If the manufacturers would just get together, they could easily come up with some sort of a "mute" system.
Basically, you have a small transmitter that broadcasts at a certain public frequency. Cellphones have a receiver that catches this signal, and automatically flip the cellphone to mute/vibrate. This way, when the person leaves the building, his/her phone will revert to the old function.
This could be extended to disable the phone's radio, or just individual components, such as cameras, video, etc., as well.
All it would take is the manufacturers getting together and coming up with a common protocol.
It'd be a hell of a lot better than jamming all signals outright.
I don't know many people who own DVHS VCR's, which, as of right now, are the only device that can record HDTV broadcasts.
A DVHS recorder is about $2000. No thanks.
A TiVo would have to have hundreds of gigs of storage to save several hours of HDTV broadcasts. There aren't even any TiVo like devices planned for HDTV yet.
I have AT&T in Atlanta... most people who have service with them aren't stealing service... they simply have it because AT&T takes (literally) years to disconnect service after someone has moved. I had cable service in my house from the previous owners for a year and a half before AT&T pulled the plug on it -- and that was after I had called them 10+ times to get them to do it. I couldn't get a cable modem because the previous account was 'still active' -- although no one at AT&T/MediaOne/Comcast/whoever the hell they are this week could tell me who was paying the bill.
I shouldn't complain too loudly... I got a cable modem a month later... and I'm still getting 6Mbps downstream, 512k upstream...:)
Maybe one of these days they'll send me a bill for the Internet service... I'm still only getting bills for $15/mo for Basic cable.
2.4 ghz SUCKS in residential areas. It just takes a new generation cordless phone to knock your connection down, or someone just has to microwave dinner, and you're offline.
I just hope the cordless phone makers don't decide the 5ghz range "is nifty" for phones when those wireless solutions come out.
Uhm... my Dell Inspiron has a water tube cooled CPU, it links to a radiator/heatsink near the back of the machine... and I got it almost a year ago... this isn't really anything new and spectacular.
Intel developed it to work with the M series of Pentium III's... it's even listed on their site under technology.
I don't think people this cooperative live around here in Atlanta...
Hell; I'd be happy if my ****ing neighbors wouldn't use those "really cool" spread spectrum 2.4 ghz phones. I can always tell when they get a phone call, because all of my wireless nodes drop off the net.
I figured out who it was, though, when I picked up the handy neighborhood association phonebook and started calling numbers until my network died... now all I need is some neat way to jam their phone so they'll think "it sucks".:-)
Uhm... I use my Novatel Ricochet card with Redhat 7.1 on a Dell Inspiron 8000...
I plugged it in, the machine recognized it as a normal PCMCIA modem. You dial 3333, and log in using your normal username/password.
You're online in 10 seconds.
You can't get the signal strength/etc. out of it, but I didn't even have that installed when I used my windows notebook -- all it ever said was "Good" or "None".:)
J
Gee... what happens when Anchorage gets wiped out by another 9.6 earthquake? I'd bet that OC-12/etc. is running through there.... The entire state of alaska just south of the North Slope is highly seismic.. ( http://geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/eq/html/aks.shtml ).. seems to me this would be a Very Bad Thing.
And as for a post above.. "How about the Bering Straits"... how about a data center that gets hit by a tsunami and blown into the ocean in about 3 seconds flat?
No thanks, but I'll keep my servers here in Georgia.. no earthquakes, no power outages (yay nuclear power!).. and hell, gasoline is still only $1.30 gallon here.:)
Why do they even HAVE to advertise on the Internet? Just because its there DOESN'T mean it has to be advertised on. How many times have you waited for a site to load because some ad company server is lagged trying to serve the ad in the page? How does THAT benefit Joe Average Web Surfer? They ought to stick to TV and radio, and leave the Internet for those that want ad-free surfing.
It "benefits" you by the site being there in the first place.
Bandwidth costs (an obscenely large amount of) money. Especially when assmonkeys decide to download the ENTIRE site with IE or something for "offload browsing".
I run several websites (since I pay for bandwidth used, I'm sure as hell not gonna post them here and get them/.'d), and, at first, none had advertising, because I felt like you did. I actually was stupid enough to think people would "help out" and click that contribute button I had set up. But not one person ever did. When I started getting bills from my ISP that were more than the mortgage on my house and car payment combined, I realized -- gee.. advertisements are there for a reason.
And yeah, that Treeloot monkey thing annoys the ever living hell out of me. But you know what.... it WORKS. If it's annoying you, then you NOTICED it. And that's what they're trying to do.
The more people that block ads, the more irritating ads are going to get so the reduced viewership will notice them. Hell, some of them play music these days (see the IBM ads on cnn.com), and I suspect that will become more common soon.
But go ahead and use JunkBuster, etc. But don't complain when all of the sites have to go to intersitial ads where you have to wait 20 seconds between pages so a big full-page advertisement can load, just so they can stay afloat.
I've already PAID for my access to the World Wide Web (and other resources) via the internet, so ANYTHING that has a negative impact on my ability to access those resources is a bad thing.
You have? You've paid for those resources? You've sent your check into Slashdot to help pay for their servers, their bandwidth, the time they spend working on this thing? I seriously doubt that.
You've paid for access to the 'net. Not for the content. Net Access and Content are two TOTALLY different things, unless you're subscribing to an ISP that passes money along to every website you visit.
Unless there are ads, or unless there is some way to pay for these sites, they will close up shop. There aren't too many people who are willing to pay $6000+ per month for colocation space and bandwidth and not even get any money back to break even.
Is it just me, or does placing neon tubes *that* close to your CPU seem like a really bad idea?
My ex-roommate used to have those stupid things in his car (they look like the same type of tube) and my cell phone would go crazy when it was near them (it would blink weird klingon-looking characters and beep and wouldn't be able to sync up with the network for a few hours). My 900mhz Sony cordless would do the same thing. On a dare we took my old Dell notebook out there, and it (literally) made screeching sounds out of its speakers when those neon tubes were on.
It just seems to me that when electricity is arcing around near your CPU, bad things will happen.:)
So what's controversial about this? We've been dialing 10-digits here in Atlanta for years, and I didn't hear anyone complain... we already had two area codes in the city, and added a third, so unless you wanted the telephone lady whining ("the number you are dialing is in another area code. you must hang up and dial the areacode first.") for 1/2 the people you called, you dialed 10 digits for every call anyway.
It's not that tough.:) It was a lot bigger hassle when we added the second area code and everyone had to get billboards and signs repainted to add the 770 or 404...
Ah.. but you assume that the frequent customers got better prices...
Wrong.
I have purchased over 600 DVD's from Amazon since January 1999, and about $600 in books, and even a ShopVac (hey.. walmart was out).. So I think I can consider myself a frequent customer.
So how come I just got 5 emails from them refunding $63 in 'overcharge'?
Seems to me that they're charging those who shop there more... more money.
Screw them. I cancelled all of my pending orders and replaced them with buy.com.
Slashdot Mirror
If the manufacturers would just get together, they could easily come up with some sort of a "mute" system.
Basically, you have a small transmitter that broadcasts at a certain public frequency. Cellphones have a receiver that catches this signal, and automatically flip the cellphone to mute/vibrate. This way, when the person leaves the building, his/her phone will revert to the old function.
This could be extended to disable the phone's radio, or just individual components, such as cameras, video, etc., as well.
All it would take is the manufacturers getting together and coming up with a common protocol.
It'd be a hell of a lot better than jamming all signals outright.
Does it really matter who you 'target' for anymore? Gecko and IE seem to render almost everything identically these days.
I don't know many people who own DVHS VCR's, which, as of right now, are the only device that can record HDTV broadcasts.
A DVHS recorder is about $2000. No thanks.
A TiVo would have to have hundreds of gigs of storage to save several hours of HDTV broadcasts. There aren't even any TiVo like devices planned for HDTV yet.
Obviously you've never been to ChikFila... they already give you free bible coloring books with your kids meal...
I have AT&T in Atlanta... most people who have service with them aren't stealing service... they simply have it because AT&T takes (literally) years to disconnect service after someone has moved. I had cable service in my house from the previous owners for a year and a half before AT&T pulled the plug on it -- and that was after I had called them 10+ times to get them to do it. I couldn't get a cable modem because the previous account was 'still active' -- although no one at AT&T/MediaOne/Comcast/whoever the hell they are this week could tell me who was paying the bill.
.. I got a cable modem a month later... and I'm still getting 6Mbps downstream, 512k upstream... :)
I shouldn't complain too loudly.
Maybe one of these days they'll send me a bill for the Internet service... I'm still only getting bills for $15/mo for Basic cable.
The radios are one way... unlike DirecTV/etc., your car radio doesn't dialup Sirius/XM to tell them what you're listening to.
In other words, they have no idea what you're listening to, so they can't collect demographics on you.
2.4 ghz SUCKS in residential areas. It just takes a new generation cordless phone to knock your connection down, or someone just has to microwave dinner, and you're offline.
I just hope the cordless phone makers don't decide the 5ghz range "is nifty" for phones when those wireless solutions come out.
Uhm... my Dell Inspiron has a water tube cooled CPU, it links to a radiator/heatsink near the back of the machine... and I got it almost a year ago... this isn't really anything new and spectacular. Intel developed it to work with the M series of Pentium III's... it's even listed on their site under technology.
I don't think people this cooperative live around here in Atlanta...
:-)
Hell; I'd be happy if my ****ing neighbors wouldn't use those "really cool" spread spectrum 2.4 ghz phones. I can always tell when they get a phone call, because all of my wireless nodes drop off the net.
I figured out who it was, though, when I picked up the handy neighborhood association phonebook and started calling numbers until my network died... now all I need is some neat way to jam their phone so they'll think "it sucks".
Uhm... I use my Novatel Ricochet card with Redhat 7.1 on a Dell Inspiron 8000... I plugged it in, the machine recognized it as a normal PCMCIA modem. You dial 3333, and log in using your normal username/password. You're online in 10 seconds. You can't get the signal strength/etc. out of it, but I didn't even have that installed when I used my windows notebook -- all it ever said was "Good" or "None". :)
J
Earthquakes.
.. ( http://geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/eq/html/aks.shtml ) .. seems to me this would be a Very Bad Thing.
:)
Gee... what happens when Anchorage gets wiped out by another 9.6 earthquake? I'd bet that OC-12/etc. is running through there.... The entire state of alaska just south of the North Slope is highly seismic
And as for a post above.. "How about the Bering Straits"... how about a data center that gets hit by a tsunami and blown into the ocean in about 3 seconds flat?
No thanks, but I'll keep my servers here in Georgia.. no earthquakes, no power outages (yay nuclear power!).. and hell, gasoline is still only $1.30 gallon here.
Bandwidth costs (an obscenely large amount of) money. Especially when assmonkeys decide to download the ENTIRE site with IE or something for "offload browsing".
I run several websites (since I pay for bandwidth used, I'm sure as hell not gonna post them here and get them /.'d), and, at first, none had advertising, because I felt like you did. I actually was stupid enough to think people would "help out" and click that contribute button I had set up. But not one person ever did. When I started getting bills from my ISP that were more than the mortgage on my house and car payment combined, I realized -- gee.. advertisements are there for a reason.
And yeah, that Treeloot monkey thing annoys the ever living hell out of me. But you know what.... it WORKS. If it's annoying you, then you NOTICED it. And that's what they're trying to do.
The more people that block ads, the more irritating ads are going to get so the reduced viewership will notice them. Hell, some of them play music these days (see the IBM ads on cnn.com), and I suspect that will become more common soon.
But go ahead and use JunkBuster, etc. But don't complain when all of the sites have to go to intersitial ads where you have to wait 20 seconds between pages so a big full-page advertisement can load, just so they can stay afloat.
</rant>
You've paid for access to the 'net. Not for the content. Net Access and Content are two TOTALLY different things, unless you're subscribing to an ISP that passes money along to every website you visit.
Unless there are ads, or unless there is some way to pay for these sites, they will close up shop. There aren't too many people who are willing to pay $6000+ per month for colocation space and bandwidth and not even get any money back to break even.
Is it just me, or does placing neon tubes *that* close to your CPU seem like a really bad idea?
:)
My ex-roommate used to have those stupid things in his car (they look like the same type of tube) and my cell phone would go crazy when it was near them (it would blink weird klingon-looking characters and beep and wouldn't be able to sync up with the network for a few hours). My 900mhz Sony cordless would do the same thing. On a dare we took my old Dell notebook out there, and it (literally) made screeching sounds out of its speakers when those neon tubes were on.
It just seems to me that when electricity is arcing around near your CPU, bad things will happen.
So what's controversial about this? We've been dialing 10-digits here in Atlanta for years, and I didn't hear anyone complain... we already had two area codes in the city, and added a third, so unless you wanted the telephone lady whining ("the number you are dialing is in another area code. you must hang up and dial the areacode first.") for 1/2 the people you called, you dialed 10 digits for every call anyway. It's not that tough. :) It was a lot bigger hassle when we added the second area code and everyone had to get billboards and signs repainted to add the 770 or 404...
It's not a "failure-paper". It's just Yahoo's ubercrappy headline system cutting off the byline.
Try reading it like this:
"NEC mulls PC recall, citing chip failure - paper reports."
Ah.. but you assume that the frequent customers got better prices...
Wrong.
I have purchased over 600 DVD's from Amazon since January 1999, and about $600 in books, and even a ShopVac (hey.. walmart was out).. So I think I can consider myself a frequent customer.
So how come I just got 5 emails from them refunding $63 in 'overcharge'?
Seems to me that they're charging those who shop there more... more money.
Screw them. I cancelled all of my pending orders and replaced them with buy.com.