And why do people stop shopping at them? Because of the above reasons.
Perhaps, if you really feel that way, you should rent a bit of land down the street from Wal-Mart (or stand on the public ROW next to the street), and display a large sign, informing people why it is detrimental to them, in the long run, to shop at Wal-Mart. Instead, people like you just bitch, whine and moan, and after that's not enough to do anything, you try to bully the local government into disallowing Wal-Mart's attempts to compete. I don't shop at Wal-Mart. There are six Wal-Marts within ten miles of here, yet other grocery stores, hardware stores, and other Mom & Pop businesses still exist. And this is in Wal-Mart's back yard, where lots of people really are poor. Don't give me that crap.
When you see Wal-Mart using predatory pricing tactics, yell loudly it. Most of the time, you don't see them pulling that crap, because on the national level, they don't have to resort to such things to compete. Hell, I've been to many Wal-Marts where other stores in town are selling goods for much cheaper than they are. Are those other stores pricing their products in a predatory manner? Perhaps the government should just regulate prices on everything, then it will all be about efficency.
One of the things that has kept me from "embracing the Wal-mart experience" are the bulk of it's customers: Crack ho's and trailer-park trash. That and the fact that most of their products are cheap junk (I guess to appeal to the trash).
I agree. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart (although Sam's Club is a different story, IMO)
They want to build one a mile or so from where I live and already there's a sizable opposition to it. I hope they manage to convince city council to say NO.
Why, so they can be excluded from even the attempt to compete? Should a city council pass an ordinance prohibiting the use of Microsoft software within the city, just because you dislike them? Or, on the flip side, should a city council outlaw Free Software because there are a group of people who see it as an attempt to "steal" software profits? Either way you are preventing consumer choice. In that way, those who oppose the opening of Wal-Marts are as bad as Microsoft. I say let the market decide. If the city truly doesn't want a Wal-Mart, there should be no more heard from them after a year, and no profit, and, the business as a whole will be in worse shape for spending the millions of dollars to open a store, only to have it closed due to a lack of income.
But if they're depending on my business, they won't see dollar one. If local business are forced under, I'll drive great distances before I'll give any business to Wal-Mart.
I agree. Perhaps you should educate your neighbors about shopping elsewhere, rather than support their ill-founded attempts to prevent competition and "stifle innovation," as it were.
This isn't WalMart against Shell. It's WalMart against Your Local Mechanic. Sellingat or below cost isn't efficient, it's abusive
So if I can purchase my gas for cheaper than you can purchase yours, such that I can make a profit selling it at your cost, I should be punished? Around here, that's what Wal-Mart does. Besides, price wars on gas are commonplace, even between the Mom & Pop stores. I've often spoken to the owners of small stations who are choosing to sell their gas below cost for a time to win customers, many of whom will stay with them even when prices go up. Perhaps Ma and Pa should shop around for their gas, perhaps purchasing from Murphy USA, instead of propping up a local supplier that charges far too much for their gasoline, causing the local stores to not be competitive.
I agree that in many cases, Wal-Mart is abusive, but this is simply not one of them. Despite Wal-Mart's low price, I choose not to purchase my gas from them. Nor do I purchase my gas from the local grocery store congomerate that has recently chosen to get into the gasoline market. Also note that to get the best price at Wal-mart, one must go into the store and purchase a Wal-Mart gift card. Otherwise you pay 2c more per gallon. What is abusive is the consumers who try to exclude Wal-Mart from the market with city ordinances, and then when they fail shop there anyway. You can't blame Mom & Pop's trouble solely on them, since most of the time they don't sell at or below cost.
BTW, a reality check, around here, all the gas stations get their fuel from one of two suppliers, no matter how they brand the fuel.
I think it remains to be seen if Walmart is a monopoly or not. I'd be willing to bet that in a large number of areas where Walmart has a presence in the western US and the midwestern US they are the only source for a large number of products.
While this is not true in Wal-Mart's back yard (there is nothing I can find at Wal-Mart in the NW Arkansas area that I can't get elsewhere), in many small towns across the Western US, it is true. Oftentimes, however, it is true because Wal-Mart came in and built a market for certain goods that were simply unavailable previously without a drive to a larger town. In many cases, Wal-Mart has done well for cities and towns, while in many other cases it has driven all of the local competition out of the market. There's really no way to tell which will happen until the store is open, and that is the problem I have with all the Wal-Mart "NIMBYism"
I really shouldn't feed the trolls, especially this late in the life of a story, but I feel that a point by point response is in order.
1. The metric system. Vastly superior to inches and miles, as any scientist will tell you.
I agree, in a qualified way. For general use, the metric system provides no inherent advantages. For scientific use, the metric system provides lots of advantages, ease in calculation being the main selling point. But if I'm giving directions to an old timer who doesn't know a kilometer from a hole in his head, saying "Go down the road about a mile and a half, and make a right" works quite well. The key is to simply have a passable knowledge of both, or at least have the conversions memorized. It would be good for the US to switch, but it doesn't make us some society of morons. I'm sure other parts of the world have their own morons that think in metric rather than imperial measures.
2. Military time. Again, superior to civillian time. No confusion with AM or PM. You can even say 13-o'clock.
What is the point to changing to a system that has no advantages. Most Americans (and others throughout the world) are capable of understanding military time, but nobody uses it, since there's no real point. You can say "I'll meet you at 2PM or I'll meet you at 14 o'clock" Makes no difference. I've never once not been somewhere on time due to an am/pm misunderstanding.
4. 220V outlets. High-voltage outlets are much more efficient. In Germany, my father says, they were the standard 60+ years ago in Germany, during the war. How is it that us asshole Americans are that far behind? No excuse for such incompetence. 220V outlets are more electrically efficient, and allow for thinner wires...
You're right, there is no excuse for incompetence. You appear to be making all the reaches you possibly can to condemn Americans as "backward and stupid." Thinner wires and higher voltage is exactly what you want...if you want to start a fire. Besides, every single one of us can get 240v out of the wires in our homes. In addition to being more dangerous, the cost of the change outweighs any benefits you will see. There are billions of electrical devices in this country that run on 110, and the energy savings are negligible, since it's all at much higher voltages until it gets to the pole top (or underground) transformer that brings it down to 110. In large buildings 440 and higher voltages are commonly used for the feed into the building, which is then converted to 110 to run the office equipment, while still leaving the 440 to run the elevators and other equipment. It's all about using the right tool for the job.
5. Switching from Windows to superior OS's like the Linux family, *BSD, BeOS, Amiga QNX, Hurd, etc.
And you think elsewhere in the world people are switching in droves?
6. The temperature scale. Fahrenheit? Fahrenheit was based of of human body temperature as a reference point. Temperature is a measure of motion. Fahrenheit can be negative, and that makes no sense, as there's no such thing as negative motion.
See the arguments for #1, with the additional point that Fahrenheit is a shitty scale, but it works just fine for reference, just as "fooglebloxes" would if everyone knew what they were. I guess that's why most anywhere you see temperature measurements you see xxF/xxC. Both side by side, what could be a better solution?
I don't normally "me too," but I must second the opinion that the V-Tech 1511 is a wonderful headset/desk phone combo. One thing to be aware of, however, is that you must not stress the earpiece assembly, as there is only a small piece of plastic to hold it all together. If it breaks, a little superglue will fix it alright, but not if you have a moron for a room-mate who won't listen to you when you tell him he can't use it, and he pulls the whole headset apart putting it on his head. It is, however, by far the most comfortable headset I've ever worn, and it has great battery life.
Also of interest is the battery charger/backup built into the base unit. I got mine not long after they came out, and the unit I got came with two batteries. It's perfect for those of us that spend many hours on the phone each day. Although, with NiMH batteries, it has fairly good lasting power. Overall a wonderful phone that I wouldn't hesitate to buy again.
What I see more as
a problem in p2p is people who only share
the folder created by their client, so
that there is only "nonoriginal" stuff in it,
files that can already be found elsewhere on the
network.
eDonkey proves that even those who do not share original content can be quite valuable to a p2p network, especially when the files being shared are hundreds of megabytes, and not little four megabyte MP3 files. The more people on the network who have the file, the faster your downloads are. Seems like enough to me...
As fora country that cares about its citizens, America represents so much in the world. If American didn't care for its citizens, then why have a democracy?
If you can't even correctly name our form of government, you should have no say in what happens here. You are being untrue to the many men and boys who have fought and died over the last 225 years by being such a moron. How your idiotic comment got rated to 3 "Insightful" is beyond me. A free clue: the US is a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy, for one major reason. You and the people like you are idiots and would like to have the government raping you up the ass for the rest of your life, while our founding fathers and myself belive that because of you and the rest of America's inherent stupidity, we should have a way of keeping the uninformed majority from trampling over the informed minority.
We do not need the sort of horse-shit that is going on these days to continue our great nation. It turns out that they were right in the beginning, an even moderately powerful federal government will find a way to insinuate itself into all aspects of our lives, and override the people of the several states' better judgement as to what is best for them.
Until people like you get it through your thick heads that those in power want nothing more than more power for themselves, and not to protect me and you, we will all suffer. The worst part for people like me is that there is nowhere I can go to acheive such self governance. All lands on the planet are claimed by shit-eating regimes such as we have in the US.
Sorry for the ranting, but your remark on our "democracy" really set me off. It just amazes me how few people understand that the entire point of our form of government is to keep things from getting done, all to keep those like you from trampling on those like me. Why can't you people just leave me alone to live in peace? Why must you dictate what I do and how I do it? Why do you feel the need to impose on those around you? Is it just to get that feeling of power? Hrmph.
Umm, I thought 10base-5 was AUI, ie 5 signals (CI, TX, RX,(in differential +/- pairs) Gnd and +12v). I always assumed that was where the '5' came from. And I seem to remember that AUI's maximum cable run is significantly more than 500 feet (more like a couple of miles if you plan your network properly, from what I remember).
The number used to refer to the number of meters (approximately, in hundreds). Cheapernet could do about 200, and Thicknet could do about 500. Also, the AUI connector has nothing to do with the physical thicknet wire, it only has to do with the exchange between the card and transceiver (non AUI cards just have the transceiver built on). 10Base5 is just rather thick coax with a center conductor and a braided RF shield.
Looked into it with the DBS satellite system. Says its not usable on RVs and such because the FCC requires some pretty heavy duty installation because of the two-way thing. Unlike the TV system (one-way), they require their technicians to do it. They make a pretty big deal about the non-mobile thing.
Become an installer. I know a carnie who travels around a lot, and used to use AOL dialups. He spent the couple of hundred bucks for the training and whatnot they make you go through, and became an installer. If you're capable of aiming the dish, the only thing you really need is an installer number so they'll speak to you if something goes wrong. He seems to think it's a worthwhile deal, especially with the TV thrown in. Of course, he doesn't use it while he's actually moving, only when he's stopped for a while. This is Starband, btw, not some other service.
I've never had a problem... in central Georgia, here in Durham, NC, in Orlando, in Baltimore, all along I-20 from GA to TX, up I-35 to Oklahoma City, along I-40 from Durham, NC to Oklahoma City, in Ada, Oklahoma...
Fascinating, as I've been to several of those places with SPCS phones. Orlando, OKC, and along I-40, at least in (small parts of) AR. In all cases, quality was worse than what I now get with my Cingular phone. Perhaps the Samsung phones are the cause of the sub-standard quality. If so, why would SPCS continue to sell them? My girlfriend, who lives in eastern Orlando has a SPCS phone, and when she calls me, there's about a 35% chance that I won't be able to make out a word of what she's saying. When it is working properly, it's not at all rare for a call to be dropped out of the blue. Of course, she has the little Samsung phone as well.
But with 3G the cells can be much smaller than compared with GSM. They can also "breathe" in order to reduce/expand in size to provide the best possible service. The smallest cells are called "hot spots" and can accomodate, say, a mall.
Hmm, it doesn't seem all that long ago that GSM fanatics were discounting CDMA's "breathing" as a bad thing. Now it's suddenly a good thing, since GSM is switching to a CDMA physical layer? (Not that I like CDMA, in fact, every implementation I've ever had the misfortune of using has blown goats, just pointing out the change of attitude that is now underway.)
-Nathan
P.S. I'm not meaning to attack anyone in particular, you just happen to be discussing European situation, a counting the breathing as a good thing, which for all I know you may have been doing since the beginning of time;)
Yes, and cel-phones and current technology can barely keep a phone conversation going without dropping it
Perhaps you shouldn't just purchase the cheapest service. Get service that doesn't suck, and you won't lose calls all the time. It's just like clock-radios. The $5 special at wal-mart will break shortly, the $50 one at (hell, I don't know where to get a good clock-radio) will not.
Currently, I use about 700 minutes a month. While I occasionally will pass through areas of weak reception, where it temporarily becomes more-than-mindless to continue the conversation, it usually quickly passes. I lose no more than one or two calls a month. All this and I live in Arkansas. (In my experience, most people around here who complain about their service are using SprintPCS or Cricket, neither of which, IMO, deserve to be called a "provider", but deserve to be called "mistress.")
Unfortunately I'm a pathetic loser, and do not know anyone else with Text message service on my providers crappy-ass TDMA network. If I did, I'd probably be able to send them pretty fast.
If your crappy-ass IS-136 network provider has a name that starts with a C and ends with an r, and is only one word, and you've got a phone that does T9, you should be sending e-mails. Forget that phone to phone text messaging crap.;) Of course, these days, I don't ever have anyone to e-mail, but it is useful when I don't feel like actually speaking to someone, and want to get them some information. (E-Mail to the cellphone is a far better use of SMS-style messaging than plain old text messaging, IMO)
Of course, by the time my contract is up, we'll have holographic imaging to/from the cellphone, and I'll still be stuck with my 8260.
BTW, WTH is up with Nokia cramming so much more neat stuff into their GSM phones than the TDMA phones, even disregarding the ones they can't do over here thanks to a lack of network feature support? IIRC, the only Nokia IS-136 phone with the IR port in the US is the new 3360 (with the possible exception of the 7160). Why is that?
Oh well, at least I can e-mail phone book entries, group logos, and ringtones to the phone (took long enough, though...)
What an incredibly naive statment. When a fanatic wants to kill you, talking to him to "end the cycle of violence" only gives him more opportunities to kill you. When Hitler tried to take over the world, did we try to stop the "cycle of violance" by talking to him? HELL NO! We responded with force. We killed the enemy. That's how you end the cycle of violence.
Contrary to popular belief, terrorists are not Hitler, nor are they comparable to Hitler. Terrorists are terrorists by choice, because of some percieved wrong against them. Take away their reason for terrorizing and they stop. Hitler was a madman who managed to subvert an entire country. As another poster pointed out, McVeigh would not have bombed OKC had we not first murdered the Branch Davidians in Waco. When you do such things to begin a cycle of violence and hate, it does not end until you let it end. People like you, unfortunately, choose to not let it end.
Also contrary to popular belief, killing millions of innocent people in Germany did nothing to end the cycle of violence and hate. Nor, it turns out, did nuking Japan, although I still believe that given the information we had at the time, it was the best course of action known to our leaders. A very unfortunate one. Until we learn to stop killing each other over petty differences and lose this drive for "revenge" (which, btw, does not bring back, or otherwise let the dead rest more easily) the cycle of violence and hate will continue.
Resist the cycle of violence and hate.
P.S. Free clue for you: It is not the "cycle of violence," it is the "cycle of violence and hate." Without hate, the violence would stop. The only way to stop hate is to stop violence, and the only way to stop violence is to stop hate. Sometimes I think we are really less evolved than most "wild" animals. We certainly act like it.
When you have termites in your house - even just a few, you eradicate them to avoid them taking everything over and your house falling down. That's the current situation.
One should not compare Human Beings who presumably have reasons for their extreme actions to termites. Human Beings, unless they are threatening you with imminent death (which, irregardless of your irrational fear OBL is not), deserve better than that. Attitudes such as yours only continue the cycle of violence.
I do not advocate allowing ourselves to be trampled upon, but different circumstances require different methods. We are not fighting an army, we are fighting a few very desperate people. Take away their fear of being eradicated by us, and they will stop terrorizing us. When we stop supporting terrorists of our own, terrorists will leave us alone.
Why I respond to trolls like this one, I'll never figure out...
I don't trust the Feds to solve all my problems. However, I would pick them over a bunch or right-wing gun nuts any day of the week.
Heh, I'd trust the so-called "right-wing gun nuts" over the Feds any day of the week. They have an incentive to not look bad, they'd like to keep their CCP. While I grant you that it should be a legal requirement to only load frangible ammo on an airplane, concealed carry holders are better, statistically, at identifying the correct target and shooting the proper person than police are. Go figure....
What you, like most of the anti-government paranoid-vigilante set, fail to realize is that as flawed as the Feds are, they represent a better alternative to profiteering corporations and white supremacist militias. Go figure.
While the feds do present a refreshing alternative to "profiteering corporations," it is unfair to paint both corporations and militias with such a broad brush. Just because there are a few wackos out there who are white supremacist, doesn't mean that most militias consist of white supremacists. Nor does some corporations' profiteering make all corporations evil. Nor, of course, does some other human murdering make me a murderer. Your stereotypes bring you to the same level of those you deride.
It's called Mserv. Works great, has a web interface, if you want it, or you can use telnet. You can also filter which songs the weighted random play will consider by date, genere, or whatever else is in the ID3 tag.
If you require desktop printing functionality (attaching an OUTQ and WTR to your workstation printer) I think you're out of luck, though I'm not sure why. Protocol seems fairly simple. I'f I'd needed it badly enough I might have tried to hack something in. But I much preferred the chain printer up the hall for my 400 needs.
In addition to the 5250 client, tn5250 includes a utility to attach to the AS/400 as a printer and convert the datastream to ASCII. You can then pipe the output to any program you desire (quite probably lpr)
Instead of everyone in the neighborhood sharing a 30-45Mbit local loop, all your traffic is aggregated at the head end (the telco office) then multiplexed and shot out a single connection.
Single connection, my ass. Perhaps if you mean "single connection per ISP." If you did, you forgot to finish your sentence.:)
In essence, as others have said, the cablemodem is like a really big Ethernet, while the DSL is private to the CO. What this means for you is that if you pick an ISP that doesn't suck, your DSL experience will be all good. By doesn't suck, I mean one that doesn't severely overprovision their ATM/Frame Relay network connection that they use for the backhauling of the data from the DSL lines, and doesn't severely overprovision their transit connections. (Cox in NW Arkansas does both...idiots. I guess I'm the real idiot since I'm still paying for it...)
Personally, I've had pretty good luck with SWBell Internet Services, but I think at the end of my contract term, I'm going to switch to a local ISP that I know doesn't, and won't allow themselves to suck, unless the owners of the place die or something.
Hang on, isn't Napster legal under this? I sure didn't leave my home to download from it.
AHRA defines "Digital Audo Recording Device" as "any machine or device that is designed specifically to communicate digital audio information and related interface data to a digital audio recording device through a nonprofessional interface."
IANAL, but it stands to reason that Napster (and possibly Gnutella, although Gnutella is designed to transfer other types of files as well, so that may exempt it) is indeed a digital audio recording device under the auspices of the AHRA.
Later in the AHRA, it states:
(a) Prohibition on Importation, Manufacture, and Distribution.-No person shall import, manufacture, or distribute any digital audio recording device or digital audio interface device that does not conform to-
(1) the Serial Copy Management System;
(2) a system that has the same functional characteristics as the Serial Copy Management System and requires that copyright and generation status information be accurately sent, received, and acted upon between devices using the system's method of serial copying regulation and devices using the Serial Copy Management System; or
(3) any other system certified by the Secretary of Commerce as prohibiting unauthorized serial copying.
To me, that implies that Napster would be guilty of the manufacture and distribution of a digital audio recording device which does not implement any of those restrictions.
A bit farther on, the law reads:
(c) Prohibition on Circumvention of the System.-No person shall import, manufacture, or distribute any device, or offer or perform any service, the primary purpose or effect of which is to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or otherwise circumvent any program or circuit which implements, in whole or in part, a system described in subsection (a).
This would imply that if Napster was to implement a form of SCMS in their software, it would be illegal for you to bypass it. However, since Napster does not, the Napster user is not liable under this act for any of the aforementioned prohibitions.
On further reading, one encounters the following:
(d) Encoding of Information on Digital Musical Recordings.-
(1) Prohibition on encoding inaccurate information.-No person shall encode a digital musical recording of a sound recording with inaccurate information relating to the category code, copyright status, or generation status of the source material for the recording.
(2) Encoding of copyright status not required.-Nothing in this chapter requires any person engaged in the importation or manufacture of digital musical recordings to encode any such digital musical recording with respect to its copyright status.
(e) Information Accompanying Transmission in Digital Format.-Any person who transmits or otherwise communicates to the public any sound recording in digital format is not required under this chapter to transmit or otherwise communicate the information relating to the copyright status of the sound recording. Any such person who does transmit or otherwise communicate such copyright status information shall transmit or communicate such information accurately.
I read this as simply stating that if you recieve a copy, you are not allowed to munge the SCMS (or other) data, however, if it does not already exist, you are under no obligation to add it, even if you are the originator of the recording. So far, I haven't found any reason why an individual ripping a CD, and distributing digital copies of the songs from that CD would be guilty of any crime under the AHRA
Also, Napster (and those who write MP3 encoders in the US), may be required to pay a royalty of $1 per copy of the software distributed, to the Register of Copyrights. Hmmmm...
Here is the part which saves authors of non-commercial audio encoders, but doesn't do anything to help Napster, which was previously quoted:
No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.
IMO, Napster never had any legs to stand on, although Gnutella client authors (as long as they are non-commercial) should have no risk under AHRA, although there may be other laws which apply. As best I can tell, if you're a non-commercial user, you are free to give anyone you please copies of your MP3's.
Now isn't that what I've been hearing on Slashdot for years?;)
I've never tried to use Verizon's wireless stuff, but from the looks of the link, they give you the hardware and the Windows or Mac drivers. That's a bit more than just "what's your nameserver?"
Perhaps not supported, but Verizon just uses CDPD, like AT&T. Doesn't the old IBM (I think) CDPD modem work under Linux?
-Nathan
Care about freedom?
Re:A condom machine in the vatican
on
SMS vs. E-mail?
·
· Score: 1
Surely for a _mobile_ phone, little or no roaming is a pretty serious downside?
Some people don't get out much.. (iow, never leave town...) They seem to be doing pretty well, anyway, despite that distinct disadvantage.
Slashdot Mirror
And why do people stop shopping at them? Because of the above reasons.
Perhaps, if you really feel that way, you should rent a bit of land down the street from Wal-Mart (or stand on the public ROW next to the street), and display a large sign, informing people why it is detrimental to them, in the long run, to shop at Wal-Mart. Instead, people like you just bitch, whine and moan, and after that's not enough to do anything, you try to bully the local government into disallowing Wal-Mart's attempts to compete. I don't shop at Wal-Mart. There are six Wal-Marts within ten miles of here, yet other grocery stores, hardware stores, and other Mom & Pop businesses still exist. And this is in Wal-Mart's back yard, where lots of people really are poor. Don't give me that crap.
When you see Wal-Mart using predatory pricing tactics, yell loudly it. Most of the time, you don't see them pulling that crap, because on the national level, they don't have to resort to such things to compete. Hell, I've been to many Wal-Marts where other stores in town are selling goods for much cheaper than they are. Are those other stores pricing their products in a predatory manner? Perhaps the government should just regulate prices on everything, then it will all be about efficency.
-Nathan
One of the things that has kept me from "embracing the Wal-mart experience" are the bulk of it's customers: Crack ho's and trailer-park trash. That and the fact that most of their products are cheap junk (I guess to appeal to the trash).
I agree. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart (although Sam's Club is a different story, IMO)
They want to build one a mile or so from where I live and already there's a sizable opposition to it. I hope they manage to convince city council to say NO.
Why, so they can be excluded from even the attempt to compete? Should a city council pass an ordinance prohibiting the use of Microsoft software within the city, just because you dislike them? Or, on the flip side, should a city council outlaw Free Software because there are a group of people who see it as an attempt to "steal" software profits? Either way you are preventing consumer choice. In that way, those who oppose the opening of Wal-Marts are as bad as Microsoft. I say let the market decide. If the city truly doesn't want a Wal-Mart, there should be no more heard from them after a year, and no profit, and, the business as a whole will be in worse shape for spending the millions of dollars to open a store, only to have it closed due to a lack of income.But if they're depending on my business, they won't see dollar one. If local business are forced under, I'll drive great distances before I'll give any business to Wal-Mart.
I agree. Perhaps you should educate your neighbors about shopping elsewhere, rather than support their ill-founded attempts to prevent competition and "stifle innovation," as it were.-Nathan
This isn't WalMart against Shell. It's WalMart against Your Local Mechanic. Sellingat or below cost isn't efficient, it's abusive
So if I can purchase my gas for cheaper than you can purchase yours, such that I can make a profit selling it at your cost, I should be punished? Around here, that's what Wal-Mart does. Besides, price wars on gas are commonplace, even between the Mom & Pop stores. I've often spoken to the owners of small stations who are choosing to sell their gas below cost for a time to win customers, many of whom will stay with them even when prices go up. Perhaps Ma and Pa should shop around for their gas, perhaps purchasing from Murphy USA, instead of propping up a local supplier that charges far too much for their gasoline, causing the local stores to not be competitive.
I agree that in many cases, Wal-Mart is abusive, but this is simply not one of them. Despite Wal-Mart's low price, I choose not to purchase my gas from them. Nor do I purchase my gas from the local grocery store congomerate that has recently chosen to get into the gasoline market. Also note that to get the best price at Wal-mart, one must go into the store and purchase a Wal-Mart gift card. Otherwise you pay 2c more per gallon. What is abusive is the consumers who try to exclude Wal-Mart from the market with city ordinances, and then when they fail shop there anyway. You can't blame Mom & Pop's trouble solely on them, since most of the time they don't sell at or below cost.
BTW, a reality check, around here, all the gas stations get their fuel from one of two suppliers, no matter how they brand the fuel.
-Nathan
I think it remains to be seen if Walmart is a monopoly or not. I'd be willing to bet that in a large number of areas where Walmart has a presence in the western US and the midwestern US they are the only source for a large number of products.
While this is not true in Wal-Mart's back yard (there is nothing I can find at Wal-Mart in the NW Arkansas area that I can't get elsewhere), in many small towns across the Western US, it is true. Oftentimes, however, it is true because Wal-Mart came in and built a market for certain goods that were simply unavailable previously without a drive to a larger town. In many cases, Wal-Mart has done well for cities and towns, while in many other cases it has driven all of the local competition out of the market. There's really no way to tell which will happen until the store is open, and that is the problem I have with all the Wal-Mart "NIMBYism"
-Nathan
I really shouldn't feed the trolls, especially this late in the life of a story, but I feel that a point by point response is in order.
1. The metric system. Vastly superior to inches and miles, as any scientist will tell you.
I agree, in a qualified way. For general use, the metric system provides no inherent advantages. For scientific use, the metric system provides lots of advantages, ease in calculation being the main selling point. But if I'm giving directions to an old timer who doesn't know a kilometer from a hole in his head, saying "Go down the road about a mile and a half, and make a right" works quite well. The key is to simply have a passable knowledge of both, or at least have the conversions memorized. It would be good for the US to switch, but it doesn't make us some society of morons. I'm sure other parts of the world have their own morons that think in metric rather than imperial measures.
2. Military time. Again, superior to civillian time. No confusion with AM or PM. You can even say 13-o'clock.
What is the point to changing to a system that has no advantages. Most Americans (and others throughout the world) are capable of understanding military time, but nobody uses it, since there's no real point. You can say "I'll meet you at 2PM or I'll meet you at 14 o'clock" Makes no difference. I've never once not been somewhere on time due to an am/pm misunderstanding.
4. 220V outlets. High-voltage outlets are much more efficient. In Germany, my father says, they were the standard 60+ years ago in Germany, during the war. How is it that us asshole Americans are that far behind? No excuse for such incompetence. 220V outlets are more electrically efficient, and allow for thinner wires...
You're right, there is no excuse for incompetence. You appear to be making all the reaches you possibly can to condemn Americans as "backward and stupid." Thinner wires and higher voltage is exactly what you want...if you want to start a fire. Besides, every single one of us can get 240v out of the wires in our homes. In addition to being more dangerous, the cost of the change outweighs any benefits you will see. There are billions of electrical devices in this country that run on 110, and the energy savings are negligible, since it's all at much higher voltages until it gets to the pole top (or underground) transformer that brings it down to 110. In large buildings 440 and higher voltages are commonly used for the feed into the building, which is then converted to 110 to run the office equipment, while still leaving the 440 to run the elevators and other equipment. It's all about using the right tool for the job.
5. Switching from Windows to superior OS's like the Linux family, *BSD, BeOS, Amiga QNX, Hurd, etc.
And you think elsewhere in the world people are switching in droves?
6. The temperature scale. Fahrenheit? Fahrenheit was based of of human body temperature as a reference point. Temperature is a measure of motion. Fahrenheit can be negative, and that makes no sense, as there's no such thing as negative motion.
See the arguments for #1, with the additional point that Fahrenheit is a shitty scale, but it works just fine for reference, just as "fooglebloxes" would if everyone knew what they were. I guess that's why most anywhere you see temperature measurements you see xxF/xxC. Both side by side, what could be a better solution?
After responding, now I know you were trolling.
-Nathan
I don't normally "me too," but I must second the opinion that the V-Tech 1511 is a wonderful headset/desk phone combo. One thing to be aware of, however, is that you must not stress the earpiece assembly, as there is only a small piece of plastic to hold it all together. If it breaks, a little superglue will fix it alright, but not if you have a moron for a room-mate who won't listen to you when you tell him he can't use it, and he pulls the whole headset apart putting it on his head. It is, however, by far the most comfortable headset I've ever worn, and it has great battery life.
Also of interest is the battery charger/backup built into the base unit. I got mine not long after they came out, and the unit I got came with two batteries. It's perfect for those of us that spend many hours on the phone each day. Although, with NiMH batteries, it has fairly good lasting power. Overall a wonderful phone that I wouldn't hesitate to buy again.
-Nathan
What I see more as a problem in p2p is people who only share the folder created by their client, so that there is only "nonoriginal" stuff in it, files that can already be found elsewhere on the network.
eDonkey proves that even those who do not share original content can be quite valuable to a p2p network, especially when the files being shared are hundreds of megabytes, and not little four megabyte MP3 files. The more people on the network who have the file, the faster your downloads are. Seems like enough to me...
-Nathan
As fora country that cares about its citizens, America represents so much in the world. If American didn't care for its citizens, then why have a democracy?
If you can't even correctly name our form of government, you should have no say in what happens here. You are being untrue to the many men and boys who have fought and died over the last 225 years by being such a moron. How your idiotic comment got rated to 3 "Insightful" is beyond me. A free clue: the US is a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy, for one major reason. You and the people like you are idiots and would like to have the government raping you up the ass for the rest of your life, while our founding fathers and myself belive that because of you and the rest of America's inherent stupidity, we should have a way of keeping the uninformed majority from trampling over the informed minority.
We do not need the sort of horse-shit that is going on these days to continue our great nation. It turns out that they were right in the beginning, an even moderately powerful federal government will find a way to insinuate itself into all aspects of our lives, and override the people of the several states' better judgement as to what is best for them.
Until people like you get it through your thick heads that those in power want nothing more than more power for themselves, and not to protect me and you, we will all suffer. The worst part for people like me is that there is nowhere I can go to acheive such self governance. All lands on the planet are claimed by shit-eating regimes such as we have in the US.
Sorry for the ranting, but your remark on our "democracy" really set me off. It just amazes me how few people understand that the entire point of our form of government is to keep things from getting done, all to keep those like you from trampling on those like me. Why can't you people just leave me alone to live in peace? Why must you dictate what I do and how I do it? Why do you feel the need to impose on those around you? Is it just to get that feeling of power? Hrmph.
-Nathan
Umm, I thought 10base-5 was AUI, ie 5 signals (CI, TX, RX,(in differential +/- pairs) Gnd and +12v). I always assumed that was where the '5' came from. And I seem to remember that AUI's maximum cable run is significantly more than 500 feet (more like a couple of miles if you plan your network properly, from what I remember).
The number used to refer to the number of meters (approximately, in hundreds). Cheapernet could do about 200, and Thicknet could do about 500. Also, the AUI connector has nothing to do with the physical thicknet wire, it only has to do with the exchange between the card and transceiver (non AUI cards just have the transceiver built on). 10Base5 is just rather thick coax with a center conductor and a braided RF shield.
-Nathan
Looked into it with the DBS satellite system. Says its not usable on RVs and such because the FCC requires some pretty heavy duty installation because of the two-way thing. Unlike the TV system (one-way), they require their technicians to do it. They make a pretty big deal about the non-mobile thing.
Become an installer. I know a carnie who travels around a lot, and used to use AOL dialups. He spent the couple of hundred bucks for the training and whatnot they make you go through, and became an installer. If you're capable of aiming the dish, the only thing you really need is an installer number so they'll speak to you if something goes wrong. He seems to think it's a worthwhile deal, especially with the TV thrown in. Of course, he doesn't use it while he's actually moving, only when he's stopped for a while. This is Starband, btw, not some other service.
-Nathan
Among other software, there's FreeIPdb.
In the last month or two this subject has been discussed at least once on NANOG. You might also try searching the inet-access list archives at MARC
-Nathan
I've never had a problem... in central Georgia, here in Durham, NC, in Orlando, in Baltimore, all along I-20 from GA to TX, up I-35 to Oklahoma City, along I-40 from Durham, NC to Oklahoma City, in Ada, Oklahoma...
Fascinating, as I've been to several of those places with SPCS phones. Orlando, OKC, and along I-40, at least in (small parts of) AR. In all cases, quality was worse than what I now get with my Cingular phone. Perhaps the Samsung phones are the cause of the sub-standard quality. If so, why would SPCS continue to sell them? My girlfriend, who lives in eastern Orlando has a SPCS phone, and when she calls me, there's about a 35% chance that I won't be able to make out a word of what she's saying. When it is working properly, it's not at all rare for a call to be dropped out of the blue. Of course, she has the little Samsung phone as well.
-Nathan
Sprint PCS in every SPCS market I've ever had the misfortune of using a SPCS phone in can't even get 2G right.
-Nathan
But with 3G the cells can be much smaller than compared with GSM. They can also "breathe" in order to reduce/expand in size to provide the best possible service. The smallest cells are called "hot spots" and can accomodate, say, a mall.
Hmm, it doesn't seem all that long ago that GSM fanatics were discounting CDMA's "breathing" as a bad thing. Now it's suddenly a good thing, since GSM is switching to a CDMA physical layer? (Not that I like CDMA, in fact, every implementation I've ever had the misfortune of using has blown goats, just pointing out the change of attitude that is now underway.)
-Nathan
P.S. I'm not meaning to attack anyone in particular, you just happen to be discussing European situation, a counting the breathing as a good thing, which for all I know you may have been doing since the beginning of time ;)
Yes, and cel-phones and current technology can barely keep a phone conversation going without dropping it
Perhaps you shouldn't just purchase the cheapest service. Get service that doesn't suck, and you won't lose calls all the time. It's just like clock-radios. The $5 special at wal-mart will break shortly, the $50 one at (hell, I don't know where to get a good clock-radio) will not.
Currently, I use about 700 minutes a month. While I occasionally will pass through areas of weak reception, where it temporarily becomes more-than-mindless to continue the conversation, it usually quickly passes. I lose no more than one or two calls a month. All this and I live in Arkansas. (In my experience, most people around here who complain about their service are using SprintPCS or Cricket, neither of which, IMO, deserve to be called a "provider", but deserve to be called "mistress.")
-Nathan
Unfortunately I'm a pathetic loser, and do not know anyone else with Text message service on my providers crappy-ass TDMA network. If I did, I'd probably be able to send them pretty fast.
If your crappy-ass IS-136 network provider has a name that starts with a C and ends with an r, and is only one word, and you've got a phone that does T9, you should be sending e-mails. Forget that phone to phone text messaging crap. ;) Of course, these days, I don't ever have anyone to e-mail, but it is useful when I don't feel like actually speaking to someone, and want to get them some information. (E-Mail to the cellphone is a far better use of SMS-style messaging than plain old text messaging, IMO)
Of course, by the time my contract is up, we'll have holographic imaging to/from the cellphone, and I'll still be stuck with my 8260.
BTW, WTH is up with Nokia cramming so much more neat stuff into their GSM phones than the TDMA phones, even disregarding the ones they can't do over here thanks to a lack of network feature support? IIRC, the only Nokia IS-136 phone with the IR port in the US is the new 3360 (with the possible exception of the 7160). Why is that?
Oh well, at least I can e-mail phone book entries, group logos, and ringtones to the phone (took long enough, though...)
-Nathan
What an incredibly naive statment. When a fanatic wants to kill you, talking to him to "end the cycle of violence" only gives him more opportunities to kill you. When Hitler tried to take over the world, did we try to stop the "cycle of violance" by talking to him? HELL NO! We responded with force. We killed the enemy. That's how you end the cycle of violence.
Contrary to popular belief, terrorists are not Hitler, nor are they comparable to Hitler. Terrorists are terrorists by choice, because of some percieved wrong against them. Take away their reason for terrorizing and they stop. Hitler was a madman who managed to subvert an entire country. As another poster pointed out, McVeigh would not have bombed OKC had we not first murdered the Branch Davidians in Waco. When you do such things to begin a cycle of violence and hate, it does not end until you let it end. People like you, unfortunately, choose to not let it end.
Also contrary to popular belief, killing millions of innocent people in Germany did nothing to end the cycle of violence and hate. Nor, it turns out, did nuking Japan, although I still believe that given the information we had at the time, it was the best course of action known to our leaders. A very unfortunate one. Until we learn to stop killing each other over petty differences and lose this drive for "revenge" (which, btw, does not bring back, or otherwise let the dead rest more easily) the cycle of violence and hate will continue.
Resist the cycle of violence and hate.
P.S. Free clue for you: It is not the "cycle of violence," it is the "cycle of violence and hate." Without hate, the violence would stop. The only way to stop hate is to stop violence, and the only way to stop violence is to stop hate. Sometimes I think we are really less evolved than most "wild" animals. We certainly act like it.
-Nathan
When you have termites in your house - even just a few, you eradicate them to avoid them taking everything over and your house falling down. That's the current situation.
One should not compare Human Beings who presumably have reasons for their extreme actions to termites. Human Beings, unless they are threatening you with imminent death (which, irregardless of your irrational fear OBL is not), deserve better than that. Attitudes such as yours only continue the cycle of violence.
I do not advocate allowing ourselves to be trampled upon, but different circumstances require different methods. We are not fighting an army, we are fighting a few very desperate people. Take away their fear of being eradicated by us, and they will stop terrorizing us. When we stop supporting terrorists of our own, terrorists will leave us alone.
Resist the cycle of violence and hate.
-Nathan
Why I respond to trolls like this one, I'll never figure out...
I don't trust the Feds to solve all my problems. However, I would pick them over a bunch or right-wing gun nuts any day of the week.
Heh, I'd trust the so-called "right-wing gun nuts" over the Feds any day of the week. They have an incentive to not look bad, they'd like to keep their CCP. While I grant you that it should be a legal requirement to only load frangible ammo on an airplane, concealed carry holders are better, statistically, at identifying the correct target and shooting the proper person than police are. Go figure....
What you, like most of the anti-government paranoid-vigilante set, fail to realize is that as flawed as the Feds are, they represent a better alternative to profiteering corporations and white supremacist militias. Go figure.
While the feds do present a refreshing alternative to "profiteering corporations," it is unfair to paint both corporations and militias with such a broad brush. Just because there are a few wackos out there who are white supremacist, doesn't mean that most militias consist of white supremacists. Nor does some corporations' profiteering make all corporations evil. Nor, of course, does some other human murdering make me a murderer. Your stereotypes bring you to the same level of those you deride.
-Nathan
It's called Mserv. Works great, has a web interface, if you want it, or you can use telnet. You can also filter which songs the weighted random play will consider by date, genere, or whatever else is in the ID3 tag.
-Nathan
If you require desktop printing functionality (attaching an OUTQ and WTR to your workstation printer) I think you're out of luck, though I'm not sure why. Protocol seems fairly simple. I'f I'd needed it badly enough I might have tried to hack something in. But I much preferred the chain printer up the hall for my 400 needs.
In addition to the 5250 client, tn5250 includes a utility to attach to the AS/400 as a printer and convert the datastream to ASCII. You can then pipe the output to any program you desire (quite probably lpr)
-Nathan
Single connection, my ass. Perhaps if you mean "single connection per ISP." If you did, you forgot to finish your sentence. :)
In essence, as others have said, the cablemodem is like a really big Ethernet, while the DSL is private to the CO. What this means for you is that if you pick an ISP that doesn't suck, your DSL experience will be all good. By doesn't suck, I mean one that doesn't severely overprovision their ATM/Frame Relay network connection that they use for the backhauling of the data from the DSL lines, and doesn't severely overprovision their transit connections. (Cox in NW Arkansas does both...idiots. I guess I'm the real idiot since I'm still paying for it...)
Personally, I've had pretty good luck with SWBell Internet Services, but I think at the end of my contract term, I'm going to switch to a local ISP that I know doesn't, and won't allow themselves to suck, unless the owners of the place die or something.
-Nathan
Care about freedom?
Hang on, isn't Napster legal under this? I sure didn't leave my home to download from it.
AHRA defines "Digital Audo Recording Device" as "any machine or device that is designed specifically to communicate digital audio information and related interface data to a digital audio recording device through a nonprofessional interface."
IANAL, but it stands to reason that Napster (and possibly Gnutella, although Gnutella is designed to transfer other types of files as well, so that may exempt it) is indeed a digital audio recording device under the auspices of the AHRA.
Later in the AHRA, it states:
To me, that implies that Napster would be guilty of the manufacture and distribution of a digital audio recording device which does not implement any of those restrictions.
A bit farther on, the law reads:
This would imply that if Napster was to implement a form of SCMS in their software, it would be illegal for you to bypass it. However, since Napster does not, the Napster user is not liable under this act for any of the aforementioned prohibitions.On further reading, one encounters the following:
I read this as simply stating that if you recieve a copy, you are not allowed to munge the SCMS (or other) data, however, if it does not already exist, you are under no obligation to add it, even if you are the originator of the recording. So far, I haven't found any reason why an individual ripping a CD, and distributing digital copies of the songs from that CD would be guilty of any crime under the AHRAAlso, Napster (and those who write MP3 encoders in the US), may be required to pay a royalty of $1 per copy of the software distributed, to the Register of Copyrights. Hmmmm...
Here is the part which saves authors of non-commercial audio encoders, but doesn't do anything to help Napster, which was previously quoted:
IMO, Napster never had any legs to stand on, although Gnutella client authors (as long as they are non-commercial) should have no risk under AHRA, although there may be other laws which apply. As best I can tell, if you're a non-commercial user, you are free to give anyone you please copies of your MP3's.Now isn't that what I've been hearing on Slashdot for years? ;)
-Nathan
Care about freedom?
I've never tried to use Verizon's wireless stuff, but from the looks of the link, they give you the hardware and the Windows or Mac drivers. That's a bit more than just "what's your nameserver?"
Perhaps not supported, but Verizon just uses CDPD, like AT&T. Doesn't the old IBM (I think) CDPD modem work under Linux?
-Nathan
Care about freedom?
Surely for a _mobile_ phone, little or no roaming is a pretty serious downside?
Some people don't get out much.. (iow, never leave town...) They seem to be doing pretty well, anyway, despite that distinct disadvantage.
-Nathan
Care about freedom?