hmmm... I didnt know that these cars were having this problem (didnt even know they ran windows CE) but I remember after they first came out I saw two different ones dead in the road on 280 south during rush hour. Their frustrated owners looking stupid and very pissed at the embarrasment their new expensive toy was causing them.
I just have this image of a skeksi-hitler-esque record exec screaming up on some podium for consolidation while all the other fat waddley record exec's (like skeksis from the dark crystal) nod up and down vigorously while looking around at eachother. Then the hitler-esque record exec standing there with a smug self important look on his face.
I could care less if this guy is israeli - what is he doing there? nothing. there is nothing on this trip that this guy can add specific value to. otherwise it would be reported as such.
The only thing this does - and why it is news worthy - is show how much the US is actually wrapped around the iraeli victim finger.
Isreal receives more aid than any other country fortheir military - and get special benefits that other countries dont get.
take a look at the total figures that isreal costs the US.
I think the US should stop supporting this nation - and let it take care of itself for once - Israel has received aid from the US every year since 1948. Time to stand on your own two feet israel - and stop your bitching.
there are many problems with the evolution of the "wi-fi" market currently.
first of all - the marketplace hasnt solidified totally yet - this means that many possibilities for "markets" havent all been indentified yet.
Since this area is just starting to get major attention you can bet your bottom dollar that the deep pockets are already doing marjor development to ensure their ugly umbrella will cover this new market.
we can see this in the formation of Cometa. Cometa is largely funded by AT&T (& intel & IBM) - but there is a big problem with them: they are funded by companies that have major branding, people already dont trust, have crappy customer service & tend to monopolize their markets.
Cometa is definitely not a company I would want to trust.
anyway - another thing about cometa is that they want to be the leader in hotspots - like in malls, airports busy coffee shops etc. This is good and bad.
First - its good for an ISP to focus on hotspots initially, as this will only require them to put up the infrastructure as needed. As usage, awareness and demand rises - they can grow their coverage out.
This is bad because it will require them to maintain many many physical backhauling link ups. This means that for every hotspot - they will require a real traditional uplink like a T1.
Now - here is why AT&T is important - they can provide the uplinks at a loss indefinitely until they are in a monopolizing position. They can also hold the potential to sell access on those uplinks to other WISPs who want to just maintain a small wifi AP area....
so - we see the community wisp (cometa) appearing to come along and provide you with wifi service, but its really big corporate money (and the shitty service that goes with it) bringing up a new brand in an attempt to fool people into thinking that this is a good thing (tm) for them.
well, the issue that I have with this whole market (aside from the fact that I hate big telcos to begin with) is that we (the people) have a perfect oppotunity to actually take an industry and market over - and build it out on a proper foundation - like low cost high quality service where our users (not customers) are important to the integrity of the service.
a company like AT&T (in the guise of cometa) just absolutely cannot provide you with honest-to-goodness service.
Dont forget about AT&T wanting to provide you with every possible service (via an electronic means) in a package deal that stiffles competition and overcharges the consumer at every opportunity. You can forget about multiple providers for cable, cel, long ditance, wireless internet.
So - the 5 step process to building a monopoly above is in full effect in the infancy of the wifi market.
I just hope that we can see through lame attempts to control our information and demand (through our actions) that a proper model gets established.
There are many options that should be looked at and weighed and fleshed out.
For example - what if you had each city maintain (through multiple sub contracting companies) a mesh network that was the city's local wireless "cell" - the backhaul would be provided by multiple carriers who bid to the city for the traffic....
there is so much that can be donw with wireless that we need to be careful not to let it get monopolized so soon while we are not watching.
I was very confused (and still am) to exactly what.NET is - and palladium for that matter. I asked here on slashdot what they were and the major differnces between the two.
Someone posted a link to an MS page that supposedly explained what they were - but it still was very vague and didnt help much.
So - anyone out there clear on what.NET is and maybe palladium for that matter who would care to expound on the merits of this wonderful technology?
My step mom has worked with computer since the early 70's.
She used to work over at nasa and various other companies around silicon valley. She used to bring the old platters home and make things like wall clocks and side tables and coffee tables out of them.
They we really cool... wish we had held onto them.
I dont know what type of success you have ever had with filing complaints with the BBB against companies - but I can tell you from the many times that I actually have - it really doesnt do jack.
For example - one company (a car dealership that sold me a car that was a lemon (as defined by the lemon law) would not cooperate and do what was required of them by law to take care of the problem) whom I tried to report to the BBB was rated as "a gold business member" by the BBB and the BBB rep said "I can't believe that they would act in this way". After sending the copy of the complaint and the copy of the complaint I made to the state attorney general I still didnt even get results.
You want to know what did get results? Pushing the car (yes physically pushing the broken piece of shit) into their entrance and throwing the keys in the face of the dealer in front of about 10 other customers that were there.
On other occasions not only did I file with the BBB - but I also called the insurace commision about insurance problems (a carrier refused to take a car I no longer owned off my policy and kept billing me for it) - still no results. I was told by the insurance commission that this "was common behavior" - and they didnt do a damn thing. Common?! I just let them bill me and I never paid them - just switched to another carrier. "Good for you!" you might say. Bullshit. I shouldnt HAVE to switch.... and anyone that thinks that switching is an acceptable solution to this sort of problem is an idiot. its no solution - shit like this should be taken care of, we should NOT have to deal with crap like this.
want more examples of how the BBB is just a token organization that doesnt accomplish for consumers what it is supposedly chartered to do?
why not look at the actual punishments that companies receive when they fuck up in a big way.
As another poster said - vote with your wallet. Well, I do (I havent bought a Nike product in more than 10 years - although I was given a pair of shoes once as a gift) - there are many companies I dont shop with....
the point about Frys is that they sell items that are refurb/return-not-working as IF THEY WERE NEW - and charge the *same price* as the real new item would cost. This should be *illegal*. also - ever notice that frys maintains no website? ever had an experience trying to get a laptop that is under warranty repaired in their "authorized service center" - pain in the ass.
anyway - frys just sucks, but overall good customer service is definitely something the consumer should demand and expect.
but here we see the problem is even more than just bad customer service, neglected policies and unenforced laws. the root of the continuance of these issues comes from the fact that the large majority of consumers are just happy to tolerate these thing and throw up their arms - like we see here, not even noticing that the supposed groups and measures that are already in place dont do a damn thing.... which is why we are even talking about this issue in the first place.
I dont think the actual maintainance needs regulation as much as customer service in general - for all industries.
Frys for example has horrendous levels of bad/returned equipment (because the purchase and resell refurbs and returns and bad equipment side-by-side at the same prices as real brand new equipment) and they tend to have very very poor customer service.
I would rather have a level of customer service that should be expected from any and all customers - maybe even regulating the return/exchange policies....
If all companies were required to have their customer service entities live of to an expected level of performance/satisfaction it would do wonders for trust and consumer satisfaction in general.
I cannot tell you how angry it makes me when I deal with difficult, deceptive or rude customer service agents.
Re:Excellent things for the work place..
on
Assorted CES Gizmos
·
· Score: 2
what about the transformer watches of the '80s? now those were cool.... wish I still had mine now.
sarcasm ( P ) Pronunciation Key (särkzm) n. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule. The use of sarcasm.
"To me this just seems up there with the color coding terror warning system; something to make it look like the people in charge are making us safer but without any real effect"
This is something I have thought a lot about and discussed at length.
It's a theory I call Bureaucracy of Mediocrity. It goes something like this - feel free to add or debunk, as you like
Short Version:
The government is full of useless mediocre people who continually pass laws and do activities that serve no real purpose other than to make themselves appear to be accomplishing something.
Long Version:
Basically there has been a very large influx of mediocre people who have been given, and sought out, jobs within the government system.
There are several reasons for this. First it started as a "sensitive exercise" in which the government was required to consider all sorts of people for the positions they offered. This means that the government needed to hire in people who were not necessarily the best qualified for the positions. I am not going to go into affirmative action or anything like that right now - but it's pretty evident that there are many government workers that are driftwood. People who work there - but don't actually work.
Anyway, the point is that now we have a large bureaucratic system filled with people of mediocre quality who are just trying to look like they are doing something, trying to make themselves feel like they are important.
A perfect example of this is the back patting "atta-boy" behavior of senators and other congress critters after the September 11 terrorist attacks. They held a ceremony and talked about the heroics of each other and the mayor of New York. The mayor of New York - rudy guilliani - was in now way a "hero"... he was just doing his job. He didn't do any extraordinary thing. He didn't personally rescue someone from crisis while at personal risk.
These people just want it to look as though they are doing something important and accomplishing something in their work.
The other major behavior of people in government positions is to hide behind bureaucracy. The more difficult and convoluted they make any process - the less likely they would actually have to do any work. It really is this simple - people are lazy, and many government workers are just milking the system and doing "gestures of accomplishment" where they do something which is utterly meaningless so as to look as though they are actually doing something.
Anyway - you get the point. But its this mentality and lack of any true thoughtful work that gives us such lame things like the color coded terror warning.
What the fuck is a high state of alert anyway. There is no such thing. If you are alert - you are alert. If you're missing things, then you obviously are not alert. There are not different stages of alert. (And I am not referring to the alertness of a personal individual - I am talking about the alertness of a systems, group or body - such as a nation)
"Thanks for the offer guys, but I'll keep not buying Nike in the real world;-)
Thank you. I havent bought anything Nike for over 15 years. I did receive a pair of nike shoes as a gift about 4 years ago - but I will *never* purchase one of their products.
and that the reason why I hate AT&T. They want to provide you with one wire and all your services - and make it cost prohibitive to change providers.
I was just talking about this the other day.
The major problem is that most people will be too inconvenienced to bother to look for a better provider. and AT&T will bank on this.
They will model their offerings as package deals. so:
Joe cable-slave will have one bill with AT&T that will provide Cell, Cable, Long-distance, Internet.
He will have signed up for the "Ultimate Power Package" at only 199.99 per month. The service will be shitty, and anything and everything above his package he will have to pay a premium for.
If he decides that he doesnt want Internet access through them, he would have to buy each service individually. AT&T will charge a shitload for each service individually - and make it so that if he buys the packages separately he will have to pay 349.99 per month. They will tell joe Cable-slave that their "system doesnt allow for him to just remove one aspect of the package" and that "there is now way they can just take out internet access. You will have to buy each package individually"
This is the thing that we really need laws against. These tactics to lock customers into your lame ass system are totally monopolistic. and illegal (or should be)
AT&T cable already does this. Fuck them.
So the problem with internet access will be that it will only be the big money entreanched companies like AT&T that can afford to do internet access - and rest assured that your opinion will not be "valued" as a customer. Always remember you are a *REVENUE SOURCE* not a "valued customer".
Community based wireless internet access is the key.
syndicate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (snd-kt) n. An association of people or firms authorized to undertake a duty or transact specific business. An association of people or firms formed to engage in an enterprise or promote a common interest. A loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities. An agency that sells articles, features, or photographs for publication in a number of newspapers or periodicals simultaneously. A company consisting of a number of separate newspapers; a newspaper chain. The office, position, or jurisdiction of a syndic or body of syndics.
They all sound pretty much like the bolded option there.... and i am sure that is what it will boil down to. No thanks.
"Sites don't want to charge a reasonable fee and people think their ISP bill is an all access pass to the Internet. The idea of actually paying for products they use and paying more than the product was produced for is suddenly lost when they go online."
You know, its thinking like this that have made the world full of greed and corporate robbery and gouging.
Yes, there is some content out there that should be charged for - and it already is charged for. Then there is content that should not be charged for - and its not.
"premium content" as some site like to call it (i.e. CNN) is just that. Content that is available upon subscription to that service.
When the article states "people think their ISP bill is an all access pass to the Internet" thats dangerously close to the MPAA and RIAA thinking that. The thing is that some people just need to get lost when they want to charge for every thing under the sun.
I am all for people and companies making money - but please, you dont need to charge for every god awful word you write or post on the net. Get over yourself. Your content probably isnt even worth 10 cents.
Value of content is something that seriously needs to be adressed here. The value of an item is based on its desirability to others - the more desirable the item the more its value.
Defining desirability is much more difficult. For example - I do read CNN.com, I rarely watch CNN on TV, and I never would consider paying for CNN's premium content. Whenever there is a story that is in the premium only section, I dont see it - and I have no problem with that. If CNN decides to charge for *all* content on cnn.com - I just simply wont read it. so I guess their content is as desirable as they may think.
now - back to the all access pass idea. OF COURSE I think that way. I pay more for internet access than I do cable TV. I have some hundred plus station on my att digital cable (hate at&t) and I pay a lump fee to see all of them. I dont pay for "Premium CNN" via cable. Why would I consider paying for it online?
anyway - all these fools that think they are going to somehow revolutionize (read enslave) the internet and make us pay for every click of the mouse should just take their greedy asses and screw off.
We certainly dont want the internet to become modeled after the cable tv media structure.
In other news....
on
Droning On
·
· Score: 3, Funny
recent sales of ESTES model rocketry kits have skyrocketed in apparent attempts to make shoulder based rocket lauchers young domestic terrorists (previously known as teenagers) have been trying to shoot down the drones seen flying over american neighborhoods. These drones have been enlisted to keep a watchful eye in "Operation Neighborhood Surveillance" but recently have come under attack as many of americans youth sees the drones as model aircraft targets for saturday afternoon rocketry studies.
Seriously though, do we really need this? I just see these as prime targets for getting your hands on some really great RC plane gear.
Slashdot Mirror
hmmm... I didnt know that these cars were having this problem (didnt even know they ran windows CE) but I remember after they first came out I saw two different ones dead in the road on 280 south during rush hour. Their frustrated owners looking stupid and very pissed at the embarrasment their new expensive toy was causing them.
Ja kenne ich - Dank für das heraus zeigen.
I just have this image of a skeksi-hitler-esque record exec screaming up on some podium for consolidation while all the other fat waddley record exec's (like skeksis from the dark crystal) nod up and down vigorously while looking around at eachother. Then the hitler-esque record exec standing there with a smug self important look on his face.
tell that to the poor iraqi people who are exposed to the depleted uranium we poured all over their country for the last 12 years.
yes its political - bad politics.
I could care less if this guy is israeli - what is he doing there? nothing. there is nothing on this trip that this guy can add specific value to. otherwise it would be reported as such.
The only thing this does - and why it is news worthy - is show how much the US is actually wrapped around the iraeli victim finger.
Isreal receives more aid than any other country fortheir military - and get special benefits that other countries dont get.
take a look at the total figures that isreal costs the US.
I think the US should stop supporting this nation - and let it take care of itself for once - Israel has received aid from the US every year since 1948. Time to stand on your own two feet israel - and stop your bitching.
there are many problems with the evolution of the "wi-fi" market currently.
first of all - the marketplace hasnt solidified totally yet - this means that many possibilities for "markets" havent all been indentified yet.
Since this area is just starting to get major attention you can bet your bottom dollar that the deep pockets are already doing marjor development to ensure their ugly umbrella will cover this new market.
we can see this in the formation of Cometa. Cometa is largely funded by AT&T (& intel & IBM) - but there is a big problem with them: they are funded by companies that have major branding, people already dont trust, have crappy customer service & tend to monopolize their markets.
Cometa is definitely not a company I would want to trust.
anyway - another thing about cometa is that they want to be the leader in hotspots - like in malls, airports busy coffee shops etc. This is good and bad.
First - its good for an ISP to focus on hotspots initially, as this will only require them to put up the infrastructure as needed. As usage, awareness and demand rises - they can grow their coverage out.
This is bad because it will require them to maintain many many physical backhauling link ups. This means that for every hotspot - they will require a real traditional uplink like a T1.
Now - here is why AT&T is important - they can provide the uplinks at a loss indefinitely until they are in a monopolizing position. They can also hold the potential to sell access on those uplinks to other WISPs who want to just maintain a small wifi AP area....
so - we see the community wisp (cometa) appearing to come along and provide you with wifi service, but its really big corporate money (and the shitty service that goes with it) bringing up a new brand in an attempt to fool people into thinking that this is a good thing (tm) for them.
well, the issue that I have with this whole market (aside from the fact that I hate big telcos to begin with) is that we (the people) have a perfect oppotunity to actually take an industry and market over - and build it out on a proper foundation - like low cost high quality service where our users (not customers) are important to the integrity of the service.
a company like AT&T (in the guise of cometa) just absolutely cannot provide you with honest-to-goodness service.
Dont forget about AT&T wanting to provide you with every possible service (via an electronic means) in a package deal that stiffles competition and overcharges the consumer at every opportunity. You can forget about multiple providers for cable, cel, long ditance, wireless internet.
So - the 5 step process to building a monopoly above is in full effect in the infancy of the wifi market.
I just hope that we can see through lame attempts to control our information and demand (through our actions) that a proper model gets established.
There are many options that should be looked at and weighed and fleshed out.
For example - what if you had each city maintain (through multiple sub contracting companies) a mesh network that was the city's local wireless "cell" - the backhaul would be provided by multiple carriers who bid to the city for the traffic....
there is so much that can be donw with wireless that we need to be careful not to let it get monopolized so soon while we are not watching.
not to mention the fact that the logo is poorly designed.
Uh, No thanks.
Just visited your site you have there, and it asked me to install the Gator Spyware.
Not to mention asthetics, blech.
I agree with the bit about confusion....
.NET is - and palladium for that matter. I asked here on slashdot what they were and the major differnces between the two.
.NET is and maybe palladium for that matter who would care to expound on the merits of this wonderful technology?
I was very confused (and still am) to exactly what
Someone posted a link to an MS page that supposedly explained what they were - but it still was very vague and didnt help much.
So - anyone out there clear on what
My step mom has worked with computer since the early 70's.
She used to work over at nasa and various other companies around silicon valley. She used to bring the old platters home and make things like wall clocks and side tables and coffee tables out of them.
They we really cool... wish we had held onto them.
Unfortunately the BBB is mostly B-fucking-S.
I dont know what type of success you have ever had with filing complaints with the BBB against companies - but I can tell you from the many times that I actually have - it really doesnt do jack.
For example - one company (a car dealership that sold me a car that was a lemon (as defined by the lemon law) would not cooperate and do what was required of them by law to take care of the problem) whom I tried to report to the BBB was rated as "a gold business member" by the BBB and the BBB rep said "I can't believe that they would act in this way". After sending the copy of the complaint and the copy of the complaint I made to the state attorney general I still didnt even get results.
You want to know what did get results? Pushing the car (yes physically pushing the broken piece of shit) into their entrance and throwing the keys in the face of the dealer in front of about 10 other customers that were there.
On other occasions not only did I file with the BBB - but I also called the insurace commision about insurance problems (a carrier refused to take a car I no longer owned off my policy and kept billing me for it) - still no results. I was told by the insurance commission that this "was common behavior" - and they didnt do a damn thing. Common?! I just let them bill me and I never paid them - just switched to another carrier. "Good for you!" you might say. Bullshit. I shouldnt HAVE to switch.... and anyone that thinks that switching is an acceptable solution to this sort of problem is an idiot. its no solution - shit like this should be taken care of, we should NOT have to deal with crap like this.
want more examples of how the BBB is just a token organization that doesnt accomplish for consumers what it is supposedly chartered to do?
why not look at the actual punishments that companies receive when they fuck up in a big way.
As another poster said - vote with your wallet. Well, I do (I havent bought a Nike product in more than 10 years - although I was given a pair of shoes once as a gift) - there are many companies I dont shop with....
the point about Frys is that they sell items that are refurb/return-not-working as IF THEY WERE NEW - and charge the *same price* as the real new item would cost. This should be *illegal*. also - ever notice that frys maintains no website? ever had an experience trying to get a laptop that is under warranty repaired in their "authorized service center" - pain in the ass.
anyway - frys just sucks, but overall good customer service is definitely something the consumer should demand and expect.
but here we see the problem is even more than just bad customer service, neglected policies and unenforced laws. the root of the continuance of these issues comes from the fact that the large majority of consumers are just happy to tolerate these thing and throw up their arms - like we see here, not even noticing that the supposed groups and measures that are already in place dont do a damn thing.... which is why we are even talking about this issue in the first place.
I dont think the actual maintainance needs regulation as much as customer service in general - for all industries.
Frys for example has horrendous levels of bad/returned equipment (because the purchase and resell refurbs and returns and bad equipment side-by-side at the same prices as real brand new equipment) and they tend to have very very poor customer service.
I would rather have a level of customer service that should be expected from any and all customers - maybe even regulating the return/exchange policies....
If all companies were required to have their customer service entities live of to an expected level of performance/satisfaction it would do wonders for trust and consumer satisfaction in general.
I cannot tell you how angry it makes me when I deal with difficult, deceptive or rude customer service agents.
what about the transformer watches of the '80s? now those were cool.... wish I still had mine now.
...the size of a paper-back?...
well the phone book is a paper-back book. so are many very large tech manuals.
sarcasm ( P ) Pronunciation Key (särkzm)
n.
A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.
A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.
The use of sarcasm.
"To me this just seems up there with the color coding terror warning system; something to make it look like the people in charge are making us safer but without any real effect"
This is something I have thought a lot about and discussed at length.
It's a theory I call Bureaucracy of Mediocrity. It goes something like this - feel free to add or debunk, as you like
Short Version:
The government is full of useless mediocre people who continually pass laws and do activities that serve no real purpose other than to make themselves appear to be accomplishing something.
Long Version:
Basically there has been a very large influx of mediocre people who have been given, and sought out, jobs within the government system.
There are several reasons for this. First it started as a "sensitive exercise" in which the government was required to consider all sorts of people for the positions they offered. This means that the government needed to hire in people who were not necessarily the best qualified for the positions. I am not going to go into affirmative action or anything like that right now - but it's pretty evident that there are many government workers that are driftwood. People who work there - but don't actually work.
Anyway, the point is that now we have a large bureaucratic system filled with people of mediocre quality who are just trying to look like they are doing something, trying to make themselves feel like they are important.
A perfect example of this is the back patting "atta-boy" behavior of senators and other congress critters after the September 11 terrorist attacks. They held a ceremony and talked about the heroics of each other and the mayor of New York. The mayor of New York - rudy guilliani - was in now way a "hero"... he was just doing his job. He didn't do any extraordinary thing. He didn't personally rescue someone from crisis while at personal risk.
These people just want it to look as though they are doing something important and accomplishing something in their work.
The other major behavior of people in government positions is to hide behind bureaucracy. The more difficult and convoluted they make any process - the less likely they would actually have to do any work. It really is this simple - people are lazy, and many government workers are just milking the system and doing "gestures of accomplishment" where they do something which is utterly meaningless so as to look as though they are actually doing something.
Anyway - you get the point. But its this mentality and lack of any true thoughtful work that gives us such lame things like the color coded terror warning.
What the fuck is a high state of alert anyway. There is no such thing. If you are alert - you are alert. If you're missing things, then you obviously are not alert. There are not different stages of alert. (And I am not referring to the alertness of a personal individual - I am talking about the alertness of a systems, group or body - such as a nation)
ah... but it can also send email. didnt you read the article?
"Thanks for the offer guys, but I'll keep not buying Nike in the real world ;-)
Thank you. I havent bought anything Nike for over 15 years. I did receive a pair of nike shoes as a gift about 4 years ago - but I will *never* purchase one of their products.
you were very fat as a kid huh?
sorry.
Is it just me - or isnt the whole milky way made of stars?
so - they found a ring of stars around a bunch of stars?
exactly.
and that the reason why I hate AT&T. They want to provide you with one wire and all your services - and make it cost prohibitive to change providers.
I was just talking about this the other day.
The major problem is that most people will be too inconvenienced to bother to look for a better provider. and AT&T will bank on this.
They will model their offerings as package deals. so:
Joe cable-slave will have one bill with AT&T that will provide Cell, Cable, Long-distance, Internet.
He will have signed up for the "Ultimate Power Package" at only 199.99 per month. The service will be shitty, and anything and everything above his package he will have to pay a premium for.
If he decides that he doesnt want Internet access through them, he would have to buy each service individually. AT&T will charge a shitload for each service individually - and make it so that if he buys the packages separately he will have to pay 349.99 per month. They will tell joe Cable-slave that their "system doesnt allow for him to just remove one aspect of the package" and that "there is now way they can just take out internet access. You will have to buy each package individually"
This is the thing that we really need laws against. These tactics to lock customers into your lame ass system are totally monopolistic. and illegal (or should be)
AT&T cable already does this. Fuck them.
So the problem with internet access will be that it will only be the big money entreanched companies like AT&T that can afford to do internet access - and rest assured that your opinion will not be "valued" as a customer. Always remember you are a *REVENUE SOURCE* not a "valued customer".
Community based wireless internet access is the key.
syndicate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (snd-kt)
n.
An association of people or firms authorized to undertake a duty or transact specific business.
An association of people or firms formed to engage in an enterprise or promote a common interest.
A loose affiliation of gangsters in control of organized criminal activities.
An agency that sells articles, features, or photographs for publication in a number of newspapers or periodicals simultaneously.
A company consisting of a number of separate newspapers; a newspaper chain.
The office, position, or jurisdiction of a syndic or body of syndics.
They all sound pretty much like the bolded option there.... and i am sure that is what it will boil down to. No thanks.
"Sites don't want to charge a reasonable fee and people think their ISP bill is an all access pass to the Internet. The idea of actually paying for products they use and paying more than the product was produced for is suddenly lost when they go online."
You know, its thinking like this that have made the world full of greed and corporate robbery and gouging.
Yes, there is some content out there that should be charged for - and it already is charged for. Then there is content that should not be charged for - and its not.
"premium content" as some site like to call it (i.e. CNN) is just that. Content that is available upon subscription to that service.
When the article states "people think their ISP bill is an all access pass to the Internet" thats dangerously close to the MPAA and RIAA thinking that. The thing is that some people just need to get lost when they want to charge for every thing under the sun.
I am all for people and companies making money - but please, you dont need to charge for every god awful word you write or post on the net. Get over yourself. Your content probably isnt even worth 10 cents.
Value of content is something that seriously needs to be adressed here. The value of an item is based on its desirability to others - the more desirable the item the more its value.
Defining desirability is much more difficult. For example - I do read CNN.com, I rarely watch CNN on TV, and I never would consider paying for CNN's premium content. Whenever there is a story that is in the premium only section, I dont see it - and I have no problem with that. If CNN decides to charge for *all* content on cnn.com - I just simply wont read it. so I guess their content is as desirable as they may think.
now - back to the all access pass idea. OF COURSE I think that way. I pay more for internet access than I do cable TV. I have some hundred plus station on my att digital cable (hate at&t) and I pay a lump fee to see all of them. I dont pay for "Premium CNN" via cable. Why would I consider paying for it online?
anyway - all these fools that think they are going to somehow revolutionize (read enslave) the internet and make us pay for every click of the mouse should just take their greedy asses and screw off.
We certainly dont want the internet to become modeled after the cable tv media structure.
recent sales of ESTES model rocketry kits have skyrocketed in apparent attempts to make shoulder based rocket lauchers young domestic terrorists (previously known as teenagers) have been trying to shoot down the drones seen flying over american neighborhoods. These drones have been enlisted to keep a watchful eye in "Operation Neighborhood Surveillance" but recently have come under attack as many of americans youth sees the drones as model aircraft targets for saturday afternoon rocketry studies.
Seriously though, do we really need this? I just see these as prime targets for getting your hands on some really great RC plane gear.
First 20th Anniversary Post!!
Sorry.