Make their jobs better first.
on
Christmas Bonuses?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
First, remember that you will be setting a precedent. Too generous now may make you look cheap next year.
Second, Cash is king. It allows the recipient to best decide what's good for them, and meet their own needs, not eat a ridiculously overpriced meal on an inconvenient night.
That being said, keep in mind the tax ramifications of large cash gifts. Maybe giving everyone a $1500 raise would be a more efficient way to convey the money.
Third, what else can you give to improve your workers' lot in life? Do you provide a company match towards insurance coverage? Retirement contributions? If you're a small startup, you probably don't have insurance offerings for them -- add that as a benefit, and pitch in $1500 or so per employee towards the cost. That will make many people very happy.
Finally, Give them time off. Shut down between Christmas and New Years Day, or maybe just for a couple of days. Startups are notorious for working people to death, sometimes for good reason, and while you seem to care enough about your employees not to do that more than necessary, it would benefit them and you to give them some more time off to rest, recharge, and tend to their homelives. Maybe add a day to their annual allotment as well!
And Merry Christmas. Please remain in this employee-centric frame of mind as you grow your business and become a captain of industry.
Watched it last night, noticed that the minions in TCU (Jack's daughter, for one) seemed to be running some X-based window manager on Dell desktops. Jack, of course, had a powerbook.
disclaimer: I am a sysadmin at UMUC. I am also a student.
Online education isn't for everyone, and it's not the same as going to college. But like college, there are good and bad faculty. A good college has more good than bad, and strives to improve what they have.
UMUC (www.umuc.edu) has been doing distance education for over 50 years. We also do in-person education, in Maryland, Germany and Japan (we started out catering to the military, and still count many of them as students). We are a university in the U of Maryland system, abd we are non-profit.
Undergrad curriculum is developed by a rather large curriculum development group, not just by faculty, and each class, no matter who the instructor is, uses a standard body of material. Testing material varies, but techjniques and policies don't much, and faculty can supplement with additional material as they see fit.
Graduate faculty have greater latitude with their materials, so there is a little more variability there. However, classes are top notch.
All classes use our in-house developed WebTycho system to deliver the course. We have a walk-through at the website if you want to take it for a spin.
We are not a reasearch university, and as a result we draw many instructors whose primary interest is teaching, rather than those who view it as a burden.
Any university has some sort of feedback system to report your displeasure with your instructor -- do so. You will be doing yourself and others a favor. Perhaps the system used isn't to your liking, perhaps the prof or the class wasn't. You might try online ed one more time with a different prof and subject -- they don't all adapt equally to the medium.
There are legitamate views on both sides here, but it's important to remember that it's not JUST an academic network. It's also a production business network for the university -- academics like to thumb their nose at that, but without the business side, paper doesn't get ordered, paychecks don't happen, etc. It's also a network serving the resident student population. Porn is a legitimate recreational activity on your own PC in the privacy of your own home. MP3 swapping gets a little stickier, but shouldn't be the university's problem in dorms any more than it's comcast's problem if I do it from home. I'd like to see more universities have different connections to serve the different populations. Likewise, charge appropriately. No reason the cost for the dorm connectivity should come from non-resident student tuition. Maor effort should go into making sure everyone pays for what they're using.
Buckley (Also know as FERPA) requires american educational institutions (all, not just post-secondary) to protect ALL student information from disclosure, with certain exceptions. The exceptions include inquiries from government agencies and other educational institutions (i.e. they can reply to another university when they call to check your transcript). This is OK mostly becasue these institutions have the same sorts of restrictions placed on them once they have the info.
The other big exception is for "directory" information. What comprises this information is up to the discretion of the university. You would think what sirectory info was would be obvious, or at least standard, but at least at the university I work at, a leading online university, does not count email address as directory information (because otherwise other online universities (read "for-profit") might be able to request, and we'd be required to provide, this information, and then PU spam is just a click away).
There was recently a story in the news of an elementary school in Texas somewhere who was publishing student info in this way. They were just following the letter and spirit of the law.
So opt out. Your school is following the law. If they put you in a student directory, then they have to give that info to anyone who asks.
Maybe they could publish a student directory with everyone assigned a code number, which you could then input to a student-restricted website to get the address of that hottie you've been wanting to stalk?
I have little patience for those who say that those who live under a regime so oppressive and brutal to their own people are "innocent" when they are killed in an attack on that regime. They are either supporting the regime, or they are aiding and abetting by not opposing the regime.
This is why there is so much immigration to the US and other western democracies. The west has created a free and open society (yes, we may bitch about the DMCA and RIAA, and rightly so, but we're quite free) which rather than serve as a model has come to serve as a haven for those who will not stay home and liberate their own homelands. We allow people in at such a rate that they feel no pressing need to fix what's wrong where they started out in the first place. Many of our forebears paid a heavy toll to bring us freedom (and I don't single out the US, but most of western culture), they should be staying at home earning their own.
What happens under this regime if I'm a flipper -- I change the channel at commercials to see what's on? The only way commercials actually see screen time in my house is if the TV is on as noise while I do something else, or if I'm up to my elbows in meatloaf or something else messy that makes the remote a bad idea. My wife will mute them rather than listen -- even if she's leaving the room.
University of Maryland University College (umuc.edu) is an independent university in the Maryland state university system. It is on the same campus as UM College Park, but is physically seperate, and organizationally seperate. It has been doing distance education for over 50 years, including much for members of the US military abroad. They have physical locations all over the world (test centers), and class offerings (in person) in Maryland, Heidelberg (and others), Germany and near Tokyo in Japan.
(I work for UMUC -- best job I've ever had!)
UMUC has much experience working with students in Europe and all over the world.
FWIW -- U of Phoenix (our "competition") is a for-profit corporation, not a not-for-profit. You cannot use federal financial aid there. They do seem to offer courses at a number of physical locations around the US.
The argument that somehow spam costs the recipient more than direct mail or a advert on TV do is spurrious. The time to DL and delete spam is no more than the time it takes me to retrieve and delete some annoying flyer from my mailbox or windshield and recylce it. Then the community bears the recycling cost. Electrons are recylced relatively free.
I don't like spam. It's annoying, and I really don't want to see some of the nasty things that show up in the mailbox. But it is cheap. It doesn't harm the consumer, though it may annoy them. Spammers (legitimate business people) pay for their bandwidth somewhere. As long as the links to remove you from the list are legit and other political guidelines are followed (paid for by... wording), let them have at it.
Well, I went from.com to academia, and have never been happier. I was fortunate to have gotten a small raise in the process, but the benefits here outweigh anything I've seem anywhere else. Lots of vacation, holidays, good insurance quite cheap, pension, etc. Any I get to spend lots of time at home with my kids -- no more 80 hour weeks! Work hard at work, then go home and NOT work. No question what's on my list this thanksgiving!
These people rely for a big chunk of their income on ad revenue that they incorporate in programming they then GIVE AWAY (broadcast). Why not offer a service, either for PVR users, or all computer users with a fast connection, a download by subscription service?
Let's say I miss program "A." Right now my choices are 1) Remember to tape ahead of time (yeah, that might happen), 2) Find someone I know that might have taped it themselves, 3) If it has a following on usenet or on the net, watch for a post of the ep I missed (great for scifi, not so much for, say, Good Eats!), 4) Wait for rerun (soon if its cable, maybe 3 months if it's network).
Those choices mostly suck.
Why shouldn't the networks take their content and encode it themselves, commercials and all (or new, different commercials!), and let me download it to my pvr or pc and watch it when I want? Use reasonable DRM if you must. Be cross-platform compatible (DivX or raw MPEGs), turn off my commercial skipper if you must (if I'm watching network TV, I can't skip anyway -- and you can add the numbers to the ad figures). But for $15/month I'd happily pay for a service like this. I'd prefer to obey the rules if they make sense.
First, be nice. Don't give your kids another reason to hate you later on.
Second, check here:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/note139/note139.ht ml
Lucidly titled Acturarial note 139, it is a summary of names given to children in the US by year, based on SSN applications (need the SSN to claim them as deductions, so most get them as newborns now). Just pick things at the bottome or not on the list.
Then, don't tell anyone until it's committed to a birth certificate. People steal.
Netflix has other plans...
on
DVDs By Mail?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I will happily jump on the,"I'm happy with Netflix," bandwagon. I see some posters saying that the number of movies per month doesn't work for them -- Netflix actually has quite a few different plans, 3 at a time for $20 is just the main one they push marketing-wise (no, I don't work for them/own stock):
Netflix Service Ultimate (8 out) For the ultimate at-home selection of DVDs at an incredible value, choose our Ultimate Program. It lets you have 8 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $39.95.
Netflix Service Plus (5 out) Ideal for members who want a larger selection of DVDs at home, our Plus Program lets you have 5 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $29.95.
Netflix Service Bonus (4 out) With variety, value and an extra movie, our Bonus Program lets you have 4 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $24.95.
Netflix Service Standard (3 out) Enjoyed by the majority of our members, our popular Standard Program lets you have 3 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $19.95.
Netflix Service Lite (2 out) Affordable, convenient and perfect for the occasional renter, our Lite Program lets you have 2 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $13.95.
How does the individual participate?
on
Cradle to Cradle
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
First, for those whining about cost, durability, etc., please listen to the webcast. The buildings designed for major companies (SONY, Norman Miller, Ford, et. al.) end up costing much less in operating costs and increasing productivity. The plant they are building for Ford will cost $13M more than a standard comparable plant, but will remediate $48M worth of ecological damage Ford was required to fix by the government. 1 factory, out of the box saved the $35M.
Which brings my question -- how do I help. I do what I can. I'm a homeowner, so I avoid using chemicals where I can (no turfbuilder!), drive an efficient car, etc. Can someone suggest practical ways to implement on an individual or household level these very forward-thinking ideas?
Read the questions -- unbelievably vague and broad. Of course most people would answer as they did. The article cites widespread belief in "pseudoscience" -- a poorly defined term in itself, but one which is construed to include many things which are simply in their infancy scientifically-speaking. So if you ask me whether I believe that somewhere someone possesses some sort of mental ability which might be described as "psychic," I'd say yes, it's quite probable. Ms. Cleo is a different story.
My point here is that the story sensationalizes a poorly constructed study (a poll, really) which supports a view that many who are "scientists" hold. Much like other poorly constructed studies have produced gems like cold fusion. The irony is poignant and staggering.
If I leave a wallet on the sidewalk with bills hanging out and someone picks it up and walks off with it, they've committed no crime. If they walk up to my unlocked car with the keys in it parked legally, they break the law as soon as they open my door. I'm not required by the law to lock it. Temptation isn't entrapment.
Entrapment is my promising to send you pictures of hot chicks, then sending you pictures of little kids, then arresting you for having them. You have been persuaded or coerced into committing a crime, whether you'd have committed it yourself later or not.
The problem here isn't that government is trying to violate my first amendment rights by looking at what I buy, it's that the booksellers aid and abet them by keeping a list of what I bought in the first place!!!!!
Really. I was very anti-T-D. Then I read the bill. It grandfathers in all the agreements already in place with the Bells for co-lo-ing and access to infrastructure, and requires the Bells to continue to offer these things on slightly different, but not ridiculous terms.
It requires that everyone in the USA have access to broadband within 5 years, subject to serious penalties, requires the FCC to monitor and enforce the laws (contrary to a very deceiving ad run locally in DC by voicesforchoices), and makes special provisions for under served communities.
I understand the arguments against letting the Bells be the ones to deploy this service, but consider the following with an open mind. It is an enormous undertaking to connect 275M+ people (something like 175M households) to this highspeed service. Those many of you who live in Urban and Suburban areas, remember that this includes people who live in places where people are outnumbered by cattle and sheep. Those of you who decry the government, realize that this is the government reigning in rules it forced on the Bells in 1996, and enforcing what may be called more reasonable requirements, calling on the Bells to provide the guarentee of service for all, rather than just forcing the Bells to share their equipment bought with their capital and effectively nationalized in 1996. Democrats should like that it is eqalitarian, with a little extra help for the underserved, Republicans should like that it sets the balance back to a capitlaist one where the Bells can better determine their own fate, and Libertarians should like that the government is stepping out of a forced deregulation of what was not deemed to be a monopoly.
I applaud the efforts of Covad et. al. to bring more DSL out to the public -- certainly they've hurried along the progress. But they are corporations designed to be profitable, just like the Bells, and aren't any more interested in losing money trying to serve sparsely populated areas than the Bells are. They aren't any more interested in losing money, either, except that they have had to bite the bullet to gain customers. But the entire business is built around using someone else's stuff. This is somewhat like some small hardware or software company getting the government to mandate to computer makers that they save a PCI slot for their product because the PC makers weren't including their piece of hardware fast enough. It might speed adoption of the hardware if there is demand, but the PC makers will wise up and include it themselves, and they'll built the part themselves to boot.
The real competition for the Bells in this area comes from the cable companies, maybe wireless, maybe the power utilities. Consumers have a much better shot at making sure we keep the big players from getting in bed. The AOL/TW -- Verizon merger is the one we really need to watch out for.
Given the specialized nature of your research, you must have a budget for this. Don't go cheap -- TrueTime (www.truetime.com) (and I'm sure others as well) has boxes that have a GPS antenna for $3-4K. Set up NTP on the boxes (tardis and others on windows, ntp from u of delaware for all *nix), point them at the GPS box.
Some of their boxes have modems to dial direct to a phone line NIST has set up for the purpose, to check other NTP servers to compare times (not really useful to you).
I have also seen, but lack links for, similar boxes with atomic clocks right in the case, likely in the same price range.
Combine this with their announced Mira and Freestyle technologies, and I could digitally record every episode of whatever, store it on my PC then spool it wirelessly to a flatpanel touchscreen. Who needs to pause TV when you can just carry it to the toilet with you?
The problem here is that most people who use VPNs to connect to their workplace aren't telecommuters, but people who need a file or to check mail or something simple on an infrequent basis. Relatively few people truly telecommute (i.e. work from home most or all of the time). This more expensive business use, as well as actually running a business (servers, whatever) should cost more. But it seems unfair for someone to have to shell out the extra dough so they can check their mail from home.
Obviously there are secure ways besides VPNs to implement this functionality, and eventually I think we'll see a move towards these. The question remains how will the enforce this prohibition? And if it's allowed on business connections, does that mean they'll support it, too?
See, the real issue here isn't "no you can't do that here," but that certain types of users call with certain kinds of questions, and this allows those answering the questions to segregate the questions so the right people can answer them. IP/SEC traffic requires certain very specific protocols and ports to be opened which may not normally be open on a standard ISP network. Most legacy hardware, and much current hardware doesn't support IP/SEC, so it cannot work. Your cable modem/router probably doesn't, unless it's high end or very new.
By prohibiting this activity on their "home" networks, they need not burn cycles explaining why "you can't do that, it just won't work," while really saying "our hardware can't handle it." The latter unfairly casts a negative shadow on an ISP who simply didn't design their network to handle this traffic, and perhaps doesn't see that as being cost effective to do.
So this is another attempt to cover themselves for not providing any sort of support for VPN, including enabling the funcationality on their hardware. It's like their not supporting more than one machine in your house, or not supporting linux on their cable network. It would cost them way more to do it right than it's worth. They aren't doing anything wrong, though they're not doing anyone any favors, either. They aren't likely to tell you to stop, just not to ask for help. IP/SEC may never work on these networks, but other VPN-like items will probably fly under the radar.
Slashdot Mirror
First, remember that you will be setting a precedent. Too generous now may make you look cheap next year.
Second, Cash is king. It allows the recipient to best decide what's good for them, and meet their own needs, not eat a ridiculously overpriced meal on an inconvenient night.
That being said, keep in mind the tax ramifications of large cash gifts. Maybe giving everyone a $1500 raise would be a more efficient way to convey the money.
Third, what else can you give to improve your workers' lot in life? Do you provide a company match towards insurance coverage? Retirement contributions? If you're a small startup, you probably don't have insurance offerings for them -- add that as a benefit, and pitch in $1500 or so per employee towards the cost. That will make many people very happy.
Finally, Give them time off. Shut down between Christmas and New Years Day, or maybe just for a couple of days. Startups are notorious for working people to death, sometimes for good reason, and while you seem to care enough about your employees not to do that more than necessary, it would benefit them and you to give them some more time off to rest, recharge, and tend to their homelives. Maybe add a day to their annual allotment as well!
And Merry Christmas. Please remain in this employee-centric frame of mind as you grow your business and become a captain of industry.
Watched it last night, noticed that the minions in TCU (Jack's daughter, for one) seemed to be running some X-based window manager on Dell desktops. Jack, of course, had a powerbook.
disclaimer: I am a sysadmin at UMUC. I am also a student.
Online education isn't for everyone, and it's not the same as going to college. But like college, there are good and bad faculty. A good college has more good than bad, and strives to improve what they have.
UMUC (www.umuc.edu) has been doing distance education for over 50 years. We also do in-person education, in Maryland, Germany and Japan (we started out catering to the military, and still count many of them as students). We are a university in the U of Maryland system, abd we are non-profit.
Undergrad curriculum is developed by a rather large curriculum development group, not just by faculty, and each class, no matter who the instructor is, uses a standard body of material. Testing material varies, but techjniques and policies don't much, and faculty can supplement with additional material as they see fit.
Graduate faculty have greater latitude with their materials, so there is a little more variability there. However, classes are top notch.
All classes use our in-house developed WebTycho system to deliver the course. We have a walk-through at the website if you want to take it for a spin.
We are not a reasearch university, and as a result we draw many instructors whose primary interest is teaching, rather than those who view it as a burden.
Any university has some sort of feedback system to report your displeasure with your instructor -- do so. You will be doing yourself and others a favor. Perhaps the system used isn't to your liking, perhaps the prof or the class wasn't. You might try online ed one more time with a different prof and subject -- they don't all adapt equally to the medium.
There are legitamate views on both sides here, but it's important to remember that it's not JUST an academic network. It's also a production business network for the university -- academics like to thumb their nose at that, but without the business side, paper doesn't get ordered, paychecks don't happen, etc. It's also a network serving the resident student population. Porn is a legitimate recreational activity on your own PC in the privacy of your own home. MP3 swapping gets a little stickier, but shouldn't be the university's problem in dorms any more than it's comcast's problem if I do it from home. I'd like to see more universities have different connections to serve the different populations. Likewise, charge appropriately. No reason the cost for the dorm connectivity should come from non-resident student tuition. Maor effort should go into making sure everyone pays for what they're using.
Buy rafts, inflatable pools or "moonbounce" toys, wrap them around the most dangerous trees. Or perhaps the orange snow-fence I often see?
An of course, jump the fuck off.
Buckley (Also know as FERPA) requires american educational institutions (all, not just post-secondary) to protect ALL student information from disclosure, with certain exceptions. The exceptions include inquiries from government agencies and other educational institutions (i.e. they can reply to another university when they call to check your transcript). This is OK mostly becasue these institutions have the same sorts of restrictions placed on them once they have the info.
The other big exception is for "directory" information. What comprises this information is up to the discretion of the university. You would think what sirectory info was would be obvious, or at least standard, but at least at the university I work at, a leading online university, does not count email address as directory information (because otherwise other online universities (read "for-profit") might be able to request, and we'd be required to provide, this information, and then PU spam is just a click away).
There was recently a story in the news of an elementary school in Texas somewhere who was publishing student info in this way. They were just following the letter and spirit of the law.
So opt out. Your school is following the law. If they put you in a student directory, then they have to give that info to anyone who asks.
Maybe they could publish a student directory with everyone assigned a code number, which you could then input to a student-restricted website to get the address of that hottie you've been wanting to stalk?
I have little patience for those who say that those who live under a regime so oppressive and brutal to their own people are "innocent" when they are killed in an attack on that regime. They are either supporting the regime, or they are aiding and abetting by not opposing the regime.
This is why there is so much immigration to the US and other western democracies. The west has created a free and open society (yes, we may bitch about the DMCA and RIAA, and rightly so, but we're quite free) which rather than serve as a model has come to serve as a haven for those who will not stay home and liberate their own homelands. We allow people in at such a rate that they feel no pressing need to fix what's wrong where they started out in the first place. Many of our forebears paid a heavy toll to bring us freedom (and I don't single out the US, but most of western culture), they should be staying at home earning their own.
What happens under this regime if I'm a flipper -- I change the channel at commercials to see what's on? The only way commercials actually see screen time in my house is if the TV is on as noise while I do something else, or if I'm up to my elbows in meatloaf or something else messy that makes the remote a bad idea. My wife will mute them rather than listen -- even if she's leaving the room.
University of Maryland University College (umuc.edu) is an independent university in the Maryland state university system. It is on the same campus as UM College Park, but is physically seperate, and organizationally seperate. It has been doing distance education for over 50 years, including much for members of the US military abroad. They have physical locations all over the world (test centers), and class offerings (in person) in Maryland, Heidelberg (and others), Germany and near Tokyo in Japan.
(I work for UMUC -- best job I've ever had!)
UMUC has much experience working with students in Europe and all over the world.
FWIW -- U of Phoenix (our "competition") is a for-profit corporation, not a not-for-profit. You cannot use federal financial aid there. They do seem to offer courses at a number of physical locations around the US.
The argument that somehow spam costs the recipient more than direct mail or a advert on TV do is spurrious. The time to DL and delete spam is no more than the time it takes me to retrieve and delete some annoying flyer from my mailbox or windshield and recylce it. Then the community bears the recycling cost. Electrons are recylced relatively free.
I don't like spam. It's annoying, and I really don't want to see some of the nasty things that show up in the mailbox. But it is cheap. It doesn't harm the consumer, though it may annoy them. Spammers (legitimate business people) pay for their bandwidth somewhere. As long as the links to remove you from the list are legit and other political guidelines are followed (paid for by... wording), let them have at it.
Well, I went from .com to academia, and have never been happier. I was fortunate to have gotten a small raise in the process, but the benefits here outweigh anything I've seem anywhere else. Lots of vacation, holidays, good insurance quite cheap, pension, etc. Any I get to spend lots of time at home with my kids -- no more 80 hour weeks! Work hard at work, then go home and NOT work. No question what's on my list this thanksgiving!
Except it can only do it where your PCS phone will work. Look at the coverage map, the feind planning to nip your progeny surely has.
These people rely for a big chunk of their income on ad revenue that they incorporate in programming they then GIVE AWAY (broadcast). Why not offer a service, either for PVR users, or all computer users with a fast connection, a download by subscription service?
/month I'd happily pay for a service like this. I'd prefer to obey the rules if they make sense.
Let's say I miss program "A." Right now my choices are 1) Remember to tape ahead of time (yeah, that might happen), 2) Find someone I know that might have taped it themselves, 3) If it has a following on usenet or on the net, watch for a post of the ep I missed (great for scifi, not so much for, say, Good Eats!), 4) Wait for rerun (soon if its cable, maybe 3 months if it's network).
Those choices mostly suck.
Why shouldn't the networks take their content and encode it themselves, commercials and all (or new, different commercials!), and let me download it to my pvr or pc and watch it when I want? Use reasonable DRM if you must. Be cross-platform compatible (DivX or raw MPEGs), turn off my commercial skipper if you must (if I'm watching network TV, I can't skip anyway -- and you can add the numbers to the ad figures). But for $15
First, be nice. Don't give your kids another reason to hate you later on.
t ml
Second, check here:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/note139/note139.h
Lucidly titled Acturarial note 139, it is a summary of names given to children in the US by year, based on SSN applications (need the SSN to claim them as deductions, so most get them as newborns now). Just pick things at the bottome or not on the list.
Then, don't tell anyone until it's committed to a birth certificate. People steal.
I will happily jump on the,"I'm happy with Netflix," bandwagon. I see some posters saying that the number of movies per month doesn't work for them -- Netflix actually has quite a few different plans, 3 at a time for $20 is just the main one they push marketing-wise (no, I don't work for them/own stock):
Netflix Service Ultimate (8 out)
For the ultimate at-home selection of DVDs at an incredible value, choose our Ultimate Program. It lets you have 8 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $39.95.
Netflix Service Plus (5 out)
Ideal for members who want a larger selection of DVDs at home, our Plus Program lets you have 5 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $29.95.
Netflix Service Bonus (4 out)
With variety, value and an extra movie, our Bonus Program lets you have 4 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $24.95.
Netflix Service Standard (3 out)
Enjoyed by the majority of our members, our popular Standard Program lets you have 3 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $19.95.
Netflix Service Lite (2 out)
Affordable, convenient and perfect for the occasional renter, our Lite Program lets you have 2 movies out at a time for a flat monthly fee of $13.95.
Touch screen tech, modern processor, etc.
First, for those whining about cost, durability, etc., please listen to the webcast. The buildings designed for major companies (SONY, Norman Miller, Ford, et. al.) end up costing much less in operating costs and increasing productivity. The plant they are building for Ford will cost $13M more than a standard comparable plant, but will remediate $48M worth of ecological damage Ford was required to fix by the government. 1 factory, out of the box saved the $35M.
Which brings my question -- how do I help. I do what I can. I'm a homeowner, so I avoid using chemicals where I can (no turfbuilder!), drive an efficient car, etc. Can someone suggest practical ways to implement on an individual or household level these very forward-thinking ideas?
Read the questions -- unbelievably vague and broad. Of course most people would answer as they did. The article cites widespread belief in "pseudoscience" -- a poorly defined term in itself, but one which is construed to include many things which are simply in their infancy scientifically-speaking. So if you ask me whether I believe that somewhere someone possesses some sort of mental ability which might be described as "psychic," I'd say yes, it's quite probable. Ms. Cleo is a different story.
My point here is that the story sensationalizes a poorly constructed study (a poll, really) which supports a view that many who are "scientists" hold. Much like other poorly constructed studies have produced gems like cold fusion. The irony is poignant and staggering.
If I leave a wallet on the sidewalk with bills hanging out and someone picks it up and walks off with it, they've committed no crime. If they walk up to my unlocked car with the keys in it parked legally, they break the law as soon as they open my door. I'm not required by the law to lock it. Temptation isn't entrapment.
Entrapment is my promising to send you pictures of hot chicks, then sending you pictures of little kids, then arresting you for having them. You have been persuaded or coerced into committing a crime, whether you'd have committed it yourself later or not.
The problem here isn't that government is trying to violate my first amendment rights by looking at what I buy, it's that the booksellers aid and abet them by keeping a list of what I bought in the first place!!!!!
If you make a fishtank out of a monitor, you still have to dispose of the CRT, which has a ton of toxic waste inside of it.
Really. I was very anti-T-D. Then I read the bill. It grandfathers in all the agreements already in place with the Bells for co-lo-ing and access to infrastructure, and requires the Bells to continue to offer these things on slightly different, but not ridiculous terms.
It requires that everyone in the USA have access to broadband within 5 years, subject to serious penalties, requires the FCC to monitor and enforce the laws (contrary to a very deceiving ad run locally in DC by voicesforchoices), and makes special provisions for under served communities.
I understand the arguments against letting the Bells be the ones to deploy this service, but consider the following with an open mind. It is an enormous undertaking to connect 275M+ people (something like 175M households) to this highspeed service. Those many of you who live in Urban and Suburban areas, remember that this includes people who live in places where people are outnumbered by cattle and sheep. Those of you who decry the government, realize that this is the government reigning in rules it forced on the Bells in 1996, and enforcing what may be called more reasonable requirements, calling on the Bells to provide the guarentee of service for all, rather than just forcing the Bells to share their equipment bought with their capital and effectively nationalized in 1996. Democrats should like that it is eqalitarian, with a little extra help for the underserved, Republicans should like that it sets the balance back to a capitlaist one where the Bells can better determine their own fate, and Libertarians should like that the government is stepping out of a forced deregulation of what was not deemed to be a monopoly.
I applaud the efforts of Covad et. al. to bring more DSL out to the public -- certainly they've hurried along the progress. But they are corporations designed to be profitable, just like the Bells, and aren't any more interested in losing money trying to serve sparsely populated areas than the Bells are. They aren't any more interested in losing money, either, except that they have had to bite the bullet to gain customers. But the entire business is built around using someone else's stuff. This is somewhat like some small hardware or software company getting the government to mandate to computer makers that they save a PCI slot for their product because the PC makers weren't including their piece of hardware fast enough. It might speed adoption of the hardware if there is demand, but the PC makers will wise up and include it themselves, and they'll built the part themselves to boot.
The real competition for the Bells in this area comes from the cable companies, maybe wireless, maybe the power utilities. Consumers have a much better shot at making sure we keep the big players from getting in bed. The AOL/TW -- Verizon merger is the one we really need to watch out for.
Given the specialized nature of your research, you must have a budget for this. Don't go cheap -- TrueTime (www.truetime.com) (and I'm sure others as well) has boxes that have a GPS antenna for $3-4K. Set up NTP on the boxes (tardis and others on windows, ntp from u of delaware for all *nix), point them at the GPS box.
Some of their boxes have modems to dial direct to a phone line NIST has set up for the purpose, to check other NTP servers to compare times (not really useful to you).
I have also seen, but lack links for, similar boxes with atomic clocks right in the case, likely in the same price range.
Combine this with their announced Mira and Freestyle technologies, and I could digitally record every episode of whatever, store it on my PC then spool it wirelessly to a flatpanel touchscreen. Who needs to pause TV when you can just carry it to the toilet with you?
The problem here is that most people who use VPNs to connect to their workplace aren't telecommuters, but people who need a file or to check mail or something simple on an infrequent basis. Relatively few people truly telecommute (i.e. work from home most or all of the time). This more expensive business use, as well as actually running a business (servers, whatever) should cost more. But it seems unfair for someone to have to shell out the extra dough so they can check their mail from home.
Obviously there are secure ways besides VPNs to implement this functionality, and eventually I think we'll see a move towards these. The question remains how will the enforce this prohibition? And if it's allowed on business connections, does that mean they'll support it, too?
See, the real issue here isn't "no you can't do that here," but that certain types of users call with certain kinds of questions, and this allows those answering the questions to segregate the questions so the right people can answer them. IP/SEC traffic requires certain very specific protocols and ports to be opened which may not normally be open on a standard ISP network. Most legacy hardware, and much current hardware doesn't support IP/SEC, so it cannot work. Your cable modem/router probably doesn't, unless it's high end or very new.
By prohibiting this activity on their "home" networks, they need not burn cycles explaining why "you can't do that, it just won't work," while really saying "our hardware can't handle it." The latter unfairly casts a negative shadow on an ISP who simply didn't design their network to handle this traffic, and perhaps doesn't see that as being cost effective to do.
So this is another attempt to cover themselves for not providing any sort of support for VPN, including enabling the funcationality on their hardware. It's like their not supporting more than one machine in your house, or not supporting linux on their cable network. It would cost them way more to do it right than it's worth. They aren't doing anything wrong, though they're not doing anyone any favors, either. They aren't likely to tell you to stop, just not to ask for help. IP/SEC may never work on these networks, but other VPN-like items will probably fly under the radar.