deal. Fortunately I live in a town with multiple cable providers (yes, 2 different coax cables are run into my home) and DSL so Internet access is reasonable even without a cable TV package.
I also didn't/have/ to buy extra equipment for watching streaming video on my TV. I use my PS3 which was not bought for streaming video but, rather, for playing games. Now it gets more use as a media player than a game console though. The only device I/did/ buy that I might not have needed to before was a Roku for the bedroom TV.
If cable companies offered an a la carte subscription service I might actually sign up again, but I don't see that happening.
I was thinking more along the lines that the characters and chain of events in the series did not seem to be mirroring or recasting any particular period of human history or mythology.
And I certainly plan to re-read them many more times.
However, I do know that there are plenty of places where youmay not make minimum wage, but you still don't make anywhere close to enough to live on, and no matter how long you work there (doing a good job, showing up on time, etc), you have no guarantee of making more.
Yet, apparently, they keep showing up for work and are able to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves in some fashion. Me? I'd move to somewhere where it wasn't so expensive to live. If everyone does that then the business will have no choice but to increase wages or die. I've got no sympathy for someone in a bad situation that does nothing to change it -- especially in America where you have the freedom to do exactly that.
I have personal knowledge of a job making $8/hr at a chocolate store, where the owner is on the lookout for more adults to hire, part time, for that much money, on a long-term basis. And has no intention of raising the pay, making a full-time position, or anything of the sort.
Then the owner can pound sand. Oh, it's the best job offer on the market? Well, maybe you should take it then? Or move. Or start a competing business. Etc.
Pretend I'm typing this in all caps and I'm using lots of exclamation points: You cannot have a living minimum wage. And definitely not in a global economy.
Let's go extreme. Let's raise the minimum wage to $1,000,000/hr. Hell we'd all be living in mansions and driving Bentley's right? No? Why?? Well guess what, those same problems exist (albeit on a smaller scale) even when you bump the minimum wage from $7.25 to only $7.50. There is a short term bump and then inflation and job losses bring everything back into balance. Meanwhile you've just lowered the value of everyone's cash savings. So, in the long run, you've manged to do nothing for the working class and you've reduced the net worth of the middle class and probably screwed over most retirees. Hooray! The rich are OK (of course) since they have their money tied into investments that appreciate with inflation.
I'd love to see America try a free market once -- just once. No more minimum wage. No more corporate welfare or subsidies. No more laws and loopholes for the rich and entrenched interests. A flat tax system. Etc.
So, I found this on Computer World (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228051/Unlimited_data_customers_freaked_out_by_new_Verizon_shared_data_plans):
" You're not required to move to Share Everything, but if you do, unlimited data will not be retained on your line. As a Verizon Wireless customer you have choices when you upgrade at discounted pricing. You can choose from a standalone data package starting at $30 for 2GB or a Share Everything Plan. If keeping unlimited is important to you, you can choose to upgrade and pay full retail price for the phone."
So, can I assume that if I'm not upgrading, but as a new customer I can still get the standalone data package? Even after June 28th? Because (almost) all of the news sites are saying that this option will not be available after June 28th? So, I guess I'll just sit here with my thumb up my ass and see what happens because actually telling me now in a clear and comprehensive manner is obviously asking too much. PR fail.
I was planning on switching to Verizon from AT&T sometime here in the next 6 months. After reading about these rates over the last couple days, those plans are aborted. AT&T is bad, but they're not that bad.
I already pay $70 for 2GB with AT&T. Why would I pay an extra $20 for half the data? I was hoping to do a break-even switch in the fall figuring I'd pay about the same but get better coverage with Verizon (in my neck of the woods anyway). I guess I'll stick with crap(pier) coverage and save some money though.
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I don't think young people are *that* bad. When we were kids, only people that could understand the lower level operation of a computer could use one, because there was no "high level" interface, i.e. they were not user-friendly. Since modern computers are relatively friendly and they are more useful to your average person now (the web, social platforms, etc.), you have many more people from *all* generations using computers. There are probably more young people today that understand computers well at a low level than in the past but they are outnumbered by all of their clueless peers, peers that didn't exist when we were kids.
Recently I attempted to download a user manual (pdf) for some old device from a shady website and it ended up having an .exe extension. As it was downloading it popped-up a nice graphic showing me step-by-step how to "view" the document. Which included me clicking on the "document", saying "yes, I'd like to run this" at the first dialog, and then saying "yes, I allow this application to make changes to my computer" at the second dialog. I'm hoping anyone under the age of 60 sees this and laughs whilst deleting the "document" but (most) older people will follow these steps to the letter.
He probably contacted Comcast and some time during the call(s) he played the "I'm a lawyer" card and maybe hinted at legal action. At this point, the customer service representative would be required to turn over the call logs to internal legal counsel. Comcast's counselors did their homework and figured out who this individual was and then contacted his firm to discuss the threat of litigation. His firm was probably like, "WTF?" and canned him because they would rather their employees didn't go around trying to intimidate others and/or get preferential treatment just because they have a law degree.
Again, playing devil's advocate here.
“I was in Nashville, Tennessee last year. After the show I went to a Waffle House. I'm not proud of it, I was hungry. And I'm alone, I'm eating and I'm reading a book, right? Waitress walks over to me: 'Hey, whatcha readin' for?' Isn't that the weirdest fuckin' question you've ever heard? Not what am I reading, but what am I reading FOR? Well, goddamnit, ya stumped me! Why do I read? Well . . . hmmm...I dunno...I guess I read for a lot of reasons and the main one is so I don't end up being a fuckin' waffle waitress.” -- Bill Hicks
But seriously, why? Why buy from Amazon or why buy at all (i.e. pirate)? Or is it why buy 1300 books? I know several people that can easily read an entire (200-300 page) book in just a few hours. One of them reads at least one book per day -- this is in addition to having a life. I'll never read 1300 books but they will have no problem doing it.
Risk - Odds are everything will go fine but my eyes are pretty important to me. Is it that big of an inconvenience wearing contacts? Not for me. Been wearing them for over 25 years with no issues. If I couldn't wear contacts though, laser surgery would have been more tempting. I don't like the narrow field of vision and other visual aberrations you get with glasses.
Age - I talked about laser surgery with my eye doctor when I was in my mid-to-early-30's. He said don't bother because you will need glasses for reading before long. I'm 40 now and still on my same prescription, but my eye(s) did start to decline slightly on my last visit. I'll be using bifocal contacts / reading glasses in the not-so-distant future.
We need to get this dude (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2oXMdZ4sk) and this rep from Comcast on the same line.
I had the optical output on my motherboard run into my home theater receiver in the living room (where the computer was too). After 3 years of the PC always being on and the optical LED being lit, the LED brightness had diminished (yes, this happens) to a point where it could not signal reliably over the cheap 30 foot optical cable I was using (I did a lot of troubleshooting). To remedy the problem I bought the cheapest sound card I could find with an optical output. That solved the problem.
I have since moved the PC into a different room (and upgraded the motherboard, CPU, etc) and went back to using analog headphones. I kept the sound card in the PC and used that with my headphones. Then one day that sound card quit working. So, now I use the analog out on my motherboard.
Full circle.
They're coming after us now -- the hardcore gamer, PC using, hipster, Facebook holdouts. Screw this, if Zuckerberg wants to infiltrate my computer with some Facebook authentication required "oculus configuration tool" and track all of my processes, keystrokes, and mouse-clicks, he can do what every other soulless marketing company does and just buy that information from Valve!
"Print is dead."
- Egon, 1984
"Egon is dead."
- Print, 2014
I can't wait until they bring this to reality TV. I'll finally get to experience reality like it was meant to be experienced!
You probably know whether or not you are allergic to eggs. How many people know whether or not they are allergic to grasshoppers?
I don't know if it is necessarily law. Perhaps only one company is given access to the existing infrastructure by law, but there can be multiple cable companies.
My town (Cedar Rapids, IA) has 2 cable providers. Imon and Mediacom. Imon just serves our metropolitan area (Imon is not municipal -- they are an independent, for-profit company), whereas Mediacom is a regional cable provider and serves many other metro areas. There are 2 sets of cable infrastructure run side-by-side throughout the city. I have 2 cable feeds terminating at my house.
The problem is, who wants to come in as an unestablished second provider and foot the bill to re-wire the entire city again? Probably not many companies. Cedar Rapids' situation is definitely unique and it may not last as there were (are) rumors about Mediacom leaving the city because of the local competition.
I'm coming out with an application called "Solitary Confinement".
Required hardware will be a VR headset, noise-cancelling headphones, and a typical closet or shower (shower/tubs will not work). You can play single player but it's much more realistic if a friend or family member takes on the role of the warden. I'm integrating it with the steam API and am currently ironing out the achievements.
Disclaimer: I have not watched the movie yet.
In this movie the user and the AI grow to love each other. Can't the opposite also happen? How about the AI likes you, but just as a friend. Is the AI going to hang out with the AI down the street more than it spends time with it's "owner"?
If the AI is truly intelligent than isn't this the same as human relationships, only at near light-speed?
Complete living room destruction!
And probably a trip to the ER.
Just for clarification:
EPIRBs are generally used for maritime incidents. They float, can be activated manually but automatically activate when they enter the water.
PLBs are Personal Locator Beacons. Similar to an EPIRB except they are usually smaller, less expensive, and most do not float.
ELTs are used for aircraft related incidents.
They all perform the same function which is to alert rescuers to the location of the beacon. For terrestrial use it is generally recommended (required?) that you use a PLB.
The system is expensive to maintain since (unless you are abusing the system) the search and rescue usually comes at no cost to the beacon owner. Because of this, you should really only use these devices in situations that may involve the loss of life or limb. Running out of gas on a remote Australian road is not necessarily an emergency. There may be help nearby or other vehicles that may come along within a relatively short time frame. The beacon should only be used if you think that there is a good chance you will end up dead or permanently disabled as a result of your situation.
Of course, one would hope that if you have the presence of mind to carry a locator beacon that you would also make sure to fill up your gas tank before a long trip into an unfamiliar, remote area.
Yes, this.
There are (at least) 3 things that lead to bad code: 1) Poor Planning. 2) Time Constraints. 3) Mediocre (and even bad) Developers.
Planning takes time and it is difficult. We employ "Systems Engineers" to capture requirements, understand the existing code base, and then determine what work actually has to be done. Then the developer takes those plans and turns them into code. Unfortunately, and especially as complexity increases, you are going to: 1) miss things, 2) break existing things, and 3) run into conflicts that often require complete refactoring of some part of the code or an ugly kludge to get you by. On a large development effort you usually hit all 3 of those.
Time. Obviously time affects everything. There's never enough time, so it's very important to get the planning stage right. If you skimp on time with planning you will pay it back 10-fold over the course of maintaining your software. And then there's just the obvious stuff. How many of us are juggling multiple projects, bug fixes, documentation, etc. Priorities change week to week, day to day. Is it management's fault? Ultimately, yes, but their jobs aren't easy either.
Developers. Hey, most of us have been mediocre at some stage during our careers. Hopefully we all get better with age (I've only met one person who got worse) but some progress much more slowly than others. I've been coding since I was 9 (I'm nearing 40 now) and if I look at code I did even 5-10 years ago, it makes me cringe a little. The code works, but it is not as efficient or well organized as I would do it today (or so I've convinced myself).
We code in C++ where I work. Most of the developers have been coding for a long time. But they coded for a long time in 80's languages and transitioned with no training at all to C++ (which I consider a 90's language). People still roll their own lists (i.e. don't use or aren't aware of the STL), misuse the object paradigm, don't understand templates, still use pointers when they should use references, etc. Most are basically still C developers and they are perfectly competent C developers -- but we're using C++ in a highly threaded environment.
So, imagine, if you will, the state of a decade+ old code base for a massive, monolithic application which has to communicate with a (very) random and ever-changing assortment of hardware devices, protocols, etc. written in C++ by developers who never really learned C++. Also, the poor bastards that have to do the planning in this quagmire and the managers that are taking fire from all sides.
Yes, bad code is the norm (and, yes, I do enjoy my job).
I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and we pay by the CCF (100 cubic feet or 748 gallons). Oddly, water consumption is a fairly small part of my water bill.
In January 2011 here's what I paid (note: we pay bi-monthly, so this is roughly 2 months worth of charges):
Water - Residential:
68 days at $0.31 per day = $21.08 (this is just for having water hooked up regardless of usage)
4 CCF (about 3000 gallons) at $1.62 per CCF = $6.48 -- this is the only figure affected by my consumption (aside from the subsequent taxes)
Tax = $1.93 (I don't know what this tax is)
Total Charges: $29.49
Sewer - Residential:
68 days at $0.35 per day = $23.80 -- this is allegedly influenced by my consumption, but they do not show the math. I think the 4 CCF figure above probably includes both supply and sewer costs. I think this fee is a fixed maintenance fee.
Total Charges: $23.80
Storm Sewer - Residential:
68 days at $0.14 per day = $9.52 (maintenance fee)
Total Charges: $9.52
Sub Total: $62.81
Tax (7%) (state + county): $4.40
Grand Total: $67.21 of which about 10% is for actual water usage - the rest I owe even if I never turn on a tap.
Past:
1) Slackware (yes, on floppies)
2) RedHat (for quite a while) -- this was also the only time (until recently) I ran Linux as a desktop OS
3) Gentoo (for quite a while)
4) Debian
Present: :P)
5) Debian (headless server/nas), Ubuntu (laptop) & Amazon Linux (in the "cloud"
I've played with most of the available distros at one time or another. I also ran FreeBSD for a while (alongside Linux).
My current setup has my Windows 7 64-bit PC (main workstation) with an Ubuntu laptop (embedded development) and a Mac OSX laptop (general purpose use & music recording). My headless Debian server/firewall and my headless Debian 16 TB NAS. I used to host DNS, HTTP/S, etc. locally but have since moved those to Amazon's EC2 service and am running Amazon's Linux AMI there on my virtual server.
In many places in my neck of the woods I cannot get 3G and my phone has to fall back to EDGE in order for me to have any data whatsoever. So, if by discontinuing EDGE they mean they are going to increase their 3G/4G coverage then that's just great but, more than likely, that is not what this means.
Not that any of this matters to me anymore because my next phone will be on Verizon's network. AT&T's coverage is truly pathetic where I live. I've been with AT&T for 4 years and the same dead spots that existed 4 years ago are still dead spots today. If I go back home most of the county my grandparents live in has no service (voice or data) at all for AT&T -- you can get a Verizon signal everywhere. Also, there are many areas in the mid-sized cities in my region where your average person would just expect a signal (shopping districts, heavily trafficked recreational areas, etc) yet time and time again AT&T gives me the unexpected.
If it weren't for sports I think that number would be at least 10x higher.
There was a thread about "cutting the cord" on one of the AV forums recently and sports was the primary argument for sticking with cable. ESPN and its ilk are well aware of the clout they have. Networks like HBO have influence too, but if you can wait a year all of the shows worth watching on those networks are going to be out on DVD/Bluray/streaming.
I ditched cable 5 years ago and I've had to make a few sacrifices. I used to be able to watch my local BigTen basketball and football games on network TV until the BigTen Network came along. Then ESPN took Monday Night Football. Yeah, NBC has Sunday Night Football, but there was something special about MNF. I just don't watch most those games now. I also don't get to see college football bowl games or march madness games unless I go out or to a friend's house. You do miss that a little but then you remember the 100 other things you could be doing with your time and life goes on.
I do subscribe to a number of streaming services and my over the air selection is pretty decent. So, I really watch about the same amount of television that I did before I got rid of cable. I just pay a heck of a lot less now.
Some retort, "Yeah, but you still have to pay for Internet access..." Like I wasn't going to do that anyway? Yes, of course, now there is no "bundle" deal. Fortunately I live in a town with multiple cable providers (yes, 2 different coax cables are run into my home) and DSL so Internet access is reasonable even without a cable TV package.
I also didn't /have/ to buy extra equipment for watching streaming video on my TV. I use my PS3 which was not bought for streaming video but, rather, for playing games. Now it gets more use as a media player than a game console though. The only device I /did/ buy that I might not have needed to before was a Roku for the bedroom TV.
If cable companies offered an a la carte subscription service I might actually sign up again, but I don't see that happening.
Yes, fair enough.
I was thinking more along the lines that the characters and chain of events in the series did not seem to be mirroring or recasting any particular period of human history or mythology.
And I certainly plan to re-read them many more times.
I dare you to place The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy into historical context.
However, I do know that there are plenty of places where youmay not make minimum wage, but you still don't make anywhere close to enough to live on, and no matter how long you work there (doing a good job, showing up on time, etc), you have no guarantee of making more.
Yet, apparently, they keep showing up for work and are able to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves in some fashion. Me? I'd move to somewhere where it wasn't so expensive to live. If everyone does that then the business will have no choice but to increase wages or die. I've got no sympathy for someone in a bad situation that does nothing to change it -- especially in America where you have the freedom to do exactly that.
I have personal knowledge of a job making $8/hr at a chocolate store, where the owner is on the lookout for more adults to hire, part time, for that much money, on a long-term basis. And has no intention of raising the pay, making a full-time position, or anything of the sort.
Then the owner can pound sand. Oh, it's the best job offer on the market? Well, maybe you should take it then? Or move. Or start a competing business. Etc.
Pretend I'm typing this in all caps and I'm using lots of exclamation points: You cannot have a living minimum wage. And definitely not in a global economy.
Let's go extreme. Let's raise the minimum wage to $1,000,000/hr. Hell we'd all be living in mansions and driving Bentley's right? No? Why?? Well guess what, those same problems exist (albeit on a smaller scale) even when you bump the minimum wage from $7.25 to only $7.50. There is a short term bump and then inflation and job losses bring everything back into balance. Meanwhile you've just lowered the value of everyone's cash savings. So, in the long run, you've manged to do nothing for the working class and you've reduced the net worth of the middle class and probably screwed over most retirees. Hooray! The rich are OK (of course) since they have their money tied into investments that appreciate with inflation.
I'd love to see America try a free market once -- just once. No more minimum wage. No more corporate welfare or subsidies. No more laws and loopholes for the rich and entrenched interests. A flat tax system. Etc.
So, I found this on Computer World (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228051/Unlimited_data_customers_freaked_out_by_new_Verizon_shared_data_plans):
" You're not required to move to Share Everything, but if you do, unlimited data will not be retained on your line. As a Verizon Wireless customer you have choices when you upgrade at discounted pricing. You can choose from a standalone data package starting at $30 for 2GB or a Share Everything Plan. If keeping unlimited is important to you, you can choose to upgrade and pay full retail price for the phone."
So, can I assume that if I'm not upgrading, but as a new customer I can still get the standalone data package? Even after June 28th? Because (almost) all of the news sites are saying that this option will not be available after June 28th? So, I guess I'll just sit here with my thumb up my ass and see what happens because actually telling me now in a clear and comprehensive manner is obviously asking too much. PR fail.
I was planning on switching to Verizon from AT&T sometime here in the next 6 months. After reading about these rates over the last couple days, those plans are aborted. AT&T is bad, but they're not that bad.
I already pay $70 for 2GB with AT&T. Why would I pay an extra $20 for half the data? I was hoping to do a break-even switch in the fall figuring I'd pay about the same but get better coverage with Verizon (in my neck of the woods anyway). I guess I'll stick with crap(pier) coverage and save some money though.