In 2013......Verizon had 120.5 billion in revenue, 32 billion in operating income....Comcast had 64.7 billion in revenue, 16.6 billion in operating Income....AT&T had had 128.8 billion in revenue, 30.5 billion in operating income.
What does this tell me? That unless the fine is a percentage of their profit (which to my knowledge doesn't happen in the US), internet providers probably aren't too worried about it. In fact, if lack of transparency nets them more profit than they lose by paying the fine, it's only good business to continue breaking the rule.
I absolutely think doctors (general practice ones anyway) are in danger. Generally, they do two things: diagnose and prescribe. Imagine a city with automated booths, all linked up to some massive medical database. You type in your symptoms, the booth does a few things like take your blood pressure, check your eyes, and maybe take a blood sample, things like that.
With its massive medical database, it can probably diagnose you with a very high degree of accuracy and prescribe the appropriate medicine. If it can't accurately assess what you have or if it's something that requires a human doctor, it'll direct you that way.
It's going to be fascinating to watch the decline of automakers. Most people don't need or technically want a car, they want need/want the ability to travel quickly from point A to point B. The rest of the time, the car is just sitting there doing nothing.
A fleet of automated cars will solve the automotive needs of the vast majority of people. Car sales will plummet, as well other associated industries: mechanics, automotive stores, oil change places, etc.
It's going to be crazy. The panic we saw from Microsoft when tablets arrived; the music industry when MP3s appeared on the internet; Apple's lawsuit war when Android started outselling it, auto dealers getting Tesla showrooms banned; etc etc. It's all going to be dwarfed by this. I expect to see automakers try everything: mass litigation, lobbying, even widespread propaganda. Anything they can to try and stop the automation of cars.
If they're smart they'll sign long-term agreements now while this tech is still "new." I expect Elon Musk will be be quite victorious in this, chances are it'll be his batteries that will be going into these cars.
But as a Comcast customer, I'm damn glad I don't lease my modem or router from them.
Maybe I should start selling a decent router and Comcast compatible modem on eBay as a pair, calling them something like "No Lease Comcast Hardware Kit - pays for itself in just 10 months!"
"Further, the most dangerous cities to live in today, are precisely those cities with the strictest gun control."
Yes, but ask yourself this. Are they dangerous cities because they have strict gun control? Or do they have strict gun control because they're dangerous?
———————
Personally, I think crime is down because of the internet and technology in general.
This explains the occasional anti-net neutrality post you see in these net neutrality discussions. No one—and I mean no one—other than someone with a financial interest would ever oppose net neutrality.
I'm not a fan of mobile games. They typically have shallow gameplay, no story, no immersion, and 9/10 times they're based on the "freemium" model which sucks. They're designed to be time-wasters. So yeah, "real" handheld gaming systems blow them out of the water. But, sadly, for most people, these mobile games are good enough.
Not being able to install whatever I want on an iOS device is the reason I'll never get one, no matter what.
I like my Android phone because it's a personal computer in my pocket. It really is! It has its own filesystem that I can navigate and move files around, I can download an apk from a trusted website and install it; I can do anything I want. Not so with an iPhone. It doesn't let you install anything you want, so it can never truly be personal computer for your pocket. It's just a smart dumbphone. The exact same thing as my old verizon flipphone that sold overpriced apps from the Verizon V-cast store. The only difference is that the iphone it's prettier and gives a far better UX, but fundamentally they are the same thing.
I'm actually pretty terrified of Valve going public. A company like Valve can't be Valve with shareholders in control. Unless Gabe retains 51% of the stock...:)
That reminds me of a joke by John Mulaney, where he told his friend how he wasn't sure if he believed in the death penalty. His friend goes (This is all a rough paraphrase, couldn't find a transcription "So you're telling me, if you saw Hitler walking down the street, you wouldn't kill him? You wouldn't kill Hitler?"
"Well, what do you mean by Hitler? Do I see some guy who looks like Hitler walking down the street, with the uniform and mustache and everything? Then I would assume it's just a guy on his way to a costume party. I wouldn't kill that guy. His costume is a little insensitive, but nothing worth killing him over. Or do you mean like, an old version of Hitler? Like an old man that I think might be Hitler? I wouldn't kill him either, because I'm often wrong."
Ever play Titan Quest? It didn't get the highest of praise when it came out, but an expansion ended up correcting many issues. It's pretty much the best of all the Diablo 2 clones.
I have an Oculus Rift. I remember playing Half-Life 2 with it, and I got up to a window and looked down. Sure enough, I got some legit vertigo. It was great.
And yes, there is some motion sickness and nausea. I do believe that VR is an inevitable medium, regardless. Even with the Oculus Rift, which doesn't have the fastest headtracking and does have most horrendous resolution imaginable (effectively 640x400 per eye, mere inches from the eye. Just a horrible mess of blurry pixels) many people get the motion sickness under control.
Eventually VR will have greater FOV, greater resolution, and less head tracking delay. Not to mention better spacial awareness of the position of your head. All these things will greatly reduce motion sickness and nausea. I'm looking forward to it!
Saving the common people several billions a year would send nothing but good vibrations up the economic chain. Yeah, some cops may lose their jobs, but the billions extra that people would have every year means other jobs get created elsewhere.
I know, I'm just saying, it seems odd that you can get a tablet with a 2560-by-1600 resolution for 400 bucks, and yet you can't even get 1080p with ~12" laptops unless you venture into the 1K+ territory. It just doesn't add up.
Damn it, how is it phones and tablets keep getting these awesome high-rez screens, yet it's impossible to buy a laptop with anything better than 1366 x 768 for less than 1K?
People go to prison because they did something wrong and have to be removed from society for a while. The best thing a prison can do is "fix" the person so that they can integrate with society again.
You can't fix a person by taking away their humanity. So yes, they should get to watch TV, play video games, read books, have (consensual) sex. A "correctional facility" should do just that: correct a person. In a more perfect world criminals would come out of prison actually loving their fellow man. Or at the least, be able to integrate with society. Anyone coming out of prison should at least come out with GED equivalent. Preferably with some tradeskills too. Basically, if an employer sees that someone was an a correctional facility, they should think "hey this person has at least a basic education and some tradeskills"
That's how you keep them out of trouble and not going back to prison, just because they had to steal since they couldn't get a half decent job.
I have an Oculus Rift and there actually is a browser plug-in that lets you use Google street view with the oculus. You don't get 3D images, but everything is to scale and the headtracking works perfectly. It's very very cool. I went back to the house I grew up in, some cities, etc.
An interesting sensation, though, was that you were seeing everything from the height of the Google car cameras. And it was pretty strange feeling so tall.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, my formatting broke. Sorry about that!
Hey Slashdot, how about a useful feature in Beta? Like a 5 minute window to edit your post!
In 2013... ...Verizon had 120.5 billion in revenue, 32 billion in operating income. ...Comcast had 64.7 billion in revenue, 16.6 billion in operating Income. ...AT&T had had 128.8 billion in revenue, 30.5 billion in operating income.
What does this tell me? That unless the fine is a percentage of their profit (which to my knowledge doesn't happen in the US), internet providers probably aren't too worried about it. In fact, if lack of transparency nets them more profit than they lose by paying the fine, it's only good business to continue breaking the rule.
I absolutely think doctors (general practice ones anyway) are in danger. Generally, they do two things: diagnose and prescribe. Imagine a city with automated booths, all linked up to some massive medical database. You type in your symptoms, the booth does a few things like take your blood pressure, check your eyes, and maybe take a blood sample, things like that.
With its massive medical database, it can probably diagnose you with a very high degree of accuracy and prescribe the appropriate medicine. If it can't accurately assess what you have or if it's something that requires a human doctor, it'll direct you that way.
Electrician. No matter where technology goes, we're going to need electricity for it.
It's going to be fascinating to watch the decline of automakers. Most people don't need or technically want a car, they want need/want the ability to travel quickly from point A to point B. The rest of the time, the car is just sitting there doing nothing.
A fleet of automated cars will solve the automotive needs of the vast majority of people. Car sales will plummet, as well other associated industries: mechanics, automotive stores, oil change places, etc.
It's going to be crazy. The panic we saw from Microsoft when tablets arrived; the music industry when MP3s appeared on the internet; Apple's lawsuit war when Android started outselling it, auto dealers getting Tesla showrooms banned; etc etc. It's all going to be dwarfed by this. I expect to see automakers try everything: mass litigation, lobbying, even widespread propaganda. Anything they can to try and stop the automation of cars.
If they're smart they'll sign long-term agreements now while this tech is still "new." I expect Elon Musk will be be quite victorious in this, chances are it'll be his batteries that will be going into these cars.
But as a Comcast customer, I'm damn glad I don't lease my modem or router from them.
Maybe I should start selling a decent router and Comcast compatible modem on eBay as a pair, calling them something like "No Lease Comcast Hardware Kit - pays for itself in just 10 months!"
"Further, the most dangerous cities to live in today, are precisely those cities with the strictest gun control."
Yes, but ask yourself this. Are they dangerous cities because they have strict gun control? Or do they have strict gun control because they're dangerous?
———————
Personally, I think crime is down because of the internet and technology in general.
I want to be like Elon Musk when I grow up.
Two curved lines on the chest? Eyelashes?
This explains the occasional anti-net neutrality post you see in these net neutrality discussions. No one—and I mean no one—other than someone with a financial interest would ever oppose net neutrality.
I love my VPN service ("Private Internet Access" is the name). ~40 bucks a year and the service is good.
No, I'm not an advertisement bot, just a happy customer!
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ISPs hate her! See how local mom tripled her internet speed with this one weird trick!
Has science gone too far?
I'm not a fan of mobile games. They typically have shallow gameplay, no story, no immersion, and 9/10 times they're based on the "freemium" model which sucks. They're designed to be time-wasters. So yeah, "real" handheld gaming systems blow them out of the water. But, sadly, for most people, these mobile games are good enough.
Not just from Nintendo, but from pretty much every smartphone and cheap tablet out there.
Not being able to install whatever I want on an iOS device is the reason I'll never get one, no matter what.
I like my Android phone because it's a personal computer in my pocket. It really is! It has its own filesystem that I can navigate and move files around, I can download an apk from a trusted website and install it; I can do anything I want. Not so with an iPhone. It doesn't let you install anything you want, so it can never truly be personal computer for your pocket. It's just a smart dumbphone. The exact same thing as my old verizon flipphone that sold overpriced apps from the Verizon V-cast store. The only difference is that the iphone it's prettier and gives a far better UX, but fundamentally they are the same thing.
I'm actually pretty terrified of Valve going public. A company like Valve can't be Valve with shareholders in control. Unless Gabe retains 51% of the stock... :)
Comcast would make a lot less money.
Granted, they would still be profitable, but they would make less money.
The speed for the plan isn't too terrible, either. 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. That's usable for everything except HD video streaming.
That reminds me of a joke by John Mulaney, where he told his friend how he wasn't sure if he believed in the death penalty. His friend goes (This is all a rough paraphrase, couldn't find a transcription "So you're telling me, if you saw Hitler walking down the street, you wouldn't kill him? You wouldn't kill Hitler?"
"Well, what do you mean by Hitler? Do I see some guy who looks like Hitler walking down the street, with the uniform and mustache and everything? Then I would assume it's just a guy on his way to a costume party. I wouldn't kill that guy. His costume is a little insensitive, but nothing worth killing him over. Or do you mean like, an old version of Hitler? Like an old man that I think might be Hitler? I wouldn't kill him either, because I'm often wrong."
"You killed this man!"
"He looked like Hitler!"
"Yeah a little, what's wrong with you?"
Ever play Titan Quest? It didn't get the highest of praise when it came out, but an expansion ended up correcting many issues. It's pretty much the best of all the Diablo 2 clones.
I have an Oculus Rift. I remember playing Half-Life 2 with it, and I got up to a window and looked down. Sure enough, I got some legit vertigo. It was great.
And yes, there is some motion sickness and nausea. I do believe that VR is an inevitable medium, regardless. Even with the Oculus Rift, which doesn't have the fastest headtracking and does have most horrendous resolution imaginable (effectively 640x400 per eye, mere inches from the eye. Just a horrible mess of blurry pixels) many people get the motion sickness under control.
Eventually VR will have greater FOV, greater resolution, and less head tracking delay. Not to mention better spacial awareness of the position of your head. All these things will greatly reduce motion sickness and nausea. I'm looking forward to it!
Saving the common people several billions a year would send nothing but good vibrations up the economic chain. Yeah, some cops may lose their jobs, but the billions extra that people would have every year means other jobs get created elsewhere.
I know, I'm just saying, it seems odd that you can get a tablet with a 2560-by-1600 resolution for 400 bucks, and yet you can't even get 1080p with ~12" laptops unless you venture into the 1K+ territory. It just doesn't add up.
Damn it, how is it phones and tablets keep getting these awesome high-rez screens, yet it's impossible to buy a laptop with anything better than 1366 x 768 for less than 1K?
People go to prison because they did something wrong and have to be removed from society for a while. The best thing a prison can do is "fix" the person so that they can integrate with society again.
You can't fix a person by taking away their humanity. So yes, they should get to watch TV, play video games, read books, have (consensual) sex. A "correctional facility" should do just that: correct a person. In a more perfect world criminals would come out of prison actually loving their fellow man. Or at the least, be able to integrate with society. Anyone coming out of prison should at least come out with GED equivalent. Preferably with some tradeskills too. Basically, if an employer sees that someone was an a correctional facility, they should think "hey this person has at least a basic education and some tradeskills"
That's how you keep them out of trouble and not going back to prison, just because they had to steal since they couldn't get a half decent job.
It's a plan for the inevitable Captain Trips outbreak.
I have an Oculus Rift and there actually is a browser plug-in that lets you use Google street view with the oculus. You don't get 3D images, but everything is to scale and the headtracking works perfectly. It's very very cool. I went back to the house I grew up in, some cities, etc.
An interesting sensation, though, was that you were seeing everything from the height of the Google car cameras. And it was pretty strange feeling so tall.