>>>>>$90 a month? That's $1100/year. I pay just $60/year. >> >>90-60 = 30 * 12 = 360. So you aren't saving 1100, not even close.
Thanks for the new signature. I've never witnessed this level of stupidity before. It's akin to the Verizon confusion over Pennies and Dollars. http://xkcd.com/verizon/
>>>If he's comparing some 7/11 throwaway with no voicemail/call display/etc with my primary phone line he's a dumbass and a jackass
You would be intimately familiar with those terms. Main phone == wired phone with DSL at $20/month Cellphone == voice calls at $5/month
>>>>>I sit in front of a computer all day long (both at work and home). >> >>But what do you do when commuting between home and work?
I put down the phone, so I can avoid hitting the other cars (and a $175 texting fine). Plus the commute is only 40 minutes. I can survive without internet that long. And on those rare occassions I'm on the metro, I look at the scenery or read an ebook. I don't need the net for an extra $1100 a year.
That was discontinued in mere months, because the OS didn't fit (many programs flat-out refused to run). In other words Apple made a mistake. But they quickly discontinued that mistake, and replaced it with the new Fat Mac at 512k. That's how much the Mac OS really needed to run the various word processing, database, accounting programs of 1984. (It probably could have worked on just 256k but we'll never know for sure.)
>>>Presumably you get something for that $3500 like a better smile or better long term dental outlook
Spoken like someone who doesn't realize we are already burdened with $180,000 debt per U.S. home. The goal is to REDUCE spending (across everything), not to increase spending on $4000 procedures when an alternate ~$500 procedure will do the same thing at less cost. What you are advocating is equivalent to giving housing assistance... but on luxury condos when a low-rent option would be better (for the taxpayer who carries the burden of the bill).
God you're dumb. *Just like any other tax credit or exemption* you would need to provide a receipt. You would have to prove you sent your kid to ABC Elementary in order to be exempt from the 2012 school tax.
>>> Equality is all fine and dandy, until you realize that your own child doesn't get what she needs, because she excels... and I don't have the money to move her to private.:-( >>>
That's one of the reasons I support making school tax == 0% for those parents with children who "opt out" of government school (for that year). The money that you are allowed to keep could then be used to afford that private school.
Another thing to consider, besides poor people, is the real world experience. And in that real world people still use a lot of paper. I'm in a technology company, but still using paper for notes, and printouts of documents for review or hand-outs during meetings.
Ditto previous places of employment. The idea that everything should be virtual doesn't exist in any place where I've worked. It is illogical to expect cash-strapped schools to be more advanced than billion-dollar corporations are.
>>>- it's snowing harder because of global warming.
Always trying to have it both ways. When it snows hard (record snowfalls last winter) they claim it's because of global warming. And when it barely snows (this winter) they claim it's because of global warming.
You can't have it both ways. You can't claim both less & more snow == proof.
Perhaps we should delete the word "unreasonable" from the 4th amendment, in order to remove the police's ability to justify everything (including patdowns in airports, train terminals, and other random VIPR locations).
>>>This the reason why health care is different from other markets: you are buying and selling life itself.
The same is true of food (life itself). Should we have the government provide free food stamps to everyone? No. Neither should we do it with medicine. Only help those too poor to pay the bill themselves (so they don't die or starve).
They never needed a warrant to "tail" a guy driving round in his car, or "shadow" him walking down the street, so why need one to tail/shadow a cellphone? I don't think any of these events is unreasonable.
That was a limitation of the C64 video chip. Only 2 colors were allowed per 8x8 square, so any attempt to move the icons would have led to a graphical mess (like macroblocking in heavy-compressed video).
In order to avoid that mess, GEOS assigned every icon to a fixed location. It was intended to fit inside just 0.06 meg of RAM, not to be fancy. (For contrast the Mac OS ran in 0.5 meg of RAM.)
$1100 a year is hardly reasonable. I don't know how much you get paid (after taxes), but assuming an engineer's salary, that's almost a full week of your life being tossed away.
For contrast my cellphone costs $60 a year. True it doesn't have data to access the net, but what do I need it for? I sit in front of a computer all day long (both at work and home). By not spending $1100 I'm getting back that week of my life for myself.
Nobody "needs" a cellphone or wireless internet. If everybody made-up their mind to cut the cord, all of these businesses would cease to exist. Or if everybody made-up their mind to downsize to a cheaper plan, say $5/month like mine, then these businesses would be forced to downsize too. We hold the power, not them.
It works on the theory that the EM spectrum can support many different broadcasts on the same frequency, and the receiver will filter out the One broadcast desired (code-division), therefore we no longer need a central authority to assign specific frequencies. The proponents point to cellphones as demonstration of how it would work, and why we no longer need 1/2 million watt centralized TV or radio broadcasters.
Ironically this will mean the end of free services like TV and radio (over the air).
Not that Microsoft, Google, Apple, ATT, Sprint, et cetera care. Less competition from free services means more customers that have to take-down their antennas & buy ~$70/month or $30/month just to see TV (via cable) or hear the radio (through cellphone).
It has a fixed amount of room (per tower), and has to share that fixed amount with other services like TV, radio, emergency/police services, military, and so on.
It's like the difference between wireless TV and cable TV. You can get wireless TV using a rooftop antenna but it only gives you 30-40 channels. Or cable TV wired direct to your home, and get 300-400 channels.
I think wired internet, just like wired TV, is the way to get the most throughput as lowest cost. Wireless internet is for convenience, but will always be more expensive.
I find it hard to believe the CTL-ALT-DEL would be enough reason for users to quit OS/2 and pick Windows instead.
Of course both of these 80s and early-90s OSes sucked compared to the simplicity of the Mac System 6, or Atari ST-TOS, or the preemptive tasking of the multimedia-capable Amiga OS (since 1985) which was used to create graphics for seaQuest, Babylon 5, and Voyager (one season).
People who wanted power, like for gaming, were not buying either OS/2 or Windows 2/3 on PCs. They were choosing the Atari STs or Commodore Amigas.
Yes I'd probably get a free root canal, rather than weigh the benefit of cheaper options like getting a filling or sawing off the top of my tooth, and having it capped. Why?
Because it's not my money and I don't give a damn if the canal costs $4000 versus a cap at $800 or filling at $200. And THAT is why free *anything* leads to escalating costs. You're spending someone else's money (just like if your boss sent you on a business trip, you'd rent the $110 room rather than the $40 room). BUT when you spend your own money, then you search for the cheapest possiblity.
Now I'm not saying we shouldn't have government healthcare. Only that, like food stamps or housing, it should only be available to the poor. Meanwhile the rest of us will buy our medicine or house or food directly using cash.:-)
I wouldn't hold-up those countries as shining examples. Sure they are cheaper than us, but so too is a Hyundai. Wouldn't want one! A friend from Britian developed a cold that refused to go away, but the "free" health system made him wait 3 weeks just to see a general practitioner.
Once he got there they said, "Oh allergies," without any kind of tests, and handed him some pills. So he asked to get a second opinion from a private physician, in hopes of finding-out what was really wrong. The UK Government's hospital said "no". The end. He is still sick and is now on ANOTHER 3 week waitlist to find-out why the pills didn't work. (U.S. wait time is typically 1 day.)
OTHER COUNTRIES: France seems to have a good system, but Canada certainly doesn't. In addition to the long waitlist they are also on the verge of bankruptcy (like the American government's Amtrak and post office). You can read more about it here:
Bottom Line: I don't want that. Especially if it's run by the U.S. Congress. Everything they touch turns to crap. They can't even win a war anymore (Libya fell to al-queda, Iraq still has terrorists, Afghanistan is a mess). The F22 program is overdue, overbudget, and doesn't work properly. Various congressional-owned agencies are going bankrupt. It's a mess.
IMHO: Let's treat Medicine like we treat welfare and food stamps. A safety net to help the poor, while the other ~90% of Americans buy their medicine and food directly with cash.
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>>>>>$90 a month? That's $1100/year. I pay just $60/year.
>>
>>90-60 = 30 * 12 = 360. So you aren't saving 1100, not even close.
Thanks for the new signature. I've never witnessed this level of stupidity before. It's akin to the Verizon confusion over Pennies and Dollars. http://xkcd.com/verizon/
>>>If he's comparing some 7/11 throwaway with no voicemail/call display/etc with my primary phone line he's a dumbass and a jackass
You would be intimately familiar with those terms.
Main phone == wired phone with DSL at $20/month
Cellphone == voice calls at $5/month
>>>>>I sit in front of a computer all day long (both at work and home).
>>
>>But what do you do when commuting between home and work?
I put down the phone, so I can avoid hitting the other cars (and a $175 texting fine). Plus the commute is only 40 minutes. I can survive without internet that long. And on those rare occassions I'm on the metro, I look at the scenery or read an ebook. I don't need the net for an extra $1100 a year.
You mean the Thin Mac with 128k?
That was discontinued in mere months, because the OS didn't fit (many programs flat-out refused to run). In other words Apple made a mistake. But they quickly discontinued that mistake, and replaced it with the new Fat Mac at 512k. That's how much the Mac OS really needed to run the various word processing, database, accounting programs of 1984. (It probably could have worked on just 256k but we'll never know for sure.)
>>>Presumably you get something for that $3500 like a better smile or better long term dental outlook
Spoken like someone who doesn't realize we are already burdened with $180,000 debt per U.S. home. The goal is to REDUCE spending (across everything), not to increase spending on $4000 procedures when an alternate ~$500 procedure will do the same thing at less cost. What you are advocating is equivalent to giving housing assistance... but on luxury condos when a low-rent option would be better (for the taxpayer who carries the burden of the bill).
God you're dumb. *Just like any other tax credit or exemption* you would need to provide a receipt. You would have to prove you sent your kid to ABC Elementary in order to be exempt from the 2012 school tax.
>>> Equality is all fine and dandy, until you realize that your own child doesn't get what she needs, because she excels... and I don't have the money to move her to private. :-(
>>>
That's one of the reasons I support making school tax == 0% for those parents with children who "opt out" of government school (for that year). The money that you are allowed to keep could then be used to afford that private school.
Another thing to consider, besides poor people, is the real world experience. And in that real world people still use a lot of paper. I'm in a technology company, but still using paper for notes, and printouts of documents for review or hand-outs during meetings.
Ditto previous places of employment. The idea that everything should be virtual doesn't exist in any place where I've worked. It is illogical to expect cash-strapped schools to be more advanced than billion-dollar corporations are.
>>>- it's snowing harder because of global warming.
Always trying to have it both ways. When it snows hard (record snowfalls last winter) they claim it's because of global warming. And when it barely snows (this winter) they claim it's because of global warming.
You can't have it both ways.
You can't claim both less & more snow == proof.
I didn't say it did. If you read my WHOLE post, you'll see I refer to MDOT (Maryland DOT) doing road maintenance.
I'm not that picky. I never do returns (unless the item arrived damaged, and then the seller picks-up the cost).
Perhaps we should delete the word "unreasonable" from the 4th amendment, in order to remove the police's ability to justify everything (including patdowns in airports, train terminals, and other random VIPR locations).
>>>This the reason why health care is different from other markets: you are buying and selling life itself.
The same is true of food (life itself).
Should we have the government
provide free food stamps to everyone?
No.
Neither should we do it with medicine. Only help those too poor to pay the bill themselves (so they don't die or starve).
>>>So... whats the problem exactly... you paid taxes for that root canal, its a better option, you should have it.
Except it isn't the better option. The filling or cap would stop the pain just as effectively, and at ~$3500 less cost.
They never needed a warrant to "tail" a guy driving round in his car, or "shadow" him walking down the street, so why need one to tail/shadow a cellphone? I don't think any of these events is unreasonable.
That was a limitation of the C64 video chip. Only 2 colors were allowed per 8x8 square, so any attempt to move the icons would have led to a graphical mess (like macroblocking in heavy-compressed video).
In order to avoid that mess, GEOS assigned every icon to a fixed location. It was intended to fit inside just 0.06 meg of RAM, not to be fancy. (For contrast the Mac OS ran in 0.5 meg of RAM.)
$1100 a year is hardly reasonable. I don't know how much you get paid (after taxes), but assuming an engineer's salary, that's almost a full week of your life being tossed away.
For contrast my cellphone costs $60 a year. True it doesn't have data to access the net, but what do I need it for? I sit in front of a computer all day long (both at work and home). By not spending $1100 I'm getting back that week of my life for myself.
You could stop buying their shit.
Nobody "needs" a cellphone or wireless internet. If everybody made-up their mind to cut the cord, all of these businesses would cease to exist. Or if everybody made-up their mind to downsize to a cheaper plan, say $5/month like mine, then these businesses would be forced to downsize too. We hold the power, not them.
I've seen this proposal before.
It works on the theory that the EM spectrum can support many different broadcasts on the same frequency, and the receiver will filter out the One broadcast desired (code-division), therefore we no longer need a central authority to assign specific frequencies. The proponents point to cellphones as demonstration of how it would work, and why we no longer need 1/2 million watt centralized TV or radio broadcasters.
Collusion is illegal. It's called a cartel, and it's how the record companies ended-up getting prosecuted by the U.S. DOJ.
Ironically this will mean the end of free services like TV and radio (over the air).
Not that Microsoft, Google, Apple, ATT, Sprint, et cetera care. Less competition from free services means more customers that have to take-down their antennas & buy ~$70/month or $30/month just to see TV (via cable) or hear the radio (through cellphone).
It has a fixed amount of room (per tower), and has to share that fixed amount with other services like TV, radio, emergency/police services, military, and so on.
It's like the difference between wireless TV and cable TV. You can get wireless TV using a rooftop antenna but it only gives you 30-40 channels. Or cable TV wired direct to your home, and get 300-400 channels.
I think wired internet, just like wired TV, is the way to get the most throughput as lowest cost. Wireless internet is for convenience, but will always be more expensive.
I find it hard to believe the CTL-ALT-DEL would be enough reason for users to quit OS/2 and pick Windows instead.
Of course both of these 80s and early-90s OSes sucked compared to the simplicity of the Mac System 6, or Atari ST-TOS, or the preemptive tasking of the multimedia-capable Amiga OS (since 1985) which was used to create graphics for seaQuest, Babylon 5, and Voyager (one season).
People who wanted power, like for gaming, were not buying either OS/2 or Windows 2/3 on PCs. They were choosing the Atari STs or Commodore Amigas.
Yes I'd probably get a free root canal, rather than weigh the benefit of cheaper options like getting a filling or sawing off the top of my tooth, and having it capped. Why?
Because it's not my money and I don't give a damn if the canal costs $4000 versus a cap at $800 or filling at $200. And THAT is why free *anything* leads to escalating costs. You're spending someone else's money (just like if your boss sent you on a business trip, you'd rent the $110 room rather than the $40 room). BUT when you spend your own money, then you search for the cheapest possiblity.
Now I'm not saying we shouldn't have government healthcare. Only that, like food stamps or housing, it should only be available to the poor. Meanwhile the rest of us will buy our medicine or house or food directly using cash. :-)
Ooops forgot the link (Canadian Healthcare Crisis and possible bankruptcy)
http://www.bing.com/search?q=canada+healthcare+crisis
I wouldn't hold-up those countries as shining examples. Sure they are cheaper than us, but so too is a Hyundai. Wouldn't want one! A friend from Britian developed a cold that refused to go away, but the "free" health system made him wait 3 weeks just to see a general practitioner.
Once he got there they said, "Oh allergies," without any kind of tests, and handed him some pills. So he asked to get a second opinion from a private physician, in hopes of finding-out what was really wrong. The UK Government's hospital said "no". The end. He is still sick and is now on ANOTHER 3 week waitlist to find-out why the pills didn't work. (U.S. wait time is typically 1 day.)
OTHER COUNTRIES: France seems to have a good system, but Canada certainly doesn't. In addition to the long waitlist they are also on the verge of bankruptcy (like the American government's Amtrak and post office). You can read more about it here:
Bottom Line: I don't want that. Especially if it's run by the U.S. Congress. Everything they touch turns to crap. They can't even win a war anymore (Libya fell to al-queda, Iraq still has terrorists, Afghanistan is a mess). The F22 program is overdue, overbudget, and doesn't work properly. Various congressional-owned agencies are going bankrupt. It's a mess.
IMHO: Let's treat Medicine like we treat welfare and food stamps. A safety net to help the poor, while the other ~90% of Americans buy their medicine and food directly with cash.