I have had vonage for several years now. While there has been some outages off and on, the past year has been superb - 0 outages that i know of - and this is in Lancaster PA.
I have MUCH worse service from cell phone/Wireless services than i have ever had with Vonage so i'm thinking completely the opposite. I don't want to hold my cell phone 2 feet in front of me and yell so they can here me to do video over IP.
Treo already does so much its useless and 99.9% of the time within 2-3 days of purchase most people realize its just a gimmick they will never really utilize anyhow..
Video over IP has been around for years - i used to work at Networks Online in Houston and they ran a Cu-See-Me "reflection" server for years. Most of it was men hoping to see some boobies, but otherwise abck in 94-98 the technology grew and stabalized but the money fell out and whent into corporate conferencing & whiteboard services vs consumer calling.
So that is where i see this continually taking off - conference rooms, small business conferences and possibly white board and remote training/powerpoint displays.
This isn't another "Black or White" issue where you accept it and be happy or don't accept it and shut-up like you Bush fanatics expect.
As others have stated, this is a democracy. A government representative of its peoples. Anything Bush gives me is a coal and to you is a diamond. It doesn't mean "I'm wrong in your right". It means i perceive things differently and that i consider this a joke - Especially coming from Tom DeLay of all people.
It is completely disrespectful and ignorant to expect people to fall in line - and this budget is no different. 1 billion extra in funding won't get us 1 inch closer to mars. We need changes to NASA, Changes to US politics and changes to our vision for America to get to Mars and YOUR beloved Bush has proven over and over and over again that he isn't the man for that job.
The Bush agenda doesn't have a future for manned missions to other planets, space exploration or any of those programs that involve dedication and risk for the ultimate award.
Science and Bush are like Fire and Water. You can't have both without killing the other.
Glad you can generalize that much. H1-b sponsorship is just part of the issue that many IT people get held over there head. As a borne American its the politest way of saying that non Americans are willing to put "us" into the bind that holds these people such as in EA because there are people willing to accept it as "defacto".
Its a shame on IT managers, project managers, hirring staff and the people putting the load on H1b's but its also a shame in people willing to work there life away making it common practice..
gotta love "salary" positions and IT staff being excluded as management folks
I hope the NYTIMES keeps hounding on these issues. While i'm not a Game programmer I am a consultant and I get shafted left and right with abuses of power like this.
The *ONLY* thing that keeps me from working even more insane hours is to adjust my billing rate - and that is almost a catch-22 - surely to limit my hours but surely to get me replaced in the long run.
I do Oracle financials, database and applicaiton server stuff. Its not just gamers, but "IT" in and of itself.
Part of my issue is the H1-B workers don't have family here or bust there arses off to get enough money to go back home and retire early, so they don't have many qualms about the workfload.
I don't see it as differences of trying to be a lazy american as much as other corp heads see it, i just see it as i'm busting my arse off to have a family life at home.. you know, pay my bills, buy my family dinner, pay my mortgage and have some cash left over to entertain and put my daughter through college.
So please, NYTIMES, keep it up. Do your investigative research even further. Don't pull a fox/cnn/cbs/nbc news report and have it end at that - show the world what gets taken forgranted and show the world that us supposed "white collars" aren't necessarily all living it up high and dry doing nothing but pointing fingers like many assume.
What really disgusts me is that people get treated like this and there is no "thanks". Work late hours and stay in a hotel? non-expensable, have a cell phone or pager they bother you on? don't try and expense it. Get stuck working remote? good luck expensing it. Just isn't what it used to be in taking pride in your workers..
Good luck EA employees - i'm there fighting for ya and WITH YOU!
How is this informative? What does your comment have to do with anything the article mentions? From your attitude i don't think you will pay for any music irregardless of the format and to me it looks like your just tossing around the typical slashdot anti-microsoft bandwagon looking for mod points rather than reading the article and participating in thoughtfull discussions.
DRM is here to stay. It is a necessity and from your attitude it seems to be directly aimed at people like you.
Diebold OWNS the company that produce(d) these optical scanners.
We need non profit & organized voting standards. If corporate america can stand behind ISO standards why can't the federal government do the same?
If states require the rights to decide individually the votes (and laws) they cast for federal offices i'm not sure we can ever have a trustworthy system in the foreseeable.
I also believe we should streamline voting and make sure the right is protected and if people vote illegally it is punished for the crime it is. Partisan vote police shouldn't be allowed.
I've given FC1, 2 and 3 a try on everything from my XP2400 to my Athlon64 3400 and its grossly over-hyped and grossly under polished for a desktop system.
I don't know about you, but i don't expect my desktop to run slower, my disk IO to chug along and my drivers and system to be stuck in DLL hell.
Suse 9.2 on the other hand was much more refigned, less "bastardized" (all the redhat focus on gnome) and much quicker.
Ofcourse i'm the unlucky SOB with a ATI 9800 pro card expecting support under X.org on a 64bit platform.
However Solaris 10, Windows 2003 x64 and Windows XP 64 all run flawlessly, quickly and have a polished feel to them compared to FC *.*
Call me a troll if you want, i'm just utterly dissapointed in the fedora releases for anything but a server - and even then i'm not fond of Redhat'isms.
Another year? sure... but by then Microsoft and others will have polished & tweaked and nailed the market.
Is I know how it works, and on what hardware. I can buy an old PC and know it will be slow - but it will work - and with everything plugged in.
After experimenting with OS X i've found that there is a bunch of stuff you have to play the upgrade game on and you have to be smart about which "old" hardware is supported.
IE a Pentium 2/3 CPU with enough memory runs XP just fine - i expected an appropriately configed G3 to do the same with OS X - and i was wrong.
And now that i've moved on to Athlon64 and i'm running XP X64 (which is 2003 with XP "laf") and it runs great - stable as a can be - and with recognizeable performance increases (bye bye 16 bit legacy support)
I'm also burnt out on the brushed metal look, the costly updates and dodgy performance unless your willing to fork out big $$$
like others have said.. until there is a "white box" or generic - i can't afford the upgrade game and after my experimenting around i won't bother until prices come down on more capable OSX systems.
I want a workstation to learn from, experiment with and have fun on - not necessarily just to look cool on my desk
Well, there may be hacks.. but for a TECH company with BILLIONS in the bank - why - oh why - is there no forward momentum, develop and thinking in regards to capitalizing on the linux market?
Sure the protocol will probable be hacked into gaim or kopete, but thats not enough.
The web is supposed to be platform independant - introduce cross platform tools google! Please!!!
True.. but on the net where you don't need to be a millionair or buy FCC airwaves to start a political webpage i can't understand how the FEC would commit to such without attempting to end dissent.
sorry about the spelling.. been a long day:) newborns are hard on your sleeping habits!
"Allies of the willing" cooperating in stings to shut us up.
FEC looking to quiet "dicent" on the internet regarding campaigning.
Indymedia attacked for pictures of police shooting innocent protestors..
The internet is a medium of hypocracy as much as a medium of truth - states don't deserve the right to control, police or determine what i read. If i can buy the BS in books, i can certainly read it on the net.
Is it past time to use digital certificates, ssl, keyfobs and encryption to protect ourselves from "evil doers?" (aka governments with something to hide..)
Tin foil hat? dunno.. all i know is media is so left or right and when independants are being busted for telling the truth it disgusts me.
Dude, your asking the wrong person. I stated what i know about from the PRNeswire release and there is that email address you can contact.
i>I would like to know why he will not sign from 180, why he pays less than 13% federal income tax and why he didn't check the check box on his MASS state tax return to pay the higher rate.
John kerry files on his own - so his wifes assets aren't his liabilities. To answer your questions again most of her stuff is capital gains and taxed at GWB's rate and as far as state returns i have no idea what your talking about and i've never seen GWB's state returns either so its not much interest to me.
Yeah, in his rebutal he finally said Heinz... she makes alot of money but like you said, she donates a lot and she also works within the tax system GWB created.
What are you talking about? I posted John Kerry's tax return - what you are talking about is Heinz's tax return. Because her stuff is all investments its probably only taxed at capital gains and thanks to GWB that is only capped at 15%
Her taxes will probably be even LOWER this year.. i'm sorry that GWB's tax custs only helps the rich and i'm sorry you don't realize that.
his taxes are right there.. 90k+ I'm not sure what you are asking. Email that dude and ask for a copy.. Democrats don't bite. His tax bracket looks to be 25% or so and thats not bad considering his donations/contributions and the fact his big asset selloff would have been taxed at BUSH's dividend tax (since it was considered an investment)
Insurance is a social system no matter how you think about it - your paying in the hopes you will never have to use it - In the event you do, you want it to be there to get you through.
Now my question is, why is it a bipartisan issue with the seperation being a welfare system or privatized system when in actuality its already very much a privatized welfare system spiralling out of control?
What is the fear of getting government involvement? If anything C.H.I.P is a perfect example of something working better than many fully private programs. Heck even Charity hospitals are doing better than privatized institutions.
I just want healthcare. I want my payments to the system to be affordable and reliable for when i need coverage. I don't want to have to exclude coverage, add secondary coverage, mix & match with my wifes plans and all the BS i need to do today..
whats the scare of a forced re-orginization of a failing instituion?
Especially when we know Bush has done nothing for environmental issues.
I liked Kerry's response on the debate about how they only seem better because he lowered the bar on what bad is - and the only thing Bush has done is created a credit system and not a reduction system - sort of a trading market for polution credits - that may help certain areas but doesn't solve the problem.
Clean energy is a policy we need to strive for. 20 billion isn't enough to re-invent our energy policy. Had we not invaded Iraq maybe we would have had 200 billion to do vast research into energy needs, efficiencies and technologies.
Social Security is fine - infact its probably more so then any business out there.. the fear is what 40+ years away? Thats more security than any corporation i know of other than Microsoft as far as cash reserves.
The issue with social security is the problem of deficit spending and borrowing from our reserves (social security) without intention of paying it back and loosing the revenues of the interest payments as well.
Social security does have some issues, but i would never trust it to corporate america after they have failed miserably with insurance, healthcare, prescription drugs and other privatized industries.
Check out Johnkerry.com for the full plan on social security reform and his ideas on it.
I agree - i like the conservatism that Colorado displays - much more "friendly" (and progressive is a good word) than what i get here in PA.
Asthma here *COULD* prevent your insurance from being underwritten by many companies. Luckily my asthma is considered seasonal allergy - so allergies just caused me to get a pre-existing condition exclusion.
It is a royal pain in the arse to switch insurance companies.
I'm not sure where you see that.. according to 2003 tax return: (looks good to me..) and nowhere near 13%
To: National Desk, Political Reporter
Contact: Michael Meehan of John Kerry for President, 202-712-3000; http://www.johnkerry.com
WASHINGTON, April 13/U.S. Newswire/ -- Sen. John Kerry has made public his 2003 income tax returns, as he has for past 20 years.
In 2003, Sen. John Kerry had $395,000 in taxable income and paid $90,575 in federal income taxes. Kerry had $43,735 in charitable contributions.
Last year, Kerry wrote "A Call to Service," of which had $89,000 in proceeds. Kerry is paying the taxes on the proceeds from the book and is donating the balance to charity.
The tax return also shows $175,000 in capital gains, from the sale of one-half interest of a painting, which was reported last year.
For a copy of the tax return, email Adam Abrams at aabrams@johnkerry.com
There are tons of people voting for Kerry.. believe it or not he has some great ideas and is probably one of the best candidates in a long time.
Liberal or not, i don't see that as a bad thing. Our leader has to be adept at adapting to new environments and new situations.. completely opposite of Bush.. i see Kerry as holding that trait..
So in essence i am voting against Bush on that st ance, but voting for Kerry because he seems to understand the issues and knows the ramifications of his decisions a bit more than Bush & Co.
Slashdot Mirror
I have had vonage for several years now. While there has been some outages off and on, the past year has been superb - 0 outages that i know of - and this is in Lancaster PA.
I have MUCH worse service from cell phone/Wireless services than i have ever had with Vonage so i'm thinking completely the opposite. I don't want to hold my cell phone 2 feet in front of me and yell so they can here me to do video over IP.
Treo already does so much its useless and 99.9% of the time within 2-3 days of purchase most people realize its just a gimmick they will never really utilize anyhow..
Video over IP has been around for years - i used to work at Networks Online in Houston and they ran a Cu-See-Me "reflection" server for years. Most of it was men hoping to see some boobies, but otherwise abck in 94-98 the technology grew and stabalized but the money fell out and whent into corporate conferencing & whiteboard services vs consumer calling.
So that is where i see this continually taking off - conference rooms, small business conferences and possibly white board and remote training/powerpoint displays.
Won't even finish the quote.
This isn't another "Black or White" issue where you accept it and be happy or don't accept it and shut-up like you Bush fanatics expect.
As others have stated, this is a democracy. A government representative of its peoples. Anything Bush gives me is a coal and to you is a diamond. It doesn't mean "I'm wrong in your right". It means i perceive things differently and that i consider this a joke - Especially coming from Tom DeLay of all people.
It is completely disrespectful and ignorant to expect people to fall in line - and this budget is no different. 1 billion extra in funding won't get us 1 inch closer to mars. We need changes to NASA, Changes to US politics and changes to our vision for America to get to Mars and YOUR beloved Bush has proven over and over and over again that he isn't the man for that job.
The Bush agenda doesn't have a future for manned missions to other planets, space exploration or any of those programs that involve dedication and risk for the ultimate award.
Science and Bush are like Fire and Water. You can't have both without killing the other.
Glad you can generalize that much. H1-b sponsorship is just part of the issue that many IT people get held over there head. As a borne American its the politest way of saying that non Americans are willing to put "us" into the bind that holds these people such as in EA because there are people willing to accept it as "defacto".
Its a shame on IT managers, project managers, hirring staff and the people putting the load on H1b's but its also a shame in people willing to work there life away making it common practice..
gotta love "salary" positions and IT staff being excluded as management folks
I hope the NYTIMES keeps hounding on these issues. While i'm not a Game programmer I am a consultant and I get shafted left and right with abuses of power like this.
The *ONLY* thing that keeps me from working even more insane hours is to adjust my billing rate - and that is almost a catch-22 - surely to limit my hours but surely to get me replaced in the long run.
I do Oracle financials, database and applicaiton server stuff. Its not just gamers, but "IT" in and of itself.
Part of my issue is the H1-B workers don't have family here or bust there arses off to get enough money to go back home and retire early, so they don't have many qualms about the workfload.
I don't see it as differences of trying to be a lazy american as much as other corp heads see it, i just see it as i'm busting my arse off to have a family life at home.. you know, pay my bills, buy my family dinner, pay my mortgage and have some cash left over to entertain and put my daughter through college.
So please, NYTIMES, keep it up. Do your investigative research even further. Don't pull a fox/cnn/cbs/nbc news report and have it end at that - show the world what gets taken forgranted and show the world that us supposed "white collars" aren't necessarily all living it up high and dry doing nothing but pointing fingers like many assume.
What really disgusts me is that people get treated like this and there is no "thanks". Work late hours and stay in a hotel? non-expensable, have a cell phone or pager they bother you on? don't try and expense it. Get stuck working remote? good luck expensing it. Just isn't what it used to be in taking pride in your workers..
Good luck EA employees - i'm there fighting for ya and WITH YOU!
How is this informative? What does your comment have to do with anything the article mentions? From your attitude i don't think you will pay for any music irregardless of the format and to me it looks like your just tossing around the typical slashdot anti-microsoft bandwagon looking for mod points rather than reading the article and participating in thoughtfull discussions.
DRM is here to stay. It is a necessity and from your attitude it seems to be directly aimed at people like you.
Diebold OWNS the company that produce(d) these optical scanners.
We need non profit & organized voting standards. If corporate america can stand behind ISO standards why can't the federal government do the same?
If states require the rights to decide individually the votes (and laws) they cast for federal offices i'm not sure we can ever have a trustworthy system in the foreseeable.
I also believe we should streamline voting and make sure the right is protected and if people vote illegally it is punished for the crime it is. Partisan vote police shouldn't be allowed.
I've given FC1, 2 and 3 a try on everything from my XP2400 to my Athlon64 3400 and its grossly over-hyped and grossly under polished for a desktop system.
I don't know about you, but i don't expect my desktop to run slower, my disk IO to chug along and my drivers and system to be stuck in DLL hell.
Suse 9.2 on the other hand was much more refigned, less "bastardized" (all the redhat focus on gnome) and much quicker.
Ofcourse i'm the unlucky SOB with a ATI 9800 pro card expecting support under X.org on a 64bit platform.
However Solaris 10, Windows 2003 x64 and Windows XP 64 all run flawlessly, quickly and have a polished feel to them compared to FC *.*
Call me a troll if you want, i'm just utterly dissapointed in the fedora releases for anything but a server - and even then i'm not fond of Redhat'isms.
Another year? sure... but by then Microsoft and others will have polished & tweaked and nailed the market.
T..
Now can you come up with something that is actually truthfull and isn't political rhetoric BS?
Besides "dogging the other side" can you actually show why we should consider voting for Bush?
Disgusting isn't it?
How do you loose 58,000 absentee ballots???
Oh well.. i would be happy to give the benefit of the doubt - if it wasn't for that 2000 election BS
Is I know how it works, and on what hardware. I can buy an old PC and know it will be slow - but it will work - and with everything plugged in.
After experimenting with OS X i've found that there is a bunch of stuff you have to play the upgrade game on and you have to be smart about which "old" hardware is supported.
IE a Pentium 2/3 CPU with enough memory runs XP just fine - i expected an appropriately configed G3 to do the same with OS X - and i was wrong.
And now that i've moved on to Athlon64 and i'm running XP X64 (which is 2003 with XP "laf") and it runs great - stable as a can be - and with recognizeable performance increases (bye bye 16 bit legacy support)
I'm also burnt out on the brushed metal look, the costly updates and dodgy performance unless your willing to fork out big $$$
like others have said.. until there is a "white box" or generic - i can't afford the upgrade game and after my experimenting around i won't bother until prices come down on more capable OSX systems.
I want a workstation to learn from, experiment with and have fun on - not necessarily just to look cool on my desk
Well, there may be hacks.. but for a TECH company with BILLIONS in the bank - why - oh why - is there no forward momentum, develop and thinking in regards to capitalizing on the linux market?
Sure the protocol will probable be hacked into gaim or kopete, but thats not enough.
The web is supposed to be platform independant - introduce cross platform tools google! Please!!!
True.. but on the net where you don't need to be a millionair or buy FCC airwaves to start a political webpage i can't understand how the FEC would commit to such without attempting to end dissent.
:) newborns are hard on your sleeping habits!
sorry about the spelling.. been a long day
They weren't told but its under the assumption that Italy protested about pictures of there police force shooting protestors at the G8 summit.
Apparently they don't want people to recognize them for the ***holes they are.
"Allies of the willing" cooperating in stings to shut us up.
FEC looking to quiet "dicent" on the internet regarding campaigning.
Indymedia attacked for pictures of police shooting innocent protestors..
The internet is a medium of hypocracy as much as a medium of truth - states don't deserve the right to control, police or determine what i read. If i can buy the BS in books, i can certainly read it on the net.
Is it past time to use digital certificates, ssl, keyfobs and encryption to protect ourselves from "evil doers?" (aka governments with something to hide..)
Tin foil hat? dunno.. all i know is media is so left or right and when independants are being busted for telling the truth it disgusts me.
John kerry files on his own - so his wifes assets aren't his liabilities. To answer your questions again most of her stuff is capital gains and taxed at GWB's rate and as far as state returns i have no idea what your talking about and i've never seen GWB's state returns either so its not much interest to me.
thank you.. drive through..
Yeah, in his rebutal he finally said Heinz... she makes alot of money but like you said, she donates a lot and she also works within the tax system GWB created.
What are you talking about? I posted John Kerry's tax return - what you are talking about is Heinz's tax return. Because her stuff is all investments its probably only taxed at capital gains and thanks to GWB that is only capped at 15%
Her taxes will probably be even LOWER this year.. i'm sorry that GWB's tax custs only helps the rich and i'm sorry you don't realize that.
his taxes are right there.. 90k+ I'm not sure what you are asking. Email that dude and ask for a copy.. Democrats don't bite. His tax bracket looks to be 25% or so and thats not bad considering his donations/contributions and the fact his big asset selloff would have been taxed at BUSH's dividend tax (since it was considered an investment)
Insurance is a social system no matter how you think about it - your paying in the hopes you will never have to use it - In the event you do, you want it to be there to get you through.
Now my question is, why is it a bipartisan issue with the seperation being a welfare system or privatized system when in actuality its already very much a privatized welfare system spiralling out of control?
What is the fear of getting government involvement? If anything C.H.I.P is a perfect example of something working better than many fully private programs. Heck even Charity hospitals are doing better than privatized institutions.
I just want healthcare. I want my payments to the system to be affordable and reliable for when i need coverage. I don't want to have to exclude coverage, add secondary coverage, mix & match with my wifes plans and all the BS i need to do today..
whats the scare of a forced re-orginization of a failing instituion?
Especially when we know Bush has done nothing for environmental issues.
I liked Kerry's response on the debate about how they only seem better because he lowered the bar on what bad is - and the only thing Bush has done is created a credit system and not a reduction system - sort of a trading market for polution credits - that may help certain areas but doesn't solve the problem.
Clean energy is a policy we need to strive for. 20 billion isn't enough to re-invent our energy policy. Had we not invaded Iraq maybe we would have had 200 billion to do vast research into energy needs, efficiencies and technologies.
Social Security is fine - infact its probably more so then any business out there.. the fear is what 40+ years away? Thats more security than any corporation i know of other than Microsoft as far as cash reserves.
The issue with social security is the problem of deficit spending and borrowing from our reserves (social security) without intention of paying it back and loosing the revenues of the interest payments as well.
Social security does have some issues, but i would never trust it to corporate america after they have failed miserably with insurance, healthcare, prescription drugs and other privatized industries.
Check out Johnkerry.com for the full plan on social security reform and his ideas on it.
I agree - i like the conservatism that Colorado displays - much more "friendly" (and progressive is a good word) than what i get here in PA.
Asthma here *COULD* prevent your insurance from being underwritten by many companies. Luckily my asthma is considered seasonal allergy - so allergies just caused me to get a pre-existing condition exclusion.
It is a royal pain in the arse to switch insurance companies.
I'm not sure where you see that.. according to 2003 tax return: (looks good to me..) and nowhere near 13%
/U.S. Newswire/ -- Sen. John Kerry has made public his 2003 income tax returns, as he has for past 20 years.
To: National Desk, Political Reporter
Contact: Michael Meehan of John Kerry for President, 202-712-3000; http://www.johnkerry.com
WASHINGTON, April 13
In 2003, Sen. John Kerry had $395,000 in taxable income and paid $90,575 in federal income taxes. Kerry had $43,735 in charitable contributions.
Last year, Kerry wrote "A Call to Service," of which had $89,000 in proceeds. Kerry is paying the taxes on the proceeds from the book and is donating the balance to charity.
The tax return also shows $175,000 in capital gains, from the sale of one-half interest of a painting, which was reported last year.
For a copy of the tax return, email Adam Abrams at aabrams@johnkerry.com
There are tons of people voting for Kerry.. believe it or not he has some great ideas and is probably one of the best candidates in a long time.
Liberal or not, i don't see that as a bad thing. Our leader has to be adept at adapting to new environments and new situations.. completely opposite of Bush.. i see Kerry as holding that trait..
So in essence i am voting against Bush on that st ance, but voting for Kerry because he seems to understand the issues and knows the ramifications of his decisions a bit more than Bush & Co.
His talking is completely different than this writing - not just in style - but in opinions.
Bush believes in his stance, simplicity and simple logic - not long winded answers.