This is an exercise in altruism - Let us first suspend all of our beliefs, open our minds and embrace the enigma that is Microsoft.
We all know that the US patent office is overwhelmed with patent applications and that the back-log worsens everyday. Patent officials are basically rubber-stamping many of the patent applications through without checking for prior-art and relying upon the "community" to bring that to their attention. Further, we are in agreement that the system is in dire need of an overhaul.
Unfortunately, many times a problem can be illustrated but isn't recognized or fully appreciated until all pleadings are exhausted and someone finally realizes that the only path to a real solution is to exploit the flaw. Perhaps Microsoft has also come to this realization that there is a fundamental flaw with our patent system and that it needs revised.
After much lobbying and discourse from the IT community, Microsoft has finally taken the lead to ensure the system is finally fixed. They realize that we can continue to lecture the officials in Washington but no one seems to be listening. Well, maybe now that MS has "taken one for the team" by showing how the system can be manipulated, they'll listen and we can finally see a resolution to the patent situaton once and for all. This is certainly a welcome move by Microsoft to help all of us in this struggle against the beauracracy.
I am a former employee of Best Buy and a current resident of Ohio - I won't say who I am or what I did there but my former supervisor is on their website, on the Executive team list.
I can confirm their rebate practices are less than stellar. For years Best Buy had a "rebate center" in each department that consisted of a rudimentary wire recipe rack, for lack of a better description, with paper coupons from each respective manufacturer. Customers were supposed to use the coupon from the rebate center, send it directly to the manufacturer and wait patiently for 6-8 weeks for their rebate. It was totally hands-off for Best Buy.
Unfortunately, that didn't work very well. Stores were frequently out of the rebate coupons, didn't have the correct ones, the manufacturers would send the wrong ones or too few - whatever the case was, it turned out to be a tremendous headache. Not to mention the "recipe racks" were hard to keep organized and the rebates were freqently misplaced.
Fast-forward to ~1996. In an effort to streamline the process and take some burden off of the sales personnel, the merchandising dept (shelf-stockers) were handed a brand new, nifty, Rebate center that went in the front of the store, organized by department that really ended up just consolidating the recipe racks to a central location. The problem still existed of the missing, disorganized rebate coupons.
Later that year Best Buy decided to make a real effort to fix the rebate problem. That's when the current system was implemented. Corporate management decided to outsource the handling of rebates to Young America, Inc. (www.young-america.com).
Young America did a decent job of handling the rebate outsourcing for a very brief time. I can't speak intelligently of their corporate structure, governance, or policies. However, all of this rebate outsourcing occured during an explosive growth period in Best Buy's corporate history. They are currently opening about 50-60 stores per year in 2004. Between 1993 and 1997 they more than doubled thei size. They had a corporate paradigm shift during all of this when they realized that they were outgrowing their ability to manage it and continue providing the kind of service that enabled them to grow at that rate.
Unfortunately, it seems, the growth spurt never stopped. Eventually the over-riding vision was to break the $20 billion revenue mark. Add-on accessories and service plans became the pot of gold at the end of their rainbow and rebates became the tool to get the sale. This all happened in the mid to late 90's when computer prices were falling rapidly, DVD players were becoming affordable, and the dotcom boom was impending - manufacturers were pushing rebates like mad thus Best Buy was too.
Outsourcing the rebate processing was a mistake for Best Buy. Not that Young America can't handle the volume or the execution - It's because it enables Best Buy to take the hands-off approach and essentially tell its customers that it can't help them because it's being handled by another company. This presents the largest problem for them - they won't stand behind their rebates. Anyone that has tried to resolve a rebate issue should be able to attest that managers at the store level will not do very much to assist in the matter other than hand out the 800-number to Young America. This is unfortunate because the consumer purchased a product from Best Buy and typically makes no distinction between a manufacturer's rebate and where they purchased the product. Consumers rightfully expect a retailer to stand behind the offer they willfully advertised in a weekly sales flyer, not give a brush off that they aren't responsible because the rebate was offered by the manufacturer and is being handled by a third party.
It's not that they willfully and maliciously try to swindle their customers - They truly believe that it absolves them of the responsibility to provide the customer satisfaction in regards to reba
My dad retired from Pitney Bowes as a service tech. PB payed plenty to send him to various schools to learn how to do just about anything to just about all of their equipment. He was under a non-compete for 2 years.
My wife and I had twins in March - our first (two). When we arrived and were assigned to our room, a nurse came in and put two fetal heart monitors on her. I, being the geek I am, was interested in the computer and software that the nurse was configuring and looking at. It turns out, the computer was a standard off-the-shelf HP running Win2K and the monitoring software.
It is a standard desktop app with a bunch of fancy bar graphs and options buttons, a view for a single monitor, or I could switch to a multi-monitor view and watch all of the monitors in maternity from that machine. I know all of this because I played around with it while waiting (it took a while:)
The sofware is designed so that the nurses can monitor all of the rooms from the nurses' station or from any room. It's a good idea but the security involved is a joke. I don't suppose they anticipate every new dad coming in to be a curious geek but any moron can see that it's a standard windows pc running a standard windows app. Had I not been so tired and had more presence of mind, I may have tried to browse the web with it just to see if I could.
In any case, leaving a machine like that unlocked could be as much of a risk as leaving it unpatched. The maternity ward is a lock-down environment from a physical security perspective and fetal heart beat monitors aren't quite as critical as the iron lung but the ramifications are the same. Some wandering kid roaming the halls sees a Windows screensaver somewhere, associates it with *internet* and it's lights out uncle charlie.
We can all agree that possessing the knowledge of the root password would grant access to the machine - it's obtaining that password that makes gaining access to the machine difficult.
The correct analogy would be having the root password written on a post-it notes hanging on your monitor, your coffee cup, doors all over the office, etc.
The point here is that obtaining a copy of someone's fingerprint is easily accomplished which makes deceiving the devices even easier than brute-forcing a 10-digit alpha-numeric password.
I agree with the premise of the article and I understand the logic behind his arguments. I too, believe every programmer should have a strong math foundation and learn assembly language - regardless of the architecture. Generally speaking, knowing the "nuts and bolts" is what separates the 4-year CS degree programmers from the 2-year, fast-track-to-developer "programmers". All too often schools do future developers and the companies they end up working for a disservice by churning out less-than-ready programmers with a weak foundation in the why's and theory in exchange for a bunch of how-to's on a particular language syntax.
However, regarding the article, there's a piece of the puzzle missing. In the case of a byte-code language like Java or C#, the code isn't compiled to assembly or machine code where it's easy (other than a debugger disassembly) for a developer to get at. In the case of C# or any other.NET CLR language, it's nearly impossible to know how the compiler generates assembly instructions. In the case of Java, one may be able to study the JIT compiler of an open-source implemenation like Blackdown but that's not necessarily the best option or even the most efficient implementation either. There are so many different JIT compilers for Java, which one would you study? With the.Net CLR, the only possibility would be to study the source to ROTOR to gain any insight into the JIT compiler.
The implication of the article is that the programmer has some access or insight to the compiler output other than looking at the object files. I submit that, especially in the case of a byte-code language, that insight isn't nearly as available. After all, we're talking about programmers that don't know assembly, in all probability don't know what an object file is, and perhaps don't have the expertise to know how or where to garner such information.
I would like to see these programmers learn the difference between the stack and the heap. It's not exactly easy, especially when you don't know where to begin, to figure out how the compiler for a high-level language creates assembly instructions from source. Learning that information (think YACC and Bison) is on the same level as assembly, combinatronics, and two's complements. Again I say, it's not enough to learn assembly - Without the solid background in math, data structures, and other concepts, the 2-year degree programmer is, in all probability, lost. You can't learn or use assembly without two's complement, binary, and hex arithmetic. How could you figure out how to add 64-bit numbers when you only have 32-bit registers?
Like I said, I don't disagree with the premise of the article. However, simply learning (or trying to learn) assembly is not the cure-all for all programmer deficiencies. You just can't take a person that can't add 2 hex numbers, run them through assembly 101 and expect the Mona Lisa of software. I suppose there are broader implications to learning assembly like having to learn all of the aforementioned skills first but that was never indicated in the article.
I agree with that 100%. We've got that "insurance crisis" here in Ohio already.
The cost of malpractice insurance is a daily headline in NE Ohio as it's forcing good doctors to quit practicing or leave the state altogether. Many doctors are leaving private practice to go to places like the Cleveland Clinic where they can get some help with their insurance costs and that leaves people without medical choices - for example, the only Pediatric Dermatologist in NE Ohio used to be in Akron and she did all of her work at Akron Children's hospital. Due to the insurance costs, she moved to the Cleveland Clinic. There's nothing wrong with the Cleveland clinic, it's a wonderful facility, however that precludes many of the families that used to be able to go to Akron Childrens' due to financial or logistical reasons. Theses costs are invariably passed on to the health insurance providers and eventually to the consumers in the way of co-pays, monthly premiums, and other fees.
I don't know what the ultimate solution is but it's certainly a mess.
Apparently, I was raised with a sense of right and wrong, not the Montgomery Burns "stiff everybody for everything you can get just because you can" mentality.
I'll agree that in most respects, internet access is considered a luxury like television but is this the program our president is pushing for - affordable broadband for everyone. Just because I'm fortunate enough to afford it, nearly everyone in my town of 4000 - a blue collar industrial town - can not afford it, our kids and our schools suffer because almost none of the them have the same access to the internet that kids in neighboring towns and school districs have. The town I live in is the farthest north that Verizon comes - after us, it's SBC where the same ISP I get my DSL from offers the same packages for literally half the cost and SBC doesn't add any additional fees to it. It's a simple case of there's no additional value in it, it's priced that way because they can. You can live 10 miles down the road and get the exact same access through the same ISP for almost 1/3 the price I pay.
Just because you *can* do something doesn't make it right does it? Do you believe they'd charge the same fees if I could get the same access for 1/3 the cost? Doubtful, they'd price themselves out of competition. But, there is no competition and there is no choice so, aside from disconnecting or not signing up, what can one do? What's with my sense of entitlement? You completely missed the point. I don't think I'm entitled to their DSL, I think I'm entitled to equitable choices but de-regulation and people like you prevent that.
Any person can walk into the local Walmart Super store or the local five and dime and purchase a pair of "5-mile, 22 channel (8 GMRS, 14 FRS) 2-way radios" and a pack of batteries for about $30 US, walk out to the parking lot and start using them - all at risk of fines, and possible federal prison time because you have to be 18 and obtain an FCC license for the GMRS bands. From fcc.gov "The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a land-mobile radio service available for short-distance two-way communications to facilitate the activities of an adult individual and his or her immediate family members, including a spouse, children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and in-laws (47 CFR 95.179). Normally, as a GMRS system licensee, you and your family members would communicate among yourselves over the general area of your residence or during recreational group outings, such as camping or hiking."
Here's the list of prohibited uses of the GMRS band: (For your reference, a station is defined as any unit, stationary or mobile, capable of broadcasting on the GMRS frequencies.)
(a) A station operator must not communicate:
(1) Messages for hire, whether the remuneration received is direct or indirect;
(2) Messages in connection with any activity which is against Federal, State, or local law;
(3) False or deceptive messages;
(4) Coded messages or messages with hidden meanings (``10 codes'' are permissible);
(5) Intentional interference;
(6) Music, whistling, sound effects or material to amuse or entertain;
(7) Obscene, profane or indecent words, language or meaning;
(8) Advertisements or offers for the sale of goods or services;
(9) Advertisements for a political candidate or political campaign (messages about the campaign business may be communicated);
(10) International distress signals, such as the word ``Mayday'' (except when on a ship, aircraft or other vehicle in immediate danger to ask for help);
(11) Programs (live or delayed) intended for radio or television station broadcast;
(12) Messages which are both conveyed by a wireline control link and transmitted by a GMRS station;
(13) Messages (except emergency messages) to any station in the Amateur Radio Service, to any unauthorized station, or to any foreign station;
(14) Continuous or uninterrupted transmissions, except for communications involving the immediate safety of life or property;
(15) Messages for public address systems.
(b) A station operator in a GMRS system licensed to a telephone answering service must not transmit any communications to customers of the telephone answering service.
I guess "Jimmy's a big fat doodie-head violates #3 and who's advertsing jobs on their walkie-talkie anyway?
Lastly, my DSL connection. My local telco is Verizon and the CO is just under a mile from here. Verizon won't offer DSL in our area - I have to get it through a local ISP. The ISP charges me $35 per month for access; Verizon pops $37.50 + $5.70 tax on my monthly phone bill for "Advanced Data Services Charges" for a grand total of $78.20 per month to get 768/128 ADSL. Whether I get it from Verizon or a third-party, I'm paying Verizon's monthly fee. There is no other broadband choice around here and Verizon must know it. I called them one day to ask why I can't purchase the DSL from them or why they won't offer it in this area, the response was "Our circuits are all full so we can't offer it in your area." I'm pretty sure that fits Webster's definition of extortion.
The president and CEO of Louisville slugger resigned today because their bats are used to break windows and steal cars. "Stealing automobiles is not what we're about. I quit." says the former executive.
Like everthing else, they stole that too - from GMC. GMC's motto, is "Do one thing, do it well."
Of course, now that GMC doesn't do just one thing anymore, they're abandoning that for "We Are Professional Grade". So, I guess it's ok for Microsoft to use it.
1863 U.S. 1839 British Empire 1804 Haiti 1886 Cuba... the list goes on.
Since it's LA county we'll assume you're talking about black Americans - just how old do you think "...all the surviving former slaves..." are? Even if they were only conceived in 1863, they would be at least 140 years old today.
I'm a software developer and my employer primarily targets the MS platform. This morning I came in to work, logged my Win2K Pro workstation onto our Active Directory Domain, started a pot of coffee and business as usual.
I notice the pretty little "you've got patches" icon in my systray. I open it up, read the details and shockingly, there are 3 new security updates waiting to be installed.
I clicked "Install"; I rebooted.
The rest of the day I spent formatting my hard drive and reinstalling all of my software (you fill in the gap.)
I LOVE Microsoft. I got paid to watch yellow and blue progress bars all day!
Anyway. I use Gentoo at home because I'd rather spend my OWN time doing something more useful. I may as well have been in my car sitting at a stop sign for 8 hours today.
I am a software developer for the world's largest network of independent executive recruiters. We provide software and services which allow recruiters to share jobs, candidates, and generally network together. We are to staffing what the MLS is to real-estate.
Currently, there are 40,604 jobs in our database. Approximately 4809 are actively being recruited right now.
Of those 4809, 17 indicate the client is willing to sponsor or hire a non-us citizen.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow! I can make up numbers too!
Thank you captain obvious.
Ok, ok... so my attempt at humor was pretty weak with that first post - I'll concede that.
Always a cynic in the crowd.
root$ uptime
5477 days, 13 hours, 27 minutes
huh?
root$ uname
Solaris 4.03c
Where do I get this Linux thing?
This is an exercise in altruism - Let us first suspend all of our beliefs, open our minds and embrace the enigma that is Microsoft.
We all know that the US patent office is overwhelmed with patent applications and that the back-log worsens everyday. Patent officials are basically rubber-stamping many of the patent applications through without checking for prior-art and relying upon the "community" to bring that to their attention. Further, we are in agreement that the system is in dire need of an overhaul.
Unfortunately, many times a problem can be illustrated but isn't recognized or fully appreciated until all pleadings are exhausted and someone finally realizes that the only path to a real solution is to exploit the flaw. Perhaps Microsoft has also come to this realization that there is a fundamental flaw with our patent system and that it needs revised.
After much lobbying and discourse from the IT community, Microsoft has finally taken the lead to ensure the system is finally fixed. They realize that we can continue to lecture the officials in Washington but no one seems to be listening. Well, maybe now that MS has "taken one for the team" by showing how the system can be manipulated, they'll listen and we can finally see a resolution to the patent situaton once and for all. This is certainly a welcome move by Microsoft to help all of us in this struggle against the beauracracy.
I, for one, welcome my new patent overlords.
I am a former employee of Best Buy and a current resident of Ohio - I won't say who I am or what I did there but my former supervisor is on their website, on the Executive team list.
I can confirm their rebate practices are less than stellar. For years Best Buy had a "rebate center" in each department that consisted of a rudimentary wire recipe rack, for lack of a better description, with paper coupons from each respective manufacturer. Customers were supposed to use the coupon from the rebate center, send it directly to the manufacturer and wait patiently for 6-8 weeks for their rebate. It was totally hands-off for Best Buy.
Unfortunately, that didn't work very well. Stores were frequently out of the rebate coupons, didn't have the correct ones, the manufacturers would send the wrong ones or too few - whatever the case was, it turned out to be a tremendous headache. Not to mention the "recipe racks" were hard to keep organized and the rebates were freqently misplaced.
Fast-forward to ~1996. In an effort to streamline the process and take some burden off of the sales personnel, the merchandising dept (shelf-stockers) were handed a brand new, nifty, Rebate center that went in the front of the store, organized by department that really ended up just consolidating the recipe racks to a central location. The problem still existed of the missing, disorganized rebate coupons.
Later that year Best Buy decided to make a real effort to fix the rebate problem. That's when the current system was implemented. Corporate management decided to outsource the handling of rebates to Young America, Inc. (www.young-america.com).
Young America did a decent job of handling the rebate outsourcing for a very brief time. I can't speak intelligently of their corporate structure, governance, or policies. However, all of this rebate outsourcing occured during an explosive growth period in Best Buy's corporate history. They are currently opening about 50-60 stores per year in 2004. Between 1993 and 1997 they more than doubled thei size. They had a corporate paradigm shift during all of this when they realized that they were outgrowing their ability to manage it and continue providing the kind of service that enabled them to grow at that rate.
Unfortunately, it seems, the growth spurt never stopped. Eventually the over-riding vision was to break the $20 billion revenue mark. Add-on accessories and service plans became the pot of gold at the end of their rainbow and rebates became the tool to get the sale. This all happened in the mid to late 90's when computer prices were falling rapidly, DVD players were becoming affordable, and the dotcom boom was impending - manufacturers were pushing rebates like mad thus Best Buy was too.
Outsourcing the rebate processing was a mistake for Best Buy. Not that Young America can't handle the volume or the execution - It's because it enables Best Buy to take the hands-off approach and essentially tell its customers that it can't help them because it's being handled by another company. This presents the largest problem for them - they won't stand behind their rebates. Anyone that has tried to resolve a rebate issue should be able to attest that managers at the store level will not do very much to assist in the matter other than hand out the 800-number to Young America. This is unfortunate because the consumer purchased a product from Best Buy and typically makes no distinction between a manufacturer's rebate and where they purchased the product. Consumers rightfully expect a retailer to stand behind the offer they willfully advertised in a weekly sales flyer, not give a brush off that they aren't responsible because the rebate was offered by the manufacturer and is being handled by a third party.
It's not that they willfully and maliciously try to swindle their customers - They truly believe that it absolves them of the responsibility to provide the customer satisfaction in regards to reba
My dad retired from Pitney Bowes as a service tech. PB payed plenty to send him to various schools to learn how to do just about anything to just about all of their equipment. He was under a non-compete for 2 years.
Harry Fuecks
Is that his stage name?
C'mon... it was a joke.
My wife and I had twins in March - our first (two). When we arrived and were assigned to our room, a nurse came in and put two fetal heart monitors on her. I, being the geek I am, was interested in the computer and software that the nurse was configuring and looking at. It turns out, the computer was a standard off-the-shelf HP running Win2K and the monitoring software.
:)
It is a standard desktop app with a bunch of fancy bar graphs and options buttons, a view for a single monitor, or I could switch to a multi-monitor view and watch all of the monitors in maternity from that machine. I know all of this because I played around with it while waiting (it took a while
The sofware is designed so that the nurses can monitor all of the rooms from the nurses' station or from any room. It's a good idea but the security involved is a joke. I don't suppose they anticipate every new dad coming in to be a curious geek but any moron can see that it's a standard windows pc running a standard windows app. Had I not been so tired and had more presence of mind, I may have tried to browse the web with it just to see if I could.
In any case, leaving a machine like that unlocked could be as much of a risk as leaving it unpatched. The maternity ward is a lock-down environment from a physical security perspective and fetal heart beat monitors aren't quite as critical as the iron lung but the ramifications are the same. Some wandering kid roaming the halls sees a Windows screensaver somewhere, associates it with *internet* and it's lights out uncle charlie.
It never made sense to me that Java 2 was actually 1.4 in the first place.
So what's the big deal. Today it's 5.0 tomorrow it's Math.log(1000000); Who can keep track?
No.
We can all agree that possessing the knowledge of the root password would grant access to the machine - it's obtaining that password that makes gaining access to the machine difficult.
The correct analogy would be having the root password written on a post-it notes hanging on your monitor, your coffee cup, doors all over the office, etc.
The point here is that obtaining a copy of someone's fingerprint is easily accomplished which makes deceiving the devices even easier than brute-forcing a 10-digit alpha-numeric password.
Lighten up.. it was a JOKE for pete's sake.
Stage 1 install - Now there's Linux From Scratch.
I agree with the premise of the article and I understand the logic behind his arguments. I too, believe every programmer should have a strong math foundation and learn assembly language - regardless of the architecture. Generally speaking, knowing the "nuts and bolts" is what separates the 4-year CS degree programmers from the 2-year, fast-track-to-developer "programmers". All too often schools do future developers and the companies they end up working for a disservice by churning out less-than-ready programmers with a weak foundation in the why's and theory in exchange for a bunch of how-to's on a particular language syntax.
However, regarding the article, there's a piece of the puzzle missing. In the case of a byte-code language like Java or C#, the code isn't compiled to assembly or machine code where it's easy (other than a debugger disassembly) for a developer to get at. In the case of C# or any other .NET CLR language, it's nearly impossible to know how the compiler generates assembly instructions. In the case of Java, one may be able to study the JIT compiler of an open-source implemenation like Blackdown but that's not necessarily the best option or even the most efficient implementation either. There are so many different JIT compilers for Java, which one would you study? With the .Net CLR, the only possibility would be to study the source to ROTOR to gain any insight into the JIT compiler.
The implication of the article is that the programmer has some access or insight to the compiler output other than looking at the object files. I submit that, especially in the case of a byte-code language, that insight isn't nearly as available. After all, we're talking about programmers that don't know assembly, in all probability don't know what an object file is, and perhaps don't have the expertise to know how or where to garner such information.
I would like to see these programmers learn the difference between the stack and the heap. It's not exactly easy, especially when you don't know where to begin, to figure out how the compiler for a high-level language creates assembly instructions from source. Learning that information (think YACC and Bison) is on the same level as assembly, combinatronics, and two's complements. Again I say, it's not enough to learn assembly - Without the solid background in math, data structures, and other concepts, the 2-year degree programmer is, in all probability, lost. You can't learn or use assembly without two's complement, binary, and hex arithmetic. How could you figure out how to add 64-bit numbers when you only have 32-bit registers?Like I said, I don't disagree with the premise of the article. However, simply learning (or trying to learn) assembly is not the cure-all for all programmer deficiencies. You just can't take a person that can't add 2 hex numbers, run them through assembly 101 and expect the Mona Lisa of software. I suppose there are broader implications to learning assembly like having to learn all of the aforementioned skills first but that was never indicated in the article.
It's 42.
Besides, I think he forgot to carry the one.
I agree with that 100%. We've got that "insurance crisis" here in Ohio already.
The cost of malpractice insurance is a daily headline in NE Ohio as it's forcing good doctors to quit practicing or leave the state altogether. Many doctors are leaving private practice to go to places like the Cleveland Clinic where they can get some help with their insurance costs and that leaves people without medical choices - for example, the only Pediatric Dermatologist in NE Ohio used to be in Akron and she did all of her work at Akron Children's hospital. Due to the insurance costs, she moved to the Cleveland Clinic. There's nothing wrong with the Cleveland clinic, it's a wonderful facility, however that precludes many of the families that used to be able to go to Akron Childrens' due to financial or logistical reasons. Theses costs are invariably passed on to the health insurance providers and eventually to the consumers in the way of co-pays, monthly premiums, and other fees.
I don't know what the ultimate solution is but it's certainly a mess.
There is no *sense of entitlement* as you put it.
Apparently, I was raised with a sense of right and wrong, not the Montgomery Burns "stiff everybody for everything you can get just because you can" mentality.
I'll agree that in most respects, internet access is considered a luxury like television but is this the program our president is pushing for - affordable broadband for everyone. Just because I'm fortunate enough to afford it, nearly everyone in my town of 4000 - a blue collar industrial town - can not afford it, our kids and our schools suffer because almost none of the them have the same access to the internet that kids in neighboring towns and school districs have. The town I live in is the farthest north that Verizon comes - after us, it's SBC where the same ISP I get my DSL from offers the same packages for literally half the cost and SBC doesn't add any additional fees to it. It's a simple case of there's no additional value in it, it's priced that way because they can. You can live 10 miles down the road and get the exact same access through the same ISP for almost 1/3 the price I pay.
Just because you *can* do something doesn't make it right does it? Do you believe they'd charge the same fees if I could get the same access for 1/3 the cost? Doubtful, they'd price themselves out of competition. But, there is no competition and there is no choice so, aside from disconnecting or not signing up, what can one do? What's with my sense of entitlement? You completely missed the point. I don't think I'm entitled to their DSL, I think I'm entitled to equitable choices but de-regulation and people like you prevent that.
1. 2-way radio Licensing
2. my DSL connection.
Any person can walk into the local Walmart Super store or the local five and dime and purchase a pair of "5-mile, 22 channel (8 GMRS, 14 FRS) 2-way radios" and a pack of batteries for about $30 US, walk out to the parking lot and start using them - all at risk of fines, and possible federal prison time because you have to be 18 and obtain an FCC license for the GMRS bands. From fcc.gov "The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a land-mobile radio service available for short-distance two-way communications to facilitate the activities of an adult individual and his or her immediate family members, including a spouse, children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and in-laws (47 CFR 95.179). Normally, as a GMRS system licensee, you and your family members would communicate among yourselves over the general area of your residence or during recreational group outings, such as camping or hiking."
Here's the list of prohibited uses of the GMRS band: (For your reference, a station is defined as any unit, stationary or mobile, capable of broadcasting on the GMRS frequencies.)
(a) A station operator must not communicate:
(1) Messages for hire, whether the remuneration received is direct
or indirect;
(2) Messages in connection with any activity which is against
Federal, State, or local law;
(3) False or deceptive messages;
(4) Coded messages or messages with hidden meanings (``10 codes''
are permissible);
(5) Intentional interference;
(6) Music, whistling, sound effects or material to amuse or
entertain;
(7) Obscene, profane or indecent words, language or meaning;
(8) Advertisements or offers for the sale of goods or services;
(9) Advertisements for a political candidate or political campaign
(messages about the campaign business may be communicated);
(10) International distress signals, such as the word ``Mayday''
(except when on a ship, aircraft or other vehicle in immediate danger to
ask for help);
(11) Programs (live or delayed) intended for radio or television
station broadcast;
(12) Messages which are both conveyed by a wireline control link and
transmitted by a GMRS station;
(13) Messages (except emergency messages) to any station in the
Amateur Radio Service, to any unauthorized station, or to any foreign
station;
(14) Continuous or uninterrupted transmissions, except for
communications involving the immediate safety of life or property;
(15) Messages for public address systems.
(b) A station operator in a GMRS system licensed to a telephone
answering service must not transmit any communications to customers of
the telephone answering service.
I guess "Jimmy's a big fat doodie-head violates #3 and who's advertsing jobs on their walkie-talkie anyway?
Lastly, my DSL connection. My local telco is Verizon and the CO is just under a mile from here. Verizon won't offer DSL in our area - I have to get it through a local ISP. The ISP charges me $35 per month for access; Verizon pops $37.50 + $5.70 tax on my monthly phone bill for "Advanced Data Services Charges" for a grand total of $78.20 per month to get 768/128 ADSL. Whether I get it from Verizon or a third-party, I'm paying Verizon's monthly fee. There is no other broadband choice around here and Verizon must know it. I called them one day to ask why I can't purchase the DSL from them or why they won't offer it in this area, the response was "Our circuits are all full so we can't offer it in your area." I'm pretty sure that fits Webster's definition of extortion.
The president and CEO of Louisville slugger resigned today because their bats are used to break windows and steal cars. "Stealing automobiles is not what we're about. I quit." says the former executive.
No.
Like everthing else, they stole that too - from GMC. GMC's motto, is "Do one thing, do it well."
Of course, now that GMC doesn't do just one thing anymore, they're abandoning that for "We Are Professional Grade". So, I guess it's ok for Microsoft to use it.
Real programmers have a shunt and plug-in...
Red "C" or Blue Mickey Mouse head?
You be the judge.
Slavery was abolished effective:
... the list goes on.
1863 U.S.
1839 British Empire
1804 Haiti
1886 Cuba
Since it's LA county we'll assume you're talking about black Americans - just how old do you think "...all the surviving former slaves..." are? Even if they were only conceived in 1863, they would be at least 140 years old today.
No... only in California.
I need a mind's pencil for my mind's eye!
I'm a software developer and my employer primarily targets the MS platform. This morning I came in to work, logged my Win2K Pro workstation onto our Active Directory Domain, started a pot of coffee and business as usual.
I notice the pretty little "you've got patches" icon in my systray. I open it up, read the details and shockingly, there are 3 new security updates waiting to be installed.
I clicked "Install"; I rebooted.
The rest of the day I spent formatting my hard drive and reinstalling all of my software (you fill in the gap.)
I LOVE Microsoft. I got paid to watch yellow and blue progress bars all day!
Anyway. I use Gentoo at home because I'd rather spend my OWN time doing something more useful. I may as well have been in my car sitting at a stop sign for 8 hours today.
I am a software developer for the world's largest network of independent executive recruiters. We provide software and services which allow recruiters to share jobs, candidates, and generally network together. We are to staffing what the MLS is to real-estate.
Currently, there are 40,604 jobs in our database. Approximately 4809 are actively being recruited right now.
Of those 4809, 17 indicate the client is willing to sponsor or hire a non-us citizen.
That's about 1/3 of 1 percent.