It has always been my understanding that wireless networks are cheaper to build and operate than cable or telephone networks, so *why* are they charging so much?
if you're going to compare this as the equivalent to a "wired network", then realize that even $60 is CHEAP.
For about $40 I get a broadband connection to my apartment. I can easily cover said apartment in WiFi, and if I go extreme maybe access my network anywhere in a one mile radius. It's certainly easier to "run" wiFi everywhere than try and run ethernet throughout said apartment.
HOWEVER, this is internet only in my apartment. For 150% of the price I can get my cell phone to give me internet that's not significantly slower... that I can use ANYWHERE I GO. To work, to a friend's apartment, to my car in on the highway, to ANOTHER CITY ENTIRELY. Anywhere.
You ever build a network that stretches from one city to the next? With access points all along the highway?
I bet it cost you a hell of a lot more than $60 a month.
Trust me when I say that improving schools starts with parents actually taking an interesting in their child's education.
No, that's step 2.
Step 1 is getting parents to realize that "grades" are not "education." I have a good friend who swore off teaching because of parents, who were more worried about their little brat's grade than what said brat learned in his class.
Certain people in power want you to believe competent government cant exist, but it does all over the world. Republicans love to sell you on this line because it helps their corporate masters make more money and provides an excuse for their corruption in office
Oddly, they're right in everything but the pivotal subject.
A bureaucracy invariably makes things more complex, and has an innate ability to screw things up. This is true if the bureau is public (see: DMV, INS, CIA, NASA) or private (see: Microsoft, GM, Ford, Citibank).
The pivotal question is "is this something best done by a single actor" -- such as, oh, licensing drivers on the road or deciding who's a lawyer and who isn't. If so, then it should be government. If not, then it should be private -- because you can always compete with a private entity, but you can rarely compete with the government.
Maybe -- and I know it's a fool's hope -- the comments on this article can actually include speculation on what may be occurring beyond climate change alarmism?
Actually, they should include "are the acorns even really disappearing?", which is the correct response to someone who questions accepted science.
Throw in a reference to the "hyrocarbon cycle" and you'll be all set.
Even now those dumb asses want to restrict efforts to drill. "It won't make a difference for at least X years", they whine. Will better fucking get on it so that in X years we are not even more screwed. Typical bullshit Libs. Can't think six inches in front of their peckers or tits.
Here's one that our new President was too polite too make directly.
"We have so little oil in the areas you're ranting about that we can save more oil just by keeping our tires inflated than if we drill."
Fuck oil. You want a free market? Let's pull out of the middle east. Entirely. And then watch the free market at play.
What? You mean you can't afford to drive your car at $12 a gallon gas? But, you wanted the free market to fix it!
there are 3 problems facing for the big three: poor management, unions, and federal regulations. The democratic congress and president (elect) are in bed with the unions. The best thing the big three could do is go bankrupt.
Nope.
1: Healthcare 2: Retiree Costs 3: Management
The unions they have today do NOTHING to hurt the big three. What hurts them is the fat healthcare subsidy every other country gives their workers, and the retiree costs younger companies don't need to worry about.
And regulations? Name ONE regulation that's actually hurt the big three. Go ahead. I'll wait.
Video games are like porn. The plot only serves as an excuse to play. It's going to be that way until consumers demand better writing. Don't hold your breath for that day.
We love better writing. But not in our fucking action games.
ACTION games are like porn. For plot, we'll play a cRPG.
There are a few cars/aftermarket car stereos that have aux-in jacks, but those are pretty unusual.
these aren't so much "unusual" as "new".
Go down to a car dealer, and ask them how many of their new cars have an aux-in jack. Just this past summer I bought a bottom-rung cobalt, with a bloody aux-in jack on the radio.
Note that I've no idea if he's actually a Christian or not: it was just an example.
This is America. You can assume that any given American is a white christian male, because most of us are the first two, and most of the notable ones are the latter.
You get served a notice by the FCC for operating an unlicensed device capable of receiving elements of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Who cares if this is a part of the "unregulated" section of the E/M spectrum.
In the scientific world, you'd be exactly right. But this isn't the scientific world. This is the legal world.
And in the legal world, visible light is not part of the "electromagnetic spectrum." Just like in the culinary world, a tomato is a vegetable, and in the linguistic world "exponentially" just means "a heck of a lot".
Legal experts say [DISNEY] would most likely loose the case - but the musical does't have the money to go to court
1: you DO realize that libel & slander charges would require DISNEY to prove that you don't believe what you're saying, and that DISNEY can't use trademark law to keep you from using their name to refer to them, right?
2: Yes, you do have the money to go to court. Call your state bar association. Find a lawyer in the community. Talk to the judge. Most lawyers are required a certain % of their time as pro bono cases, they may take it on retainer if you decide to sue Disney (for harassment, wrongful prosecution, etc.), and if they don't, a judge can always point to one and say "take this case."
If you can't afford to do something if you might wind up in court, the you can't afford to do that thing. At the very least, the manager of the play should be able to tell Disney, "I think I'm in the right, but if you're so convinced let's go talk to a judge about it."
But I thought about it for a few seconds, and if the onus is on the infringer to make sure that they are not infringing, then it makes sense for them to be billed.
It would if that were the case, but it isn't.
Toyota's begging for a wrongful prosecution case in this one. They really don't have a leg to stand on, saying they'd invoice for identifying their "copyrighted" works. And here's why:
* Copyright probably doesn't apply. If I take a picture of my car (an American-made Chevrolet, FWIW), then the copyright of the photograph belongs to ME. And even if copyright DOES apply (wallpaper made from images made by Toyota), the DMCA still requires Toyota to identify which images are in the wrong. "All those that contain Toyotas" would require the website to review each image -- which the DMCA excludes them from having to do, by way of requiring them to remove any so-identified image.
* Patent law -- where you really do have to work to avoid infringement! -- doesn't apply to photographs. You can describe in great detail anything protected by patent -- you just can't make/use that thing without the patent holder's permission.
* Trademark law -- which, again, DOES require you to do some legwork -- only protects against diluting uses. Fan-created walpapers incorporating Toyoyta's trademarks as a way of expressing preference for Toyoyta? At best, they can force a disclaimer on them.
(Note: this is not Legal Advice. If Toyota comes after YOU, get a lawyer to determine the specifics. You might have entered into a contract, live in a strange country, the laws might have changed, or I could be completely wrong.)
Personally, I don't use Google apps, as a JavaScript implementation of notepad.exe doesn't come close to satisfying my document management needs, and I can't imagine any serious business would disagree.
OpenOffice -- or MS Office, for that matter -- isn't a "document management" anything. It's a tool to write documents. You'd actually MANAGE them on some kind of custom server, like SharePoint or a custom database. Or, shock of all shocks, Google Apps.
Unless you're making docs to print, Google Apps does all that you'll ever need, plus some more. And if you're making docs for professional printing, then Google Docs is as good a copywriting program as any other, since you'd actually lay out the thing in a real DLP.
Large Chicago law firm Jones Day are suing internet startup BlockShopper over the issue of whether linking to a business with their trademarked name should be legal.
Trademarks exist to differentiate businesses. You have an ABSOLUTE RIGHT to use somebody else's trademark to refer to them or describe their product. Any law that says otherwise is fundamentally flawed, and violates the first amendment.
A trademark is a name, and names are fundamental to speech.
Can they be programmed to keep those damn kids off your lawn? And will this research be passed along to the receiver when GM files for bankruptcy next week?
1: No.
2: You mean GM? They're suffering from, at worst, a cash-flow process. If they file for bankruptcy, it'll be a short-term solution, and the company that will own them afterwards will be... GM!
I hope the engineers at GM have fun making this expensive car. Might as well enjoy the work you do while you still have a job.
Assume GM does go bankrupt. Not just a little, but firesale-all-assets-we're-OOB bankrupt.
The engineering departments WILL be bought. As will their designs. Many of the factories will be closed. HQ will be fired. But the engineers?
Hardly.
Domestic manufacturers still haven't figured it out.
Figured what out? To sell what the market is buying? Or how to make good cars?
It's not 1980 anymore. Unless you want a hybrid car, you can get as good or better a vehicle from a domestic company as a foreign one. (And that's ignoring that Honda builds in the US now...)
I work for a major US cell company, and I'd like to say, on behalf of all of my brothers and sisters in the industry, even the competing carriers: If we tell you we can't pull these figures out of our ass on demand, IT MEANS WE CAN'T. STFU AND GTFO ABOUT IT.
Blow me.
I work for the state tax department. If you want to know what the applicable taxes are for, well ANYTHING in the state you can call us and, if you're patient, we'll tell you.
The answer to a customer question is not "I can't tell you." It's "I don't know. But if you call department X, they can tell you what it is right now."
The local, state and national governments do not change their tax codes on a whim. And even if they DO, there's essentially always a grace period or a big fat warning sign, so that companies who pay their taxes on time can continue to do so without having to hire a lawyer to full-time watch for random changes in the law.
Burning fossil fuels is not fission. When you get a planet to turn C and H into a nice fossil fuel at the expenditure of solar energy, you can combust the hydrocarbon in the presence of O to release energy. But this also releases the exact same C and H into the atmosphere.
Every single fuel source we have is, at its core, to the best science knows, just a temporary battery. Every single chemical fuel combusts into smoke and ash of the same elements that went into it.
After all, if someone was tumbling in space and you accelerated to start to catch up to them, the moment you start to close the gap you are already going faster than them and will close the gap (and even overtake them!) in due time. God, I want that hour and a half of my life back...
If someone is hurling in space TOWARDS A PLANET, you need to get them a correcting thrust as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more thrust you have to have. If you have a finite amount of thrust, then you have a finite amount of time. And anyone planning that kind of crazy exercise would have the whole time-set worked out, like their main character did.
Mission to Mars sucked for all kinds of other reasons, but the physics of that particular effect scene weren't one of them. The PLOTTING of that scene, however... well, that's why we don't have good movies about Mars today.
Where are you going to find a mechanic to service your Tesla's electric motor, or the batteries?
Unless your mechanic rebuilds alternators from scratch, he'll be able to do comparable maintenance on a Tesla Roadster. (And don't even try to say your mechanic does more than clean, test, and replace your battery.)
Diagnose the broken part, repair if practical, replace if not. Your mechanic will figure it out.
This war powers reasoning irritates the hell out of me. I don't deny that it may be necessary to expand the President's powers when we are at war, but I do think we should first require that our country actually formally DECLARE WAR on the other country before this can be invoked. And by "declare war" I mean our Congress pass a resolution stating explicitly that we "Declare War" on the enemy country.
Sorry, there's no such foolish regulation in the Constitution. Any act of Congress authorizing use of military force is a declaration of war. If you're so inclined, you can go find the full text of the bills that authorized action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And if we're going to put a formal declaration in the Constitution, for the love of God, add in a "undeclare" war clause, without need of the President's consent, as well.
Slashdot Mirror
It has always been my understanding that wireless networks are cheaper to build and operate than cable or telephone networks, so *why* are they charging so much?
if you're going to compare this as the equivalent to a "wired network", then realize that even $60 is CHEAP.
For about $40 I get a broadband connection to my apartment. I can easily cover said apartment in WiFi, and if I go extreme maybe access my network anywhere in a one mile radius. It's certainly easier to "run" wiFi everywhere than try and run ethernet throughout said apartment.
HOWEVER, this is internet only in my apartment. For 150% of the price I can get my cell phone to give me internet that's not significantly slower... that I can use ANYWHERE I GO. To work, to a friend's apartment, to my car in on the highway, to ANOTHER CITY ENTIRELY. Anywhere.
You ever build a network that stretches from one city to the next? With access points all along the highway?
I bet it cost you a hell of a lot more than $60 a month.
Trust me when I say that improving schools starts with parents actually taking an interesting in their child's education.
No, that's step 2.
Step 1 is getting parents to realize that "grades" are not "education." I have a good friend who swore off teaching because of parents, who were more worried about their little brat's grade than what said brat learned in his class.
Age verification = no privacy...on a government network at least...
If you think you have privacy now, realize that's ONLY because the government hasn't got a good enough reason to watch you.
Your privacy is protected far more by the rule of law and the patriotism of government employees than any scheme you personally partake of.
Certain people in power want you to believe competent government cant exist, but it does all over the world. Republicans love to sell you on this line because it helps their corporate masters make more money and provides an excuse for their corruption in office
Oddly, they're right in everything but the pivotal subject.
A bureaucracy invariably makes things more complex, and has an innate ability to screw things up. This is true if the bureau is public (see: DMV, INS, CIA, NASA) or private (see: Microsoft, GM, Ford, Citibank).
The pivotal question is "is this something best done by a single actor" -- such as, oh, licensing drivers on the road or deciding who's a lawyer and who isn't. If so, then it should be government. If not, then it should be private -- because you can always compete with a private entity, but you can rarely compete with the government.
("Rarely"? Yep. See: USPS v. FedEx/UPS)
Maybe -- and I know it's a fool's hope -- the comments on this article can actually include speculation on what may be occurring beyond climate change alarmism?
Actually, they should include "are the acorns even really disappearing?", which is the correct response to someone who questions accepted science.
Throw in a reference to the "hyrocarbon cycle" and you'll be all set.
Uh, those two are the same thing...
Even now those dumb asses want to restrict efforts to drill. "It won't make a difference for at least X years", they whine. Will better fucking get on it so that in X years we are not even more screwed. Typical bullshit Libs. Can't think six inches in front of their peckers or tits.
Here's one that our new President was too polite too make directly.
"We have so little oil in the areas you're ranting about that we can save more oil just by keeping our tires inflated than if we drill."
Fuck oil. You want a free market? Let's pull out of the middle east. Entirely. And then watch the free market at play.
What? You mean you can't afford to drive your car at $12 a gallon gas? But, you wanted the free market to fix it!
(Typical libertarian moron.)
there are 3 problems facing for the big three: poor management, unions, and federal regulations. The democratic congress and president (elect) are in bed with the unions. The best thing the big three could do is go bankrupt.
Nope.
1: Healthcare
2: Retiree Costs
3: Management
The unions they have today do NOTHING to hurt the big three. What hurts them is the fat healthcare subsidy every other country gives their workers, and the retiree costs younger companies don't need to worry about.
And regulations? Name ONE regulation that's actually hurt the big three. Go ahead. I'll wait.
Video games are like porn. The plot only serves as an excuse to play. It's going to be that way until consumers demand better writing. Don't hold your breath for that day.
We love better writing. But not in our fucking action games.
ACTION games are like porn. For plot, we'll play a cRPG.
You probably don't want to drive a 100 miles-per-gallon "car". A 100 mpg motorcycle, maybe. It's just as safe, and you look less stupid.
There are a few cars/aftermarket car stereos that have aux-in jacks, but those are pretty unusual.
these aren't so much "unusual" as "new".
Go down to a car dealer, and ask them how many of their new cars have an aux-in jack. Just this past summer I bought a bottom-rung cobalt, with a bloody aux-in jack on the radio.
..and ultimately, would you not buy a toyota, because of this stunt?
Yes. A stunt like this knocks toyota one step lower in my "I'd like to buy..." column.
Of course, the rebranded Matrix I owned for six months does a lot to convince me of that as well.
Note that I've no idea if he's actually a Christian or not: it was just an example.
This is America. You can assume that any given American is a white christian male, because most of us are the first two, and most of the notable ones are the latter.
You get served a notice by the FCC for operating an unlicensed device capable of receiving elements of the electro-magnetic spectrum. Who cares if this is a part of the "unregulated" section of the E/M spectrum.
In the scientific world, you'd be exactly right. But this isn't the scientific world. This is the legal world.
And in the legal world, visible light is not part of the "electromagnetic spectrum." Just like in the culinary world, a tomato is a vegetable, and in the linguistic world "exponentially" just means "a heck of a lot".
Legal experts say [DISNEY] would most likely loose the case - but the musical does't have the money to go to court
1: you DO realize that libel & slander charges would require DISNEY to prove that you don't believe what you're saying, and that DISNEY can't use trademark law to keep you from using their name to refer to them, right?
2: Yes, you do have the money to go to court. Call your state bar association. Find a lawyer in the community. Talk to the judge. Most lawyers are required a certain % of their time as pro bono cases, they may take it on retainer if you decide to sue Disney (for harassment, wrongful prosecution, etc.), and if they don't, a judge can always point to one and say "take this case."
If you can't afford to do something if you might wind up in court, the you can't afford to do that thing. At the very least, the manager of the play should be able to tell Disney, "I think I'm in the right, but if you're so convinced let's go talk to a judge about it."
But I thought about it for a few seconds, and if the onus is on the infringer to make sure that they are not infringing, then it makes sense for them to be billed.
It would if that were the case, but it isn't.
Toyota's begging for a wrongful prosecution case in this one. They really don't have a leg to stand on, saying they'd invoice for identifying their "copyrighted" works. And here's why:
* Copyright probably doesn't apply. If I take a picture of my car (an American-made Chevrolet, FWIW), then the copyright of the photograph belongs to ME. And even if copyright DOES apply (wallpaper made from images made by Toyota), the DMCA still requires Toyota to identify which images are in the wrong. "All those that contain Toyotas" would require the website to review each image -- which the DMCA excludes them from having to do, by way of requiring them to remove any so-identified image.
* Patent law -- where you really do have to work to avoid infringement! -- doesn't apply to photographs. You can describe in great detail anything protected by patent -- you just can't make/use that thing without the patent holder's permission.
* Trademark law -- which, again, DOES require you to do some legwork -- only protects against diluting uses. Fan-created walpapers incorporating Toyoyta's trademarks as a way of expressing preference for Toyoyta? At best, they can force a disclaimer on them.
(Note: this is not Legal Advice. If Toyota comes after YOU, get a lawyer to determine the specifics. You might have entered into a contract, live in a strange country, the laws might have changed, or I could be completely wrong.)
Personally, I don't use Google apps, as a JavaScript implementation of notepad.exe doesn't come close to satisfying my document management needs, and I can't imagine any serious business would disagree.
OpenOffice -- or MS Office, for that matter -- isn't a "document management" anything. It's a tool to write documents. You'd actually MANAGE them on some kind of custom server, like SharePoint or a custom database. Or, shock of all shocks, Google Apps.
Unless you're making docs to print, Google Apps does all that you'll ever need, plus some more. And if you're making docs for professional printing, then Google Docs is as good a copywriting program as any other, since you'd actually lay out the thing in a real DLP.
Large Chicago law firm Jones Day are suing internet startup BlockShopper over the issue of whether linking to a business with their trademarked name should be legal.
Yes, it should be.
"RPGs? Try White Wolf or Wizards of the Coast."
Trademarks exist to differentiate businesses. You have an ABSOLUTE RIGHT to use somebody else's trademark to refer to them or describe their product. Any law that says otherwise is fundamentally flawed, and violates the first amendment.
A trademark is a name, and names are fundamental to speech.
Can they be programmed to keep those damn kids off your lawn? And will this research be passed along to the receiver when GM files for bankruptcy next week?
1: No.
2: You mean GM? They're suffering from, at worst, a cash-flow process. If they file for bankruptcy, it'll be a short-term solution, and the company that will own them afterwards will be... GM!
Wikipedia is thataway --> Go learn.
I hope the engineers at GM have fun making this expensive car. Might as well enjoy the work you do while you still have a job.
Assume GM does go bankrupt. Not just a little, but firesale-all-assets-we're-OOB bankrupt.
The engineering departments WILL be bought. As will their designs. Many of the factories will be closed. HQ will be fired. But the engineers?
Hardly.
Domestic manufacturers still haven't figured it out.
Figured what out? To sell what the market is buying? Or how to make good cars?
It's not 1980 anymore. Unless you want a hybrid car, you can get as good or better a vehicle from a domestic company as a foreign one. (And that's ignoring that Honda builds in the US now...)
Salespeople on the floor in a retail store have nothing to do with the billing department
The only way the billing department has anything whatsoever to do with customers is (gasp!) through those salespeople.
In fact, some of us even manage to completely avoid the "billing" department, and pay our bill entirely through sales.
I work for a major US cell company, and I'd like to say, on behalf of all of my brothers and sisters in the industry, even the competing carriers: If we tell you we can't pull these figures out of our ass on demand, IT MEANS WE CAN'T. STFU AND GTFO ABOUT IT.
Blow me.
I work for the state tax department. If you want to know what the applicable taxes are for, well ANYTHING in the state you can call us and, if you're patient, we'll tell you.
The answer to a customer question is not "I can't tell you." It's "I don't know. But if you call department X, they can tell you what it is right now."
The local, state and national governments do not change their tax codes on a whim. And even if they DO, there's essentially always a grace period or a big fat warning sign, so that companies who pay their taxes on time can continue to do so without having to hire a lawyer to full-time watch for random changes in the law.
psst.
Burning fossil fuels is not fission. When you get a planet to turn C and H into a nice fossil fuel at the expenditure of solar energy, you can combust the hydrocarbon in the presence of O to release energy. But this also releases the exact same C and H into the atmosphere.
Every single fuel source we have is, at its core, to the best science knows, just a temporary battery. Every single chemical fuel combusts into smoke and ash of the same elements that went into it.
After all, if someone was tumbling in space and you accelerated to start to catch up to them, the moment you start to close the gap you are already going faster than them and will close the gap (and even overtake them!) in due time. God, I want that hour and a half of my life back...
If someone is hurling in space TOWARDS A PLANET, you need to get them a correcting thrust as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more thrust you have to have. If you have a finite amount of thrust, then you have a finite amount of time. And anyone planning that kind of crazy exercise would have the whole time-set worked out, like their main character did.
Mission to Mars sucked for all kinds of other reasons, but the physics of that particular effect scene weren't one of them. The PLOTTING of that scene, however... well, that's why we don't have good movies about Mars today.
Where are you going to find a mechanic to service your Tesla's electric motor, or the batteries?
Unless your mechanic rebuilds alternators from scratch, he'll be able to do comparable maintenance on a Tesla Roadster. (And don't even try to say your mechanic does more than clean, test, and replace your battery.)
Diagnose the broken part, repair if practical, replace if not. Your mechanic will figure it out.
This war powers reasoning irritates the hell out of me. I don't deny that it may be necessary to expand the President's powers when we are at war, but I do think we should first require that our country actually formally DECLARE WAR on the other country before this can be invoked. And by "declare war" I mean our Congress pass a resolution stating explicitly that we "Declare War" on the enemy country.
Sorry, there's no such foolish regulation in the Constitution. Any act of Congress authorizing use of military force is a declaration of war. If you're so inclined, you can go find the full text of the bills that authorized action in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And if we're going to put a formal declaration in the Constitution, for the love of God, add in a "undeclare" war clause, without need of the President's consent, as well.