Well, our copper is all underground. The entire subdivision is that way - not a telephone pole to be seen. I was also informed by a phone tech that came to check out the lines that we have "the oldest copper in the county".
He was out to test the lines before getting my DSL set up. When he saw the condition of the line, he said they'd probably have to dig it all up and upgrade it. The very next day, as soon as the office opened in the morning, I got a phone call from the phone company. It turns out I was farther from the CO that I thought - they ran their tests and determined I was 24k feet from the CO, and not 14k feet! (I just remembered that little fact:p ) So, no digging up the lines, no upgrades, no nothing. Sorry. So, instead of 384 SDSL like i was hoping to get, I ended up with 144 IDSL.
Strangely enough, I just checked with Speakeasy (who I had the IDSL trhough previously), and their system now says I can get 384 SDSL for $120 a month...
Since where I live now (SE of Taco in Ypsilanti - halfway between Ann Arbor and Detroit), I have three options:
Dialup, which I can (for a while, anyway) get free through UMich, where I get a top speed of 33k, and my connection stays live anywhere from 30 seconds to 8 hours
Cable, where I pay $42.95 a month for a fast connection that stays up for days on end (but I still have to power cycle my network gear once a week to refresh my IP lease)
DSL, where I can pay $100 a month for 144 SDSL (something about living 14k from the CO)
Any price decreases for highspeed are welcome here.
While I am on my soapbox let me have a rant. Why is it a CD costs so much money when they cost less than a nickle when purchased in spindles of 100? How much money from each CD goes to the artist? How much goes to Sony and the label?
Well, according to http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/cost.asp: "While the RIAA does not collect information on the specific costs that make up the price of a CD, there are many factors that go into the overall cost of a CD -- and the plastic it's pressed on, is among the least significant. CD manufacturing costs may be lower, but it takes more money than ever before to put out a new recording."
In other words, they don't know either. However, from the "fun with numbers" department:
"Between 1983 and 1996, the average price of a CD fell by more than 40%. Over this same period of time, consumer prices (measured by the Consumer Price Index, or CPI) rose nearly 60%. If CD prices had risen at the same rate as consumer prices over this period, the average retail price of a CD in 1996 would have been $33.86 instead of $12.75."
Now, where were they shopping in 1996 to find a $13 music cd? I know that they weren't that cheap where I was shopping for them - hold on, lemme make sure of that... google, google, ah! - top artists of 1996 included Mariah Carrey, Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Quad City DJs, Hootie & the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins... *shudder* okay, so I wasn't buying much of anything in '96, I'll skip the confirmation on that argument. But still, even cds today, with production costs (in theory) having reduced even further, *still* aren't $13 on an even basis.
Indeed. To fair use the article: "She says there's nothing on the (kazaa) site or the software warning users they could be doing something illegal... She also claims she didn't know the software allowed others to tap into her computer to get those songs."
Now, being a Mac user, I've never seen Kazaa in action, but I would assume it pops up some sort of dialog window during install prompting you to point out the folder where you'll be putting the files you want to share. How could you download and install random software and not know what it's doing? Oh wait, Windows user, never mind...
And it's not like someone would randomly wander across a site named www.kazaa.com and say "Gee, a program that lets me download music and movies and books and tons of other nifty files that would cost me money in a store... for FREE?!? And I don't even have to pay for the download software? Gee, the Internet is swell, Wally!"
Bollocks. I don't buy the doe-eyed "But I didn't *know* it was illegal!" bleating for a second. While the RIAA really oughta be targeting humans that have the standing of legal adults in a court of law instead of minors that have to drag their parents into this shite, running the "But the *computer* did it!" flag up the pole isn't going to get any salutes from me.
Check out Prototype. (Hmm, mp3S.com... interesting.) They're a "progressive metal" band from LA that I wandered across a few years back. "Trinity" is (IMO) one of their cooler songs (and it's got nothing to do with the Matrix, you geek).
SPAM is a form of direct marketing, where the customers is approached by email.
BZZZZZZT! You're describing "spam", not the tasty pink processed meat product: I quote from Hormel:
We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of the word "spam" as a trademark and to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters. -- http://spam.com/ci/ci_in.htm
Note that direct markting itself was never a problem itself, and it's much older than computers. The first forms of direct marketing can be traced back to the end of the 19th century.
And before spam came along, the marketer or the seller shouldered the cost of the advertising. They paid for their paper, and the postage, the shipping clerk that handled the mail, etc., etc. Spammers pay for none of that. They illegally access servers in Korea and China to spew their slime, infect computers world-wide with viruses that turn personal computers in spam relay stations, use free email accounts to inject their spew into the network... and the cost of this, in terms of bandwidth, server storage, and all the other reltaed systems and people needed to maintain them, is passed on to the unwilling recipients.
The main problem with SPAM is that it is undirected. Zillions of people getting zillions of email with offers they don't need...
No, the main problem with spam is that it's a theft of resources, not to mention fraud, harassment, violation of privacy, and violation of at least two dozen state's laws.
a) How many of my fellow infectees are getting your usenet contact addresses hammered, but not other accounts? I know that out of all of my accounts, only the two that I've used to post to the newsgroups are getting this crap.
b) What, if anything, did Verisign's asinine "added feature" have to do with not being able to filter this crap?
Re:Off topic, but in the same article
on
In-Flight Reboot?
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· Score: 1
Re: The comments to my comment -
Points well taken, and appreciated. I can see the point in going around without all the noisy heavy gear, both for discretion's sake and for the sake of the civilians, and I wasn't aware that most of the post-war deaths were from already in vehicles. I guess that kind of negates my argument, doesn't it?:\
Wow... calm, rational replies to a posting on/. - obviously, this isn't a Win/Lin discussion:)
Off topic, but in the same article
on
In-Flight Reboot?
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· Score: 1
"From the start in peacekeeping," West said, "Maj. Gen. James Mattis and Brig. Gen. John Kelly, commanders of the 1st Marine Division, wanted the Marines out of the vehicles. That established: a. You are not lording it over anyone else, and b. You are the toughest mother in the valley and not afraid to move among the people. The rules of engagement were clear: If they are fired at, they attack back to kill, not to spray the area. If they are not fired at, all is cool."
What's that? Not afraid to take a bullet (or an RPG) while moving among the people, you say? Seems to me the reason armored vehicles are armored is to protect the military personnel they're transporting. Otherwise, we could have our boys (and girls) going in on camelback and in Jeeps; be a lot cheaper that way, and just as safe as having them "walk among the people". Wouldn't you want to "lord it over" someone if you're trying to secure an area? Wouldn't the "toughest mother" be the one rumbling around inside the bullet-proof turtle shell with the 50 mm popgun sticking out of it?
$50/month gets me 608/128 as unfortunately I'm just barely out of range for 768/128. Or I could pay the same to SBC for 384/128 and sucky customer service.
Must be nice...
I just checked with speakeasy again, and they've upgraded my availability from 14 IDSL to 384/384 SDSL (despite not moving any closer to the CO - still 14,000 feet). SDSL goodness, for only $120 a month! (Did I mention 14k feet from the CO?) Or I can get a 384/384 frac T1 line from speakeasy for $399 a month... or Comcast cable net access for... something like $50 a month.
I don't recall the exact numbers, but She Who Keeps The Books would know... not that it'll matter, since we'll be cancelling it at the end of the month once my RIF turns into an official layoff.
Let's see how Apple's stock performs today. Then when they deliver on Monday, they get a strong buy rating because confidence in them goes up.
As of this posting, AAPL is up +.10 on the day. I'm bummed, because I'm still looking at selling off my AAPL stock to be able to afford a new system:) And this week, someone did upgrade their rating to buy, and the stock failed to take off, so here's hoping that an actual announcement will help the price.
"Mac users need Office, because of the need for document interchange. IE has no such concerns -- and Mac users have no serious alternative to Office right now."
Umm... what's wrong with AppleWorks? I currently am creating Mac friendly AppleWorks docs, PDF files, text files, and Windows friendly Word files all from the same master.cwk file within AppleWorks 6 for OS X. The Word files open just fine in AppleWorks, Office Mac 2001, Word for Windows, and OpenOffice.
Speaking of which... there's a build of OpenOffice that runs just fine in OS X, so saying there's no alternative is, at best, mis-informed.
The reason why I've used Netflix (well, until recently, but that's because I've moved and don't know where I'm going end up for a bit) is so check out some anime... I'd be surprised if Walmart went out of their way to stock titles like that...
I just cancelled my Netflix service due to lack of jobfullness, which sucks, since I only had about 40 more movies in my queue, most of them anime. (Note that I got my copy of Sakura Wars two weeks after I reported it lost, and a week after I cancelled:D Watched it, sent it back; no harm, no foul apparently.)
I took a very brief poke at WalMart's dvd catalog, and they have the whole run of both Evangelion *and* Vision of Escaflowne, while (last time I looked) Netflix only had the first four dvd of each. Should I manage to come up with a bit of disposable income again, I might take a stab at Walmart's service, for those two series alone. I'm sure I can at least chew through those during the free trial period:)
Appropiate Gollum quotes should now be used in place of Yoda quotes.
And I can now say "But Dobby likes me!" in a Gollum-esque voice when losing an argument with the missuz, replacing the classic "Fsst, fsst!" that I lifted from some Warner Bro's (Tex Avery?) cartoon involving a cat sassing a bulldog and then getting caught doing it.
Re:Everyone keeps trying to pack in useless featur
on
Nokia 5100 Reviewed
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· Score: 1
I started in december, with phone($50) + 500min ($75) and have been adding $10 cards every 45 days. I still have 420 minutes left on the account after all this time.
Sounds like a good setup, and a good plan, storing all those minutes up front.
I had a Tracfone, and kept it for about a year; I wasn't all that impressed with the service, and even less so when they switched my area from analog only to digital only without notifying me. Of course, the phone I had was analog only, so it was promptly useless. I was given the option to send the old phone back (on my dime) and they'd send me a new digital phone, but decided it was too much work for a company that already shafted me once. I didn't really *need* the phone anyway, it was just an "in an emergeny" phone.
It's good to see all these other companies offering pre-paid phones; gives me more options the next time I figure I need a phone again. Thanks for the tip; I'll be sure to keep it in mind:)
Re:Everyone keeps trying to pack in useless featur
on
Nokia 5100 Reviewed
·
· Score: 1
My cell phone is a nokia 3361 (AT&T's Prepaid package). I pay roughly $10/month for service and use it only for necessities. No color screen, no voice dialing, no GSM/GPRS crap. It does what it needs to.
Wow, what a deal! What package is that? I have yet to see a need for color screens, camera, or any of the other crap that comes with phones these days, which is one of the reasons I don't have one (damned expensive service plans being another reason). AT&T's wireless site just went down for maintenance (according to the error page) or I'd check them out myself.
"Where Wizards Stay Up Late", Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon (I have no affiliation with Amazon, I merely use them as a reference) - "...a well-researched story of the origins of the Internet substantiated by extensive interviews with its creators who delve into many interesting details such as the controversy surrounding the adoption of our now beloved "@" sign as the separator of usernames and machine addresses..."
"Hackers", Steven Levy - chances are you've read this one already, but I'm putting it in anyway:)
Slashdot Mirror
Well, our copper is all underground. The entire subdivision is that way - not a telephone pole to be seen. I was also informed by a phone tech that came to check out the lines that we have "the oldest copper in the county".
:p ) So, no digging up the lines, no upgrades, no nothing. Sorry. So, instead of 384 SDSL like i was hoping to get, I ended up with 144 IDSL.
He was out to test the lines before getting my DSL set up. When he saw the condition of the line, he said they'd probably have to dig it all up and upgrade it. The very next day, as soon as the office opened in the morning, I got a phone call from the phone company. It turns out I was farther from the CO that I thought - they ran their tests and determined I was 24k feet from the CO, and not 14k feet! (I just remembered that little fact
Strangely enough, I just checked with Speakeasy (who I had the IDSL trhough previously), and their system now says I can get 384 SDSL for $120 a month...
That's 14k *feet*, of course...
Since where I live now (SE of Taco in Ypsilanti - halfway between Ann Arbor and Detroit), I have three options:
Dialup, which I can (for a while, anyway) get free through UMich, where I get a top speed of 33k, and my connection stays live anywhere from 30 seconds to 8 hours
Cable, where I pay $42.95 a month for a fast connection that stays up for days on end (but I still have to power cycle my network gear once a week to refresh my IP lease)
DSL, where I can pay $100 a month for 144 SDSL (something about living 14k from the CO)
Any price decreases for highspeed are welcome here.
While I am on my soapbox let me have a rant. Why is it a CD costs so much money when they cost less than a nickle when purchased in spindles of 100? How much money from each CD goes to the artist? How much goes to Sony and the label?
Well, according to http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/cost.asp:
"While the RIAA does not collect information on the specific costs that make up the price of a CD, there are many factors that go into the overall cost of a CD -- and the plastic it's pressed on, is among the least significant. CD manufacturing costs may be lower, but it takes more money than ever before to put out a new recording."
In other words, they don't know either. However, from the "fun with numbers" department:
"Between 1983 and 1996, the average price of a CD fell by more than 40%. Over this same period of time, consumer prices (measured by the Consumer Price Index, or CPI) rose nearly 60%. If CD prices had risen at the same rate as consumer prices over this period, the average retail price of a CD in 1996 would have been $33.86 instead of $12.75."
Now, where were they shopping in 1996 to find a $13 music cd? I know that they weren't that cheap where I was shopping for them - hold on, lemme make sure of that... google, google, ah! - top artists of 1996 included Mariah Carrey, Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Quad City DJs, Hootie & the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins... *shudder* okay, so I wasn't buying much of anything in '96, I'll skip the confirmation on that argument. But still, even cds today, with production costs (in theory) having reduced even further, *still* aren't $13 on an even basis.
Indeed. To fair use the article: "She says there's nothing on the (kazaa) site or the software warning users they could be doing something illegal... She also claims she didn't know the software allowed others to tap into her computer to get those songs."
Now, being a Mac user, I've never seen Kazaa in action, but I would assume it pops up some sort of dialog window during install prompting you to point out the folder where you'll be putting the files you want to share. How could you download and install random software and not know what it's doing? Oh wait, Windows user, never mind...
And it's not like someone would randomly wander across a site named www.kazaa.com and say "Gee, a program that lets me download music and movies and books and tons of other nifty files that would cost me money in a store... for FREE?!? And I don't even have to pay for the download software? Gee, the Internet is swell, Wally!"
Bollocks. I don't buy the doe-eyed "But I didn't *know* it was illegal!" bleating for a second. While the RIAA really oughta be targeting humans that have the standing of legal adults in a court of law instead of minors that have to drag their parents into this shite, running the "But the *computer* did it!" flag up the pole isn't going to get any salutes from me.
Check out Prototype. (Hmm, mp3 S .com... interesting.) They're a "progressive metal" band from LA that I wandered across a few years back. "Trinity" is (IMO) one of their cooler songs (and it's got nothing to do with the Matrix, you geek).
Yeah, but you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about, don't'cha? :)
grid bugs.
SPAM is a form of direct marketing, where the customers is approached by email.
BZZZZZZT! You're describing "spam", not the tasty pink processed meat product: I quote from Hormel:
Note that direct markting itself was never a problem itself, and it's much older than computers. The first forms of direct marketing can be traced back to the end of the 19th century.
And before spam came along, the marketer or the seller shouldered the cost of the advertising. They paid for their paper, and the postage, the shipping clerk that handled the mail, etc., etc. Spammers pay for none of that. They illegally access servers in Korea and China to spew their slime, infect computers world-wide with viruses that turn personal computers in spam relay stations, use free email accounts to inject their spew into the network... and the cost of this, in terms of bandwidth, server storage, and all the other reltaed systems and people needed to maintain them, is passed on to the unwilling recipients.
The main problem with SPAM is that it is undirected. Zillions of people getting zillions of email with offers they don't need...
No, the main problem with spam is that it's a theft of resources, not to mention fraud, harassment, violation of privacy, and violation of at least two dozen state's laws.
a) How many of my fellow infectees are getting your usenet contact addresses hammered, but not other accounts? I know that out of all of my accounts, only the two that I've used to post to the newsgroups are getting this crap.
b) What, if anything, did Verisign's asinine "added feature" have to do with not being able to filter this crap?
Re: The comments to my comment -
:\
/. - obviously, this isn't a Win/Lin discussion :)
Points well taken, and appreciated. I can see the point in going around without all the noisy heavy gear, both for discretion's sake and for the sake of the civilians, and I wasn't aware that most of the post-war deaths were from already in vehicles. I guess that kind of negates my argument, doesn't it?
Wow... calm, rational replies to a posting on
"From the start in peacekeeping," West said, "Maj. Gen. James Mattis and Brig. Gen. John Kelly, commanders of the 1st Marine Division, wanted the Marines out of the vehicles. That established: a. You are not lording it over anyone else, and b. You are the toughest mother in the valley and not afraid to move among the people. The rules of engagement were clear: If they are fired at, they attack back to kill, not to spray the area. If they are not fired at, all is cool."
What's that? Not afraid to take a bullet (or an RPG) while moving among the people, you say? Seems to me the reason armored vehicles are armored is to protect the military personnel they're transporting. Otherwise, we could have our boys (and girls) going in on camelback and in Jeeps; be a lot cheaper that way, and just as safe as having them "walk among the people". Wouldn't you want to "lord it over" someone if you're trying to secure an area? Wouldn't the "toughest mother" be the one rumbling around inside the bullet-proof turtle shell with the 50 mm popgun sticking out of it?
p.s. I know people will bitch about me spamvertising (that's why I didn't link it)
:)
That's not spamvertising, this is spamvertising
jeez, how many times did I preview that, and not catch the IDSL typo? That's supposed to be 144 IDSL, not 14 :p
$50/month gets me 608/128 as unfortunately I'm just barely out of range for 768/128. Or I could pay the same to SBC for 384/128 and sucky customer service.
Must be nice...
I just checked with speakeasy again, and they've upgraded my availability from 14 IDSL to 384/384 SDSL (despite not moving any closer to the CO - still 14,000 feet). SDSL goodness, for only $120 a month! (Did I mention 14k feet from the CO?) Or I can get a 384/384 frac T1 line from speakeasy for $399 a month... or Comcast cable net access for... something like $50 a month.
I don't recall the exact numbers, but She Who Keeps The Books would know... not that it'll matter, since we'll be cancelling it at the end of the month once my RIF turns into an official layoff.
Let's see how Apple's stock performs today. Then when they deliver on Monday, they get a strong buy rating because confidence in them goes up.
:) And this week, someone did upgrade their rating to buy, and the stock failed to take off, so here's hoping that an actual announcement will help the price.
As of this posting, AAPL is up +.10 on the day. I'm bummed, because I'm still looking at selling off my AAPL stock to be able to afford a new system
"Mac users need Office, because of the need for document interchange. IE has no such concerns -- and Mac users have no serious alternative to Office right now."
.cwk file within AppleWorks 6 for OS X. The Word files open just fine in AppleWorks, Office Mac 2001, Word for Windows, and OpenOffice.
Umm... what's wrong with AppleWorks? I currently am creating Mac friendly AppleWorks docs, PDF files, text files, and Windows friendly Word files all from the same master
Speaking of which... there's a build of OpenOffice that runs just fine in OS X, so saying there's no alternative is, at best, mis-informed.
But SCO doesn't seem to be up in arms over unlicensed releases that are legitimatley derived from the unix source base (OS X).
Actually, they are up in arms - well, their land sharks are, at any rate.
The reason why I've used Netflix (well, until recently, but that's because I've moved and don't know where I'm going end up for a bit) is so check out some anime... I'd be surprised if Walmart went out of their way to stock titles like that...
:D Watched it, sent it back; no harm, no foul apparently.)
:)
I just cancelled my Netflix service due to lack of jobfullness, which sucks, since I only had about 40 more movies in my queue, most of them anime. (Note that I got my copy of Sakura Wars two weeks after I reported it lost, and a week after I cancelled
I took a very brief poke at WalMart's dvd catalog, and they have the whole run of both Evangelion *and* Vision of Escaflowne, while (last time I looked) Netflix only had the first four dvd of each. Should I manage to come up with a bit of disposable income again, I might take a stab at Walmart's service, for those two series alone. I'm sure I can at least chew through those during the free trial period
Appropiate Gollum quotes should now be used in place of Yoda quotes.
And I can now say "But Dobby likes me!" in a Gollum-esque voice when losing an argument with the missuz, replacing the classic "Fsst, fsst!" that I lifted from some Warner Bro's (Tex Avery?) cartoon involving a cat sassing a bulldog and then getting caught doing it.
I started in december, with phone($50) + 500min ($75) and have been adding $10 cards every 45 days. I still have 420 minutes left on the account after all this time.
:)
Sounds like a good setup, and a good plan, storing all those minutes up front.
I had a Tracfone, and kept it for about a year; I wasn't all that impressed with the service, and even less so when they switched my area from analog only to digital only without notifying me. Of course, the phone I had was analog only, so it was promptly useless. I was given the option to send the old phone back (on my dime) and they'd send me a new digital phone, but decided it was too much work for a company that already shafted me once. I didn't really *need* the phone anyway, it was just an "in an emergeny" phone.
It's good to see all these other companies offering pre-paid phones; gives me more options the next time I figure I need a phone again. Thanks for the tip; I'll be sure to keep it in mind
My cell phone is a nokia 3361 (AT&T's Prepaid package). I pay roughly $10/month for service and use it only for necessities. No color screen, no voice dialing, no GSM/GPRS crap. It does what it needs to.
Wow, what a deal! What package is that? I have yet to see a need for color screens, camera, or any of the other crap that comes with phones these days, which is one of the reasons I don't have one (damned expensive service plans being another reason). AT&T's wireless site just went down for maintenance (according to the error page) or I'd check them out myself.
"Where Wizards Stay Up Late", Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon (I have no affiliation with Amazon, I merely use them as a reference) - "...a well-researched story of the origins of the Internet substantiated by extensive interviews with its creators who delve into many interesting details such as the controversy surrounding the adoption of our now beloved "@" sign as the separator of usernames and machine addresses..."
:)
"Hackers", Steven Levy - chances are you've read this one already, but I'm putting it in anyway
"The Book Of The Subgenius" - Praise "Bob"!
Actually, I was thinking about Shadowrun... this *is* Dikote that they're talking about, after all :)
http://stream.qtv.apple.com/events/apr/moscone/apr 28_28_56_100_250_ref.mov!