Verizon Fios works great... As long as you dont want to watch Netflix...
If you actually want to make use of all those megabits you bought, then well...
Our Netflix has been rebuffing more and more, even with a direct wired connection between the player and the router.
I hear you, but over the last few weeks it seems to be getting a lot better, at least for me. Buffering has not completely stopped, but it went from every 10 seconds down to less than once every 50 min show. Didn't I hear that Netflix agreed to pay Verizon for better connectivity?
Yes, but inflation will be the result of QE, like it or not.
I understand the hope is that we will return to growth by increasing the money supply, but there will be a down side to this eventually. I just hope the cure is less damaging than the disease. IMHO, QE is a short term tactical ploy with negative long term implications, but politics as they are, we are in a play now pay later game plan. It's all about the election coming up and not what really needs to be done, especially if it takes more than 10 words to explain because that doesn't fit in a sound bite.
But hey, I'm just a lowly software engineer.... What does it matter what I say or think?
Since Google seems to be the only one serious about rolling out fiber
Hey, what about Verizon FiOS? I got fiber to my house and get as good of service as you can expect from Verizon....
(and high quality broadband at a reasonable price)
So you had to bring up the price thing eh? Ok.. Ok.. You win... Verizon is VERY pricy for just internet.... Here's hoping for some price competition or something...
Not exactly, but certainly not the extremely loose monetary policy we now have. Perhaps just two shifts at the BPE and stop buying our own bonds with printed (or just made up digital equivalent) dollars? That might be nice...
If you are young looking to have lots of fun, Austin would be great. It's a little weird at times (too weird for me) but some folks like it.
LOL... so, it's not unlike the rest of the world, but entirely unlike Texas?
Well, I've lived in Texas nearly 20 years in three different places, Austin was one of them. And to answer your question, yes, Austin is vastly different than just about any other place I've been in Texas. In fact, it reminds me more of the west coast (where I've lived too) than Texas. I'd warn you, that Austin has it's own special kind of weirdness, mostly because of the University that sits right next to the capital building, but some folks like it.
Austin has some really unique things in it, starting with the pinkish marble capital building all the way down to the people that wonder around on South Congress watching the bats and beyond. It's something to experience, to be sure, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
Maybe if you add modern computer-assisted routing both for cars (intellectual central dispatch) and for passengers (smart phone apps), and add self-driving small cars to the mix, it can become more realistic. And we don't have to replace all cars overnight. This can happen gradually, extending the network reach and usefulness area by area.
Problem then becomes distance... Where I live, well in the suburbs, it's going to be a LOOOONG time before a buss (or anything else) will be available within walking distance. There are just not enough riders to make it worth running even a cheap buss to within a few miles of my home. Even though there is a light rail station about 5 miles away. It simply doesn't make sense for public infrastructure to be built for such places. Distances are too great and ridership would be too low. Plus, there are people who live even further out than me.
Autonomous cars sound interesting, but we are decades away from having even a basic version of that technology usable in a public transit format.
Y'all can have Austin. It's a beautiful place with lots of fun things to do, but not my kind of town. Parts of Austin are really great, but there are better places in Texas for me. If you are young looking to have lots of fun, Austin would be great. It's a little weird at times (too weird for me) but some folks like it.
So, if you can stand the weird (or even like it) give Austin a try. Don't let the fact that it's part of Texas fool you, if you like Cali, you will fit in well. Just please let me visit ever now and then, even though it's not my kind of place, there are some excellent places to eat, wonderful places to go and beautiful places to see and I have friends who still live there.
Making $100k today is about the equivalent of making $80k in 2004 or $72k in 2000. A decent salary... but making "six figures" ain't what it used to be.
And it never will again... The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is working 24x7 making sure of that.
You just rate the entire system at 80% of what you expect it to produce given current conditions, and small variations due to small passing clouds are absorbed. As I said, battery smoothing works well too.
Ahh, you make my point then... What happens if you happen to produce 120% than expected? Great right? Perhaps, but my claim is that because you don't know and are only counting on 80% and got 40% more than you expected, somebody burned fuel in the expectation of providing that 40% and at least *some* of that will be wasted. See what I'm getting at? This is the waste I am talking about.
BTW, I understand that for wind power, you can only count on 25% of expected capacity. Solar is a bit better availability, depending on the kind of weather being expected, but is still not anywhere near your 80% number.
It's not that solar and wind are useless, but that there are unseen variables that add to their actual costs that most folks don't know or think about.
Yea, I know. I love my Honda too. I was not trying to attack you, but make a joke about the Tesla and the owners of same. Personally, I think they have more money than sense, but I guess there is value in the appearance of being green that a Tesla buys you.
In the USA? Shesh, you do realize how that's not going to happen right?
Where I'm all for mass transit (mostly in the form of buses) in urban areas, it is totally out of step with your average citizen's attitudes about how and when they go places. Folks in the USA want to go, when they want to go. They will gladly take the bus, if it's going where they want, when they want and they are assured they can get back when they want, but if any of these requirements are not met, they will take a car.
Problem for mass transit is two fold. First, by financial necessity, it only runs during and close to peak usage times. Weekdays are great, but middle of the night on the weekends it doesn't make sense because there are not enough riders. If they do run off-peak times, it is usually at a reduced schedule and convenience. Secondly, some kind of transport is necessary in the USA because walking is not possible due to the large distances involved, even in our urban areas. Citizens will feel it necessary to maintain cars in all but the largest urban areas and once they HAVE a car, they will use it because it is simply faster and more convenient than mass transit can ever be.
So, until we can do away with suburbia, the automobile is here to stay, at least in the USA.
Tesla's problem is price. Their price is way beyond what most can pay, even if they wanted too. If Nissan can come up with a viable alternative that goes the distance of a Tesla and they can sell them at a price the masses can afford, they will out sell Tesla in units. Just like Ford did with the model T. Sure there where better and more desirable cars in the model T's day, but Ford didn't have much trouble selling them because of price.
II hold a degree in Electrical engineering, so where you may disagree with my conclusions, I do have a few clues about what I'm talking about. My degree was earned about the time solid state photovoltaic technology was in it's infancy. I hold an Extra class radio license and regularly teach Radio, electronics and electricity to junior high, and high school students so I'm pretty sure I know what an ohm is, not to mention impedance, conductance and a whole host of generally advanced concepts used in electrical/electronics engineering. Heck, I even know when and how to use the square root of two and three...
At this point, I'm done debating with you. Not because I cannot answer, but because it doesn't seem to be worth it. Full stop.
You cannot seriously have an issue with the collection of such freely available imagery.
What do you think the limit should be?
On the government's use of surveillance technology in public places.
Ok, where I agree that is a clear line, I don't agree with where you draw it.
Personally, I'm OK with automated surveillance in public places, including video, audio, imagery and even automated interpretation of same. But there should be limits to the use of such collections as evidence as follows:
1. Retention of collected data should be time limited, unless being used as evidence in an specific case.
2. Once the delete date has been reached, it cannot be used as evidence in any other criminal case that may come up.
3. Evidence used must be clearly in public spaces, or be following an active line of investigation subject to current evidence collection rules (i.e. requires a warrant, unless there is reasonable cause for the search).
Once the manufacturer drops support for the product, you will NEVER get any bugs fixed without the source. Open Source is not so limited, usually there is somebody out there who will maintain the build for your hardware (assuming it's common enough) and if not, it's POSSIBLE for one to do it yourself if it means enough to you.
If you do install OpenWRT, can you revert back to the manufacturers software at a later time or is it a one way street? Lets say OpenWRT did not work properly.
Most of the modern Netgar routers are drop dead simple to revert back, but that's not always the case. It's usually not too hard, but there ARE some models that can be pretty difficult and require special equipment. I suggest you check with the place you get your open source firmware for instructions on how to get back to stock, before you put your toe in the water. You might also consider playing with the firmware of choice on separate hardware, say your old but supported router. Learn what you need to w/o having to risk your network, then once you are comfortable with the firmware, jump in with both feet.
If you presume that a backdoor like this is intentional, and is there for some nefarious purpose like the NSA or something, they can just move it to the chips themselves. The code that runs on on the CPU is only one small part of what goes on in there. It would be very easy to have code baked in to a chip with a backdoor that couldn't be removed or altered by the OS, because it is lower level.
So don't assume an OSS firmware gets you out of trouble.
Shesh, really?
OK, open source may not get you out of *everything* but logically it's going to fix 99.999% of what's possibly going to get you. Not to mention, firmware "built in" to hardware is going to have a seriously difficult time doing anything but crashing the hardware unless it has a *whole lot* of the network stack built into it. So, I'd rather take my chances with open source over the manufacturer's stock firmware, the odds are better, MUCH better.
With wind and solar there are unpredictable variations in the power provided.
No true. In fact the UK National Grid considers wind and solar to be more reliable than fossil or nuclear generation because it is distributed.
That makes zero sense from a power scheduling perspective. There is no way you can know how much power a set of solar collectors will produce at any single instant, even an hour out. Sure, you can estimate that within some margin, but there is no way you are going to know the power produced each instant. Clouds move, change size etc.
So you have the source to the CPU? Keyboard controller? Ethernet controller? You have the masks for the silicon and can make your own?
Never said I did, nor did I say it was necessary. But I can assure you that not having the internal firmware of the Ethernet controller is unlikely to be a security problem for anybody. It's either going to work or it won't. Same for the microcode in the CPU.
No, you don't, so every electronic device you own with a CPU isn't open source.
Most are not. But on the border of my network? My firewall? I own those and they are open source because we all know how manufacturers do this thing. They will support the device for as long as it's making money (i.e. they are building and selling them). After that, good luck getting support, bug fixes or firmware updates. Which is why I recommend you buy hardware that has open source alternatives.
Get off your retarded high horse, you don't run anything thats fully open source yet you act like other people are stupid for not drinking the same half-assed brand of cool-aid that you do.
I suggest you NEVER rant on like you have a clue, you clearly don't.
Who's ranting?
I'm only suggesting that you buy router hardware that has an open source alternative. The reasons for this are many, but none of them are because I am an open source zealot.
1. Routers/firewalls are key security devices for your network that must be secure.
2. Manufacturers generally don't support their hardware for long periods of time, thus the list of vulnerabilities will generally increase over time.
3. Stock firmware is usually function limited.
The availability of open source firmware fixes these issues and gives you the option to keep that router in service or make it do things you want/need. Which is why I suggest you only buy hardware with open source alternatives. It gives you options, other than just buying another router.. But it's your money, buy what you want.
Just load OpenWRT or some other open source firmware, problem solved.
What do you mean there isn't a port for your hardware? Why did you buy it in the first place? Throw it away (or donate it to someone who can do the port) and buy something that has been ported.
NEVER buy hardware without a open source port at least in progress.. You have been warned!
punished for... what? for looking at stuff that is outside in plain view from the sky?
If you honestly don't see a problem, you need to think a bit harder.
Oh I see a problem, namely the storage space required to STORE all this suspect video for later review.... If they do this much, it's going to take a boat load of storage.
You cannot seriously have an issue with the collection of such freely available imagery. ANYBODY flying over this area can take pictures, video etc. Is it somehow a problem because the police do it?
What can the police do these days? Automatic license plate scanning? Red Light cameras? Automated Speed cameras? How about a FLIR camera on a helicopter? (We've been doing that for decades..)
Can tollways collect tolling information? Can employers track their employees? Their assets (say a truck or something):?
Slashdot Mirror
Verizon Fios works great... As long as you dont want to watch Netflix...
If you actually want to make use of all those megabits you bought, then well...
Our Netflix has been rebuffing more and more, even with a direct wired connection between the player and the router.
I hear you, but over the last few weeks it seems to be getting a lot better, at least for me. Buffering has not completely stopped, but it went from every 10 seconds down to less than once every 50 min show. Didn't I hear that Netflix agreed to pay Verizon for better connectivity?
Yes, but inflation will be the result of QE, like it or not.
I understand the hope is that we will return to growth by increasing the money supply, but there will be a down side to this eventually. I just hope the cure is less damaging than the disease. IMHO, QE is a short term tactical ploy with negative long term implications, but politics as they are, we are in a play now pay later game plan. It's all about the election coming up and not what really needs to be done, especially if it takes more than 10 words to explain because that doesn't fit in a sound bite.
But hey, I'm just a lowly software engineer.... What does it matter what I say or think?
Since Google seems to be the only one serious about rolling out fiber
Hey, what about Verizon FiOS? I got fiber to my house and get as good of service as you can expect from Verizon....
(and high quality broadband at a reasonable price)
So you had to bring up the price thing eh? Ok.. Ok.. You win... Verizon is VERY pricy for just internet.... Here's hoping for some price competition or something...
You would prefer a fixed money supply?
Not exactly, but certainly not the extremely loose monetary policy we now have. Perhaps just two shifts at the BPE and stop buying our own bonds with printed (or just made up digital equivalent) dollars? That might be nice...
LOL ... so, it's not unlike the rest of the world, but entirely unlike Texas?
Well, I've lived in Texas nearly 20 years in three different places, Austin was one of them. And to answer your question, yes, Austin is vastly different than just about any other place I've been in Texas. In fact, it reminds me more of the west coast (where I've lived too) than Texas. I'd warn you, that Austin has it's own special kind of weirdness, mostly because of the University that sits right next to the capital building, but some folks like it.
Austin has some really unique things in it, starting with the pinkish marble capital building all the way down to the people that wonder around on South Congress watching the bats and beyond. It's something to experience, to be sure, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
Maybe if you add modern computer-assisted routing both for cars (intellectual central dispatch) and for passengers (smart phone apps), and add self-driving small cars to the mix, it can become more realistic. And we don't have to replace all cars overnight. This can happen gradually, extending the network reach and usefulness area by area.
Problem then becomes distance... Where I live, well in the suburbs, it's going to be a LOOOONG time before a buss (or anything else) will be available within walking distance. There are just not enough riders to make it worth running even a cheap buss to within a few miles of my home. Even though there is a light rail station about 5 miles away. It simply doesn't make sense for public infrastructure to be built for such places. Distances are too great and ridership would be too low. Plus, there are people who live even further out than me.
Autonomous cars sound interesting, but we are decades away from having even a basic version of that technology usable in a public transit format.
Y'all can have Austin. It's a beautiful place with lots of fun things to do, but not my kind of town. Parts of Austin are really great, but there are better places in Texas for me. If you are young looking to have lots of fun, Austin would be great. It's a little weird at times (too weird for me) but some folks like it.
So, if you can stand the weird (or even like it) give Austin a try. Don't let the fact that it's part of Texas fool you, if you like Cali, you will fit in well. Just please let me visit ever now and then, even though it's not my kind of place, there are some excellent places to eat, wonderful places to go and beautiful places to see and I have friends who still live there.
Making $100k today is about the equivalent of making $80k in 2004 or $72k in 2000. A decent salary... but making "six figures" ain't what it used to be.
And it never will again... The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is working 24x7 making sure of that.
You just rate the entire system at 80% of what you expect it to produce given current conditions, and small variations due to small passing clouds are absorbed. As I said, battery smoothing works well too.
Ahh, you make my point then... What happens if you happen to produce 120% than expected? Great right? Perhaps, but my claim is that because you don't know and are only counting on 80% and got 40% more than you expected, somebody burned fuel in the expectation of providing that 40% and at least *some* of that will be wasted. See what I'm getting at? This is the waste I am talking about.
BTW, I understand that for wind power, you can only count on 25% of expected capacity. Solar is a bit better availability, depending on the kind of weather being expected, but is still not anywhere near your 80% number.
It's not that solar and wind are useless, but that there are unseen variables that add to their actual costs that most folks don't know or think about.
Yea, I know. I love my Honda too. I was not trying to attack you, but make a joke about the Tesla and the owners of same. Personally, I think they have more money than sense, but I guess there is value in the appearance of being green that a Tesla buys you.
In the USA? Shesh, you do realize how that's not going to happen right?
Where I'm all for mass transit (mostly in the form of buses) in urban areas, it is totally out of step with your average citizen's attitudes about how and when they go places. Folks in the USA want to go, when they want to go. They will gladly take the bus, if it's going where they want, when they want and they are assured they can get back when they want, but if any of these requirements are not met, they will take a car.
Problem for mass transit is two fold. First, by financial necessity, it only runs during and close to peak usage times. Weekdays are great, but middle of the night on the weekends it doesn't make sense because there are not enough riders. If they do run off-peak times, it is usually at a reduced schedule and convenience. Secondly, some kind of transport is necessary in the USA because walking is not possible due to the large distances involved, even in our urban areas. Citizens will feel it necessary to maintain cars in all but the largest urban areas and once they HAVE a car, they will use it because it is simply faster and more convenient than mass transit can ever be.
So, until we can do away with suburbia, the automobile is here to stay, at least in the USA.
and my honda doesn't cost $600 a year in an annual checkup like Tesla charges
You mean you don't go to the Honda Dealer every year? Are you nuts? (Apparently not.. )
Yet androids sell like hotcakes too.
Tesla's problem is price. Their price is way beyond what most can pay, even if they wanted too. If Nissan can come up with a viable alternative that goes the distance of a Tesla and they can sell them at a price the masses can afford, they will out sell Tesla in units. Just like Ford did with the model T. Sure there where better and more desirable cars in the model T's day, but Ford didn't have much trouble selling them because of price.
II hold a degree in Electrical engineering, so where you may disagree with my conclusions, I do have a few clues about what I'm talking about. My degree was earned about the time solid state photovoltaic technology was in it's infancy. I hold an Extra class radio license and regularly teach Radio, electronics and electricity to junior high, and high school students so I'm pretty sure I know what an ohm is, not to mention impedance, conductance and a whole host of generally advanced concepts used in electrical/electronics engineering. Heck, I even know when and how to use the square root of two and three...
At this point, I'm done debating with you. Not because I cannot answer, but because it doesn't seem to be worth it. Full stop.
You cannot seriously have an issue with the collection of such freely available imagery.
What do you think the limit should be?
On the government's use of surveillance technology in public places.
Ok, where I agree that is a clear line, I don't agree with where you draw it.
Personally, I'm OK with automated surveillance in public places, including video, audio, imagery and even automated interpretation of same. But there should be limits to the use of such collections as evidence as follows:
1. Retention of collected data should be time limited, unless being used as evidence in an specific case.
2. Once the delete date has been reached, it cannot be used as evidence in any other criminal case that may come up.
3. Evidence used must be clearly in public spaces, or be following an active line of investigation subject to current evidence collection rules (i.e. requires a warrant, unless there is reasonable cause for the search).
So.... To further refine your position...
Is it a problem if the images are collected by a private party, but possibly provided to the police?
Good point, taken...
Oh yes it does change at least one thing.
Once the manufacturer drops support for the product, you will NEVER get any bugs fixed without the source. Open Source is not so limited, usually there is somebody out there who will maintain the build for your hardware (assuming it's common enough) and if not, it's POSSIBLE for one to do it yourself if it means enough to you.
If you do install OpenWRT, can you revert back to the manufacturers software at a later time or is it a one way street? Lets say OpenWRT did not work properly.
Most of the modern Netgar routers are drop dead simple to revert back, but that's not always the case. It's usually not too hard, but there ARE some models that can be pretty difficult and require special equipment. I suggest you check with the place you get your open source firmware for instructions on how to get back to stock, before you put your toe in the water. You might also consider playing with the firmware of choice on separate hardware, say your old but supported router. Learn what you need to w/o having to risk your network, then once you are comfortable with the firmware, jump in with both feet.
It's hard to believe you've written that in 2014. I suggest you stop recycling drivel that was probably proven wrong before you were born.
Yea... Since before I was born eh? Have you any clue when that was? Here's a clue:
Get off my lawn punk!
If you presume that a backdoor like this is intentional, and is there for some nefarious purpose like the NSA or something, they can just move it to the chips themselves. The code that runs on on the CPU is only one small part of what goes on in there. It would be very easy to have code baked in to a chip with a backdoor that couldn't be removed or altered by the OS, because it is lower level.
So don't assume an OSS firmware gets you out of trouble.
Shesh, really?
OK, open source may not get you out of *everything* but logically it's going to fix 99.999% of what's possibly going to get you. Not to mention, firmware "built in" to hardware is going to have a seriously difficult time doing anything but crashing the hardware unless it has a *whole lot* of the network stack built into it. So, I'd rather take my chances with open source over the manufacturer's stock firmware, the odds are better, MUCH better.
With wind and solar there are unpredictable variations in the power provided.
No true. In fact the UK National Grid considers wind and solar to be more reliable than fossil or nuclear generation because it is distributed.
That makes zero sense from a power scheduling perspective. There is no way you can know how much power a set of solar collectors will produce at any single instant, even an hour out. Sure, you can estimate that within some margin, but there is no way you are going to know the power produced each instant. Clouds move, change size etc.
So can you provide a source for your claim?
So you have the source to the CPU? Keyboard controller? Ethernet controller? You have the masks for the silicon and can make your own?
Never said I did, nor did I say it was necessary. But I can assure you that not having the internal firmware of the Ethernet controller is unlikely to be a security problem for anybody. It's either going to work or it won't. Same for the microcode in the CPU.
No, you don't, so every electronic device you own with a CPU isn't open source.
Most are not. But on the border of my network? My firewall? I own those and they are open source because we all know how manufacturers do this thing. They will support the device for as long as it's making money (i.e. they are building and selling them). After that, good luck getting support, bug fixes or firmware updates. Which is why I recommend you buy hardware that has open source alternatives.
Get off your retarded high horse, you don't run anything thats fully open source yet you act like other people are stupid for not drinking the same half-assed brand of cool-aid that you do.
I suggest you NEVER rant on like you have a clue, you clearly don't.
Who's ranting?
I'm only suggesting that you buy router hardware that has an open source alternative. The reasons for this are many, but none of them are because I am an open source zealot.
1. Routers/firewalls are key security devices for your network that must be secure.
2. Manufacturers generally don't support their hardware for long periods of time, thus the list of vulnerabilities will generally increase over time.
3. Stock firmware is usually function limited.
The availability of open source firmware fixes these issues and gives you the option to keep that router in service or make it do things you want/need. Which is why I suggest you only buy hardware with open source alternatives. It gives you options, other than just buying another router.. But it's your money, buy what you want.
I say tomato..
Just load OpenWRT or some other open source firmware, problem solved.
What do you mean there isn't a port for your hardware? Why did you buy it in the first place? Throw it away (or donate it to someone who can do the port) and buy something that has been ported.
NEVER buy hardware without a open source port at least in progress.. You have been warned!
punished for... what? for looking at stuff that is outside in plain view from the sky?
If you honestly don't see a problem, you need to think a bit harder.
Oh I see a problem, namely the storage space required to STORE all this suspect video for later review.... If they do this much, it's going to take a boat load of storage.
You cannot seriously have an issue with the collection of such freely available imagery. ANYBODY flying over this area can take pictures, video etc. Is it somehow a problem because the police do it?
What can the police do these days? Automatic license plate scanning? Red Light cameras? Automated Speed cameras? How about a FLIR camera on a helicopter? (We've been doing that for decades..)
Can tollways collect tolling information? Can employers track their employees? Their assets (say a truck or something):?
What do you think the limit should be?