For the record, the problem was solved before you wrote your message. Dish had allready put conditionals in place in the accounting software to give credits to all affected subscribers for Viacom channels and additional credits to those affected by what broadcast stations Viacom owns.
I have never seen Dish take money if there was any question as to weather or not they should do so.
Before you go tossing around words like "stealing" try checking up on your facts (or in your case totaly unfounded assumptions) before spreading your FUD.
If that's where you want to go with it you can use Dish to do the same thing. Internet will drop off, since you'll get that through some other provider in all likelyhood so drop your $90 to $45 for comparison sake.
Access Fee + Locals + HBO... $5 + $5.99 + $13.99 = $24.98. Add on additional premiums for around $11 more.
Oh... and the FCC requires satelite to be digital, so no worries about the digital teir.
If you don't know, yes I do work for Dish Network. No I'm not looking forward to work today.
I view my blog as just that, a log of my meanderings through the web. I stumble upon a few other blogs and when I do so (and I like what I see) I'll make mention of them. I also cite where my stuff comes from though.
I try to include other stuff too, breif reviews of products, sometimes comments on slashdot stories that don't seem to fit with the overall comments in the thread, stuff like that.
I'm also fairly certain I won't be seeing much of my content replicated because google won't talk to php pages for some reason.
Blatent plug for my blog aside, I think it's good that content propigates through the blogs. It results that information rising in the public awareness, which basicly means that blogs serve as a human crawler for interesting web content. The inherently democratic nature of the internet forces that content to the surface as more people link to it and comment on it.
Note -- I'm one of those crazy liberal people. If you're inclined to get angry about that I'll advise you to spare yourself the heartburn and just not read my blog.
I thought the Asimov quote below would make that clear to those bright enough to know the page is a movie promo. Then you went and ruined it for everyone:)
Own a ball point pen? Got velcro on anything? Have any friends who survivied breast cancer? Own a cordless anything (drill, phone, etc)? Know anyone on a pacemaker? Ever seen a firefighters breathing gear? Know anyone on a heart pump or kidney dialasis? Got one of those water filters on your faucet?
Space has helped us out a lot. For more information read check out these pages
Read Ken Alibek's autobiography. It details the time he spent as the director of the USSR's bio-weapons program. One incident detailed therein is the accidental release of weaponized anthrax spores from a weapons plant in Siberia.
It more or less annihilated a town downwind of the plant.
Anthrax isn't contagious from person to person and thankfully these people didn't do much traveling.
Want a virus that got out of the lab and is wracking up casualties in the 10s of millions? Try AIDS. Of course, the "lab" is the African Rain Forest, and its killing them slowly, but killing nonetheless. Natural selection encourages viruses to avoid killing the host. Imagine what mankind could do with a tool that powerful and a will that malevolent.
Re:For anyone too lazy to read the entire article.
on
Orwellian Tech Support
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I think you missed the point. He's implying the Bible is a work of Science Fiction, not a legitimate religious document. He's indicating that a single author drafted it as a work of fiction largely as a practical joke on the rest of history.
It's a theory with some holes, but one that's fun to needle the radical right with.
No, the Jews were exterminated because (1) the Nazis needed a scapegoat, and (2) if you believed Nazi propaganda, because they controlled all the money on the planet, or some such bunkum.
Your superior genes don't give you a grasp of history or language apparently. I said the Nazis used the same justification of the Jews. The Nazi attacks on the Jews were often justified in the name of the "racial purity" of the German People. There's a reason the Nazis used body ratios and family history to determine a person's racial purity and weather or not they belonged to the so called Jewish Race.
Were the Jews a scapegoat? Certainly. But anyone who's even passingly familiar with the political and social climate of Nazi Germany can explain the racial justifications behind the extermination of the Jews.
Jews weren't the only targets of the Nazi regime. The death camps claimed not only Jews and political enemies, but also the mentally retarded, deformed, and handicapped in Europe. Hitler sought to purge from his society those elements he thought were harmful to the racial superiority of the German People.
The Nazis gave eugenics a bad rap, and maybe it's time we realized that eugenics is nothing to be afraid of.
Eugenics: The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.
As employed, this is the forced sterilization of people by the government to attempt to prevent the expression of undesirable traits in the future. The Virginia Eugenics laws (which ultimately served as the template for similar laws in Nazi Germany) allowed the state to sterilize those deemed to be unfit to breed.
I'm not even going to quote from your somewhat disturbing characterization of African Americans as genetically inferior to white people, nor am I going to address the both terrifying and disheartening implications of that characterization.
Realize, however, that the veneration of ignorance you speak of is alive and well in rural white communities as well. In fact, the veneration of ignorance is a universal trend among the economically disadvantaged as long as the education system remains disproportionately targeted at the middle and upper classes. Want to solve this problem? The answer isn't sterilizing the poor; it's putting more time and energy into technical education and getting away from the mythos that everyone should go to college.
We then go on into a shockingly revealing one liner in which you assert that IQ is determined by genetics. In fact there are few if any reputable studies supporting this claim. Genetics certainly play a roll, but a bewildering assortment of factors act on a human being, beginning well before birth and progressing until after puberty that can have profound impact on IQ.
If you're paying so much in taxes that your yearly tax burden exceeds the cost of your home, travel expenses, education, and all recreational activities combined I can only presume you are exceedingly bad at math and tax forms, or that you simply live with your parents and don't get out much. Given your narrow minded view of the world the latter seems more likely.
And now we get to your grand finale. Let me get this straight. We want to fix our economy by enacting laws mandating the forced sterilization of all persons who you deem to be "uneducated, unemployable, and have demonstrated themselves culturally unreceptive to learning."
So, once we've spent billions of dollars rounding up an appreciable portion of the people that make our world work (sanitary workers, waiters, construction workers, food service personnel) and exposing them to powerful radiological sterilization equipment, thereby depriving them of liberty and arguably property without due process of law, what then?
When we've eliminated these lower portions of our economic classes who will do that work? When we tell these people they can't have children and that they don't contribute enough to our society to make it worth
That's the theory, but in practice it works differently.
Lets say Disney has a value of X dollars. This value represents the sum total of all assets Disney holds minus all liabilities Disney holds.
Now, Disney stock is worth Y, which is the street value of each share of Disney stock currently in circulation, not all of this stock is -=in=- circulation. Y is generally bigger than X. However, Y represents the perceived value of the stock at some indeterminate future time as traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
The number Disney is talking about is Z. Z is the value of the Disney corporations Assets, minus its liabilities, plus something ethereal which represents the Good Name of the Disney corporation. This discrepancy accounts for unquantifiable values such as the loyalty of Disney's customers, the value of the contacts Disney holds, and the universal name recognition of things like Disney World, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck.
In most cases Y > Z. In Disney's case this isn't true because it's their BUISNESS to create the vague concepts that make Z big. Disney wants more money to represent the true value of their company. They're probably justified in asking for it.
It frightens me that the fundamental rational for the Eugenics Laws of the industrial revolution is met with a "+3 Insightful" modifier here.
Human kind has, for the most part, long since stopped selecting for any survival based trait. You want to talk about things that fuck with national selection? Talk birth control, talk college tuition. The upper classes have fewer children because these children cost money and cost time. The lower classes have more children because they tend to be less educated about birth control and ways to avoid this as well as somewhat more deluded as to the roll a child will play in their lives.
What you're doing is taking something many people have an aversion to (intrusive gene therapy etc) and using it as a rational for why bloody wars that clean out the working classes are good. You're basically making the argument that rich beautiful people (most of whom got beautiful primarily by virtue of being rich) are actually better in a vague "scientific evolutionary" sense than the rest of us.
The corollary is that the poor and ugly people are worse. The same logic was used to justify the sterilization movements in the United States and the extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
Yea.... real insightful.
Times they are a changin'
on
Cell-Phone Wars
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I've often wondered if this kind of technology might be employed in a legal manner by businesses and other establishments. If enough people take to using these devices the FCC may well bow to public pressure.
It won't be much later that we'll see restaurants offering "cellular or non-cellular" seating and theaters (both cinematic and live) physically preventing the use of phones in their establishments.
I welcome it. Cell phones have their uses but are frankly some of the most intrusive devices to penetrate the market as of late. There are barriers of common courtesy that need to remain in place. The person you're standing in front of simply needs to take precedence over the person calling you to let you know orange juice is on sale. The cashier has the right to expect you to pay attention to your purchase. And damnit, I have the right to a dinner in peace.
public void rant() { I'm inclined to agree with you here. The difference between F*CK and FUCK is a vowell. What's so offensive about the letter "U?"
The people who insist on this are prudish and quite frankly oversensitive. More so if they feel somewhat better about it after the removal of the moraly corrupting influence of the letter "U."
What innocence are we really protecting? I don't know a single 3rd grader who hasn't allready heard basicly every single curse word in the english language (my wife's in public education, I know a lot of 3rd graders). Will they be transformed into black leather wearing, public building vandilizing, heroin shooting punks by seeing curse words in print or on TV? Doubtfull.
I'm not saying we should sit little Johnny down in front of Pulp Fiction rather than the Micky Mouse Club, I'm just saying we need to lighten up a bit.
We're teaching sex education to these kids in the 3rd grade. We're showing them images of death and human suffering that will scar their minds for ever. But if they read, or God forbid, use a four letter word for fecal matter we act like they've been watching someone eat kittens or something. }
1.) As far as I know a company can not refuse to tell you the information contained in your file. Thus, when Aunt Betty calls in and the topic of her PPQ comes up, she'll be mad as hell when she finds out she's categorized as "vapid bafoon."
2.) Even in the case of the technicaly inclined, there is the (substantial) risk for abuse of this system. EG - Video failure for a component device. Yes you could test every single cable and then call support, but a fair number of people would go through three "self diagnosed" components before they decided it was time to get back there and start testing. The company can afford to eat the cost of only so many devices and shipping costs before this becomes a problem.
3.) God help you if they don't want the product back. Logitech is like this. If your system is under warenty they don't want you to ship the broken one back to them. I know more than a few people who have gotten 3 or 4 free keyboard/mouse sets out of them for their friends and family by claiming damages w/in warrenty.
I'm sure there are other problems. A fair number of people will call me at work and ask for the engineers right off the bat. Out of 10 calls like that I can solve the problem 9 times. The engineering staff is payed more than me and typicaly has a deeper call queue than I do... why should I waste their time?
I do the same thing. The number of people who tell me "there wasn't an option for what I wanted, so I just chose technical support" is astounding. We need to either expand our menu structure or implement this system. I had one woman tell me she'd been fighting the menu for the last 45 minutes. Yikes.
My understanding of the corporate structure is as follows...
Echosphere is the root.
Echostar and some hardware company are children of Echosphere. Echostar deals with the provider side of the operation. The hardware company makes (shocker) hardware.
Dish Network is a child of Echostar, selling program to the masses. Other divisions of Echostar actualy do things like sign programing contracts etc. Very confusing.... I've given up trying to understand it and just happily cash my paycheck.
The real advantage of the *22 series is that the charges don't double up. Example, to wire two rooms with 2 301's requires a 4.99 additional outlset fee. With a 322 that fee doesn't exist. With a 522 it's actualy a bit nicer, as you pay only one service fee on the DVR instead of the two you'd be paying normaly for 2 DVR locations. You also get to cut out the other 4.99 fee as well.
Disclaimer: I presently draw a paycheck from Echosphere, parent company of Echostar, parent company of Dish Network.
I'll lay this down for you all. There are definite advantages to both Satellite and Cable. The experience you have with either service will differ depending on what you choose as far as your service contract goes.
First, though, a few myths to dispel or clarify as the case may be.
Weather Related Signal Loss: Signal Strength is generally rated on a 125 point scale with Dish Network (100 points with DirecTV if memory serves). During a heavy rain storm you should expect to see a signal loss of about 20 points. At about 50 points of total signal you'll see pixilation occurring due to the MPEG2 compression. At 40 points you'll loose signal altogether unless it's a massively redundant broadcast. Your typical install with four receivers will get you 98 - 120 signal on each receiver.
During snow you will experience signal loss, especially if your dish is at a higher angle of elevation. This is because snow will collect on the reflecting surface, blocking the signal.
Hidden Charges There is no such thing as a hidden charge.... provided you read the contract. I'm familiar with Dish's contracts and they're written in fairly tame legal speak, if I can understand it you can to. Yes, you will be charged for additional receivers. Yes, the equipment is up to you to maintain after the first year unless you arrange otherwise. Yes your installation is probably not under warranty beyond 90 days. Dish offers a number of fairly good warranty plans including the Digital Home Advantage plan, which for the most part covers all of your equipment and charges nominal fees for things like restringing all the cable in your house in the event of a catastrophic failure of some kind. I'm sure DirecTV has a similar offer; I don't know what it is.
HD TV - If you must have HD and you've already set with the equipment your best bet is going to be Voom. If you're still looking into getting the equipment, Dish runs a close 2nd with the 811 (standard HD receiver) being a pretty standard part of most installs (at customer request). Dish also offers a promotion called HD In a Box, wherein you get an 811 plus a 34 or 40 inch HD set to go with it for about $999.
Now, as far as drawback to satellite v cable go, it breaks like this.
Satellite -- Equipment is your problem for the most part -- Local channels are extra (5.99 typically) and may not be offered in your area -- Extra charges per additional receiver.
And finally, a tidbit of wisdom for those of you considering signing up for a satellite dish right now. The Dish Network DVR 522 is offered as part of Digital Home Advantage. Presently it allows DVR service in two rooms more or less for the price of one room. Future software will allow you to use this receiver as a dual tuner DVR in one location if you so choose (and it will toggle between the two). That feature isn't ready yet, so it's not being advertised... but when we see it it's gonna be sweet!
I have a close friend of mine who flew with the Luftwaffe during WWII and had the privilege of flying a Me262. From what he tells me the 80% failure rate is highly exaggerated due largely to the fact that it seems to include things like the original test programs (wherein people tended to fly them into things like mountains).
Once pilots were properly trained the craft worked well provided you didn't try to cut power back too far. The only real issue with flying them was the danger of allied bombing raids and fighter strikes during landing and take off. By the time the Me262 was in any sort of regular use the allies held enough sway in the skies over Europe that a safe base of operations didn't exist for them.
Allied pilots learned quickly that against a Me262 they had virtually no chance in a dog fight, so they trailed them back to their landing fields (out of visual range) and hit them on the run way. Remarkably effective tactic for dealing with a far superior aircraft.
Drugs -- Drugs have been a problem with humanity far before public education existed. I'm sure you're not positing that teenage drug use is a good reason to close down the public school system, thereby denying millions an education.
Alcohol -- They're not getting alcohol at school... well, not the smart ones anyhow. It's too bulky to easily smuggle into and out of a school. They're getting it from their friends after school. You don't think that without public schools people won't have friends do you?
Teen Pregnancy -- It's not a social atmosphere from school. Teen pregnancy is a perfectly natural part of human development. It wasn't until fairly recently that we started giving a shit about it. My grandmother was married at 14 and popping out munchkins at 17 (pesky WWII got in the way). Teen pregnancy has become a problem because of a changing social atmosphere outside schools.
Depression -- There we go. What an argument. Kids don't like being forced to learn so we shouldn't teach them. Wow... you're more libreal than I thought. Depression is teen angst. Most teenagers are "depressed" because it gets them attention. Depression is like being a fan of the Back Street Boys, something you grow out of. Admittedly, there are the very select few that actualy suffer from a disorder and need treatment... of course, most medical evidence suggests that as this is a neurochemical inbalance the absence or presence of education will not agrivate it.
Run-aways -- I'm not sure where you're sending your kids. Running away from home is the kind of thing you skip town for. You're generaly not going to school with people from out of town.
Suicide -- I think you'd be hard pressed to find a suicide note from a teenager lamenting the state of public education.
Slashdot Mirror
For the record, the problem was solved before you wrote your message. Dish had allready put conditionals in place in the accounting software to give credits to all affected subscribers for Viacom channels and additional credits to those affected by what broadcast stations Viacom owns.
I have never seen Dish take money if there was any question as to weather or not they should do so.
Before you go tossing around words like "stealing" try checking up on your facts (or in your case totaly unfounded assumptions) before spreading your FUD.
If that's where you want to go with it you can use Dish to do the same thing. Internet will drop off, since you'll get that through some other provider in all likelyhood so drop your $90 to $45 for comparison sake.
Access Fee + Locals + HBO...
$5 + $5.99 + $13.99 = $24.98. Add on additional premiums for around $11 more.
Oh... and the FCC requires satelite to be digital, so no worries about the digital teir.
If you don't know, yes I do work for Dish Network. No I'm not looking forward to work today.
That, and the air conditioner had yet to be invented.
I view my blog as just that, a log of my meanderings through the web. I stumble upon a few other blogs and when I do so (and I like what I see) I'll make mention of them. I also cite where my stuff comes from though.
I try to include other stuff too, breif reviews of products, sometimes comments on slashdot stories that don't seem to fit with the overall comments in the thread, stuff like that.
I'm also fairly certain I won't be seeing much of my content replicated because google won't talk to php pages for some reason.
Blatent plug for my blog aside, I think it's good that content propigates through the blogs. It results that information rising in the public awareness, which basicly means that blogs serve as a human crawler for interesting web content. The inherently democratic nature of the internet forces that content to the surface as more people link to it and comment on it.
Note -- I'm one of those crazy liberal people. If you're inclined to get angry about that I'll advise you to spare yourself the heartburn and just not read my blog.
I thought the Asimov quote below would make that clear to those bright enough to know the page is a movie promo. Then you went and ruined it for everyone :)
What about the NG-5? Surely something like this would be an ideal high end application of such a product?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. -- I. Assimov
Own a ball point pen?
Got velcro on anything?
Have any friends who survivied breast cancer?
Own a cordless anything (drill, phone, etc)?
Know anyone on a pacemaker?
Ever seen a firefighters breathing gear?
Know anyone on a heart pump or kidney dialasis?
Got one of those water filters on your faucet?
Space has helped us out a lot. For more information read check out these pages
NASA Spinoff Database
NASA Fact Sheet
A few years ago some nutcase flew a plane into the Pentagon. It got some news coverage, you might have heard about it.
Read Ken Alibek's autobiography. It details the time he spent as the director of the USSR's bio-weapons program. One incident detailed therein is the accidental release of weaponized anthrax spores from a weapons plant in Siberia.
It more or less annihilated a town downwind of the plant.
Anthrax isn't contagious from person to person and thankfully these people didn't do much traveling.
Want a virus that got out of the lab and is wracking up casualties in the 10s of millions? Try AIDS. Of course, the "lab" is the African Rain Forest, and its killing them slowly, but killing nonetheless. Natural selection encourages viruses to avoid killing the host. Imagine what mankind could do with a tool that powerful and a will that malevolent.
You're clearly not married.
I think you missed the point. He's implying the Bible is a work of Science Fiction, not a legitimate religious document. He's indicating that a single author drafted it as a work of fiction largely as a practical joke on the rest of history.
It's a theory with some holes, but one that's fun to needle the radical right with.
No, the Jews were exterminated because (1) the Nazis needed a scapegoat, and (2) if you believed Nazi propaganda, because they controlled all the money on the planet, or some such bunkum.
Your superior genes don't give you a grasp of history or language apparently. I said the Nazis used the same justification of the Jews. The Nazi attacks on the Jews were often justified in the name of the "racial purity" of the German People. There's a reason the Nazis used body ratios and family history to determine a person's racial purity and weather or not they belonged to the so called Jewish Race.
Were the Jews a scapegoat? Certainly. But anyone who's even passingly familiar with the political and social climate of Nazi Germany can explain the racial justifications behind the extermination of the Jews.
Jews weren't the only targets of the Nazi regime. The death camps claimed not only Jews and political enemies, but also the mentally retarded, deformed, and handicapped in Europe. Hitler sought to purge from his society those elements he thought were harmful to the racial superiority of the German People.
The Nazis gave eugenics a bad rap, and maybe it's time we realized that eugenics is nothing to be afraid of.
Eugenics: The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.
As employed, this is the forced sterilization of people by the government to attempt to prevent the expression of undesirable traits in the future. The Virginia Eugenics laws (which ultimately served as the template for similar laws in Nazi Germany) allowed the state to sterilize those deemed to be unfit to breed.
I'm not even going to quote from your somewhat disturbing characterization of African Americans as genetically inferior to white people, nor am I going to address the both terrifying and disheartening implications of that characterization.
Realize, however, that the veneration of ignorance you speak of is alive and well in rural white communities as well. In fact, the veneration of ignorance is a universal trend among the economically disadvantaged as long as the education system remains disproportionately targeted at the middle and upper classes. Want to solve this problem? The answer isn't sterilizing the poor; it's putting more time and energy into technical education and getting away from the mythos that everyone should go to college.
We then go on into a shockingly revealing one liner in which you assert that IQ is determined by genetics. In fact there are few if any reputable studies supporting this claim. Genetics certainly play a roll, but a bewildering assortment of factors act on a human being, beginning well before birth and progressing until after puberty that can have profound impact on IQ.
If you're paying so much in taxes that your yearly tax burden exceeds the cost of your home, travel expenses, education, and all recreational activities combined I can only presume you are exceedingly bad at math and tax forms, or that you simply live with your parents and don't get out much. Given your narrow minded view of the world the latter seems more likely.
And now we get to your grand finale. Let me get this straight. We want to fix our economy by enacting laws mandating the forced sterilization of all persons who you deem to be "uneducated, unemployable, and have demonstrated themselves culturally unreceptive to learning."
So, once we've spent billions of dollars rounding up an appreciable portion of the people that make our world work (sanitary workers, waiters, construction workers, food service personnel) and exposing them to powerful radiological sterilization equipment, thereby depriving them of liberty and arguably property without due process of law, what then?
When we've eliminated these lower portions of our economic classes who will do that work? When we tell these people they can't have children and that they don't contribute enough to our society to make it worth
That's the theory, but in practice it works differently.
Lets say Disney has a value of X dollars. This value represents the sum total of all assets Disney holds minus all liabilities Disney holds.
Now, Disney stock is worth Y, which is the street value of each share of Disney stock currently in circulation, not all of this stock is -=in=- circulation. Y is generally bigger than X. However, Y represents the perceived value of the stock at some indeterminate future time as traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
The number Disney is talking about is Z. Z is the value of the Disney corporations Assets, minus its liabilities, plus something ethereal which represents the Good Name of the Disney corporation. This discrepancy accounts for unquantifiable values such as the loyalty of Disney's customers, the value of the contacts Disney holds, and the universal name recognition of things like Disney World, Mickey Mouse, and Donald Duck.
In most cases Y > Z. In Disney's case this isn't true because it's their BUISNESS to create the vague concepts that make Z big. Disney wants more money to represent the true value of their company. They're probably justified in asking for it.
It frightens me that the fundamental rational for the Eugenics Laws of the industrial revolution is met with a "+3 Insightful" modifier here.
Human kind has, for the most part, long since stopped selecting for any survival based trait. You want to talk about things that fuck with national selection? Talk birth control, talk college tuition. The upper classes have fewer children because these children cost money and cost time. The lower classes have more children because they tend to be less educated about birth control and ways to avoid this as well as somewhat more deluded as to the roll a child will play in their lives.
What you're doing is taking something many people have an aversion to (intrusive gene therapy etc) and using it as a rational for why bloody wars that clean out the working classes are good. You're basically making the argument that rich beautiful people (most of whom got beautiful primarily by virtue of being rich) are actually better in a vague "scientific evolutionary" sense than the rest of us.
The corollary is that the poor and ugly people are worse. The same logic was used to justify the sterilization movements in the United States and the extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany.
Yea.... real insightful.
I've often wondered if this kind of technology might be employed in a legal manner by businesses and other establishments. If enough people take to using these devices the FCC may well bow to public pressure.
It won't be much later that we'll see restaurants offering "cellular or non-cellular" seating and theaters (both cinematic and live) physically preventing the use of phones in their establishments.
I welcome it. Cell phones have their uses but are frankly some of the most intrusive devices to penetrate the market as of late. There are barriers of common courtesy that need to remain in place. The person you're standing in front of simply needs to take precedence over the person calling you to let you know orange juice is on sale. The cashier has the right to expect you to pay attention to your purchase. And damnit, I have the right to a dinner in peace.
public void rant() {
I'm inclined to agree with you here. The difference between F*CK and FUCK is a vowell. What's so offensive about the letter "U?"
The people who insist on this are prudish and quite frankly oversensitive. More so if they feel somewhat better about it after the removal of the moraly corrupting influence of the letter "U."
What innocence are we really protecting? I don't know a single 3rd grader who hasn't allready heard basicly every single curse word in the english language (my wife's in public education, I know a lot of 3rd graders). Will they be transformed into black leather wearing, public building vandilizing, heroin shooting punks by seeing curse words in print or on TV? Doubtfull.
I'm not saying we should sit little Johnny down in front of Pulp Fiction rather than the Micky Mouse Club, I'm just saying we need to lighten up a bit.
We're teaching sex education to these kids in the 3rd grade. We're showing them images of death and human suffering that will scar their minds for ever. But if they read, or God forbid, use a four letter word for fecal matter we act like they've been watching someone eat kittens or something.
}
Several problems with this idea.
1.) As far as I know a company can not refuse to tell you the information contained in your file. Thus, when Aunt Betty calls in and the topic of her PPQ comes up, she'll be mad as hell when she finds out she's categorized as "vapid bafoon."
2.) Even in the case of the technicaly inclined, there is the (substantial) risk for abuse of this system. EG - Video failure for a component device. Yes you could test every single cable and then call support, but a fair number of people would go through three "self diagnosed" components before they decided it was time to get back there and start testing. The company can afford to eat the cost of only so many devices and shipping costs before this becomes a problem.
3.) God help you if they don't want the product back. Logitech is like this. If your system is under warenty they don't want you to ship the broken one back to them. I know more than a few people who have gotten 3 or 4 free keyboard/mouse sets out of them for their friends and family by claiming damages w/in warrenty.
I'm sure there are other problems. A fair number of people will call me at work and ask for the engineers right off the bat. Out of 10 calls like that I can solve the problem 9 times. The engineering staff is payed more than me and typicaly has a deeper call queue than I do... why should I waste their time?
I do the same thing. The number of people who tell me "there wasn't an option for what I wanted, so I just chose technical support" is astounding. We need to either expand our menu structure or implement this system. I had one woman tell me she'd been fighting the menu for the last 45 minutes. Yikes.
Anyone want to make a prediction as to the date when we'll see a fesable biometric safty on firearms?
I.E. A palm/finger print reader that won't let little Johnny fire the gun but Dad can?
My understanding of the corporate structure is as follows...
Echosphere is the root.
Echostar and some hardware company are children of Echosphere. Echostar deals with the provider side of the operation. The hardware company makes (shocker) hardware.
Dish Network is a child of Echostar, selling program to the masses. Other divisions of Echostar actualy do things like sign programing contracts etc. Very confusing.... I've given up trying to understand it and just happily cash my paycheck.
Since we're doing the Dish Receiver Model Rundown....
301 & 311 -- 1 Tuner, 1 Output
322 -- 2 Tuner, 2 Output
501,508,510 -- 1 Tuner, 1 Output, DVR
522 -- 2 Tuner, 2 Output, DVR, will allow 1 output mode with new software
721 -- 2 Tuner, 1 Output, DVR
811 -- 1 Tuner, 1 Output, HD
921 -- 2 Tuner, 1 Output, HD, DVR
The real advantage of the *22 series is that the charges don't double up. Example, to wire two rooms with 2 301's requires a 4.99 additional outlset fee. With a 322 that fee doesn't exist. With a 522 it's actualy a bit nicer, as you pay only one service fee on the DVR instead of the two you'd be paying normaly for 2 DVR locations. You also get to cut out the other 4.99 fee as well.
Disclaimer: I presently draw a paycheck from Echosphere, parent company of Echostar, parent company of Dish Network.
I'll lay this down for you all. There are definite advantages to both Satellite and Cable. The experience you have with either service will differ depending on what you choose as far as your service contract goes.
First, though, a few myths to dispel or clarify as the case may be.
Weather Related Signal Loss: Signal Strength is generally rated on a 125 point scale with Dish Network (100 points with DirecTV if memory serves). During a heavy rain storm you should expect to see a signal loss of about 20 points. At about 50 points of total signal you'll see pixilation occurring due to the MPEG2 compression. At 40 points you'll loose signal altogether unless it's a massively redundant broadcast. Your typical install with four receivers will get you 98 - 120 signal on each receiver.
During snow you will experience signal loss, especially if your dish is at a higher angle of elevation. This is because snow will collect on the reflecting surface, blocking the signal.
Hidden Charges There is no such thing as a hidden charge.... provided you read the contract. I'm familiar with Dish's contracts and they're written in fairly tame legal speak, if I can understand it you can to. Yes, you will be charged for additional receivers. Yes, the equipment is up to you to maintain after the first year unless you arrange otherwise. Yes your installation is probably not under warranty beyond 90 days. Dish offers a number of fairly good warranty plans including the Digital Home Advantage plan, which for the most part covers all of your equipment and charges nominal fees for things like restringing all the cable in your house in the event of a catastrophic failure of some kind. I'm sure DirecTV has a similar offer; I don't know what it is.
HD TV - If you must have HD and you've already set with the equipment your best bet is going to be Voom. If you're still looking into getting the equipment, Dish runs a close 2nd with the 811 (standard HD receiver) being a pretty standard part of most installs (at customer request). Dish also offers a promotion called HD In a Box, wherein you get an 811 plus a 34 or 40 inch HD set to go with it for about $999.
Now, as far as drawback to satellite v cable go, it breaks like this.
Cable
-- Bigger rate increases
-- Crappy customer service (getting better)
-- Higher rates overall
Satellite
-- Equipment is your problem for the most part
-- Local channels are extra (5.99 typically) and may not be offered in your area
-- Extra charges per additional receiver.
And finally, a tidbit of wisdom for those of you considering signing up for a satellite dish right now. The Dish Network DVR 522 is offered as part of Digital Home Advantage. Presently it allows DVR service in two rooms more or less for the price of one room. Future software will allow you to use this receiver as a dual tuner DVR in one location if you so choose (and it will toggle between the two). That feature isn't ready yet, so it's not being advertised... but when we see it it's gonna be sweet!
I have a close friend of mine who flew with the Luftwaffe during WWII and had the privilege of flying a Me262. From what he tells me the 80% failure rate is highly exaggerated due largely to the fact that it seems to include things like the original test programs (wherein people tended to fly them into things like mountains).
Once pilots were properly trained the craft worked well provided you didn't try to cut power back too far. The only real issue with flying them was the danger of allied bombing raids and fighter strikes during landing and take off. By the time the Me262 was in any sort of regular use the allies held enough sway in the skies over Europe that a safe base of operations didn't exist for them.
Allied pilots learned quickly that against a Me262 they had virtually no chance in a dog fight, so they trailed them back to their landing fields (out of visual range) and hit them on the run way. Remarkably effective tactic for dealing with a far superior aircraft.
... and then follow the white rabbit....
Once again we get to address arguments.
Drugs -- Drugs have been a problem with humanity far before public education existed. I'm sure you're not positing that teenage drug use is a good reason to close down the public school system, thereby denying millions an education.
Alcohol -- They're not getting alcohol at school... well, not the smart ones anyhow. It's too bulky to easily smuggle into and out of a school. They're getting it from their friends after school. You don't think that without public schools people won't have friends do you?
Teen Pregnancy -- It's not a social atmosphere from school. Teen pregnancy is a perfectly natural part of human development. It wasn't until fairly recently that we started giving a shit about it. My grandmother was married at 14 and popping out munchkins at 17 (pesky WWII got in the way). Teen pregnancy has become a problem because of a changing social atmosphere outside schools.
Depression -- There we go. What an argument. Kids don't like being forced to learn so we shouldn't teach them. Wow... you're more libreal than I thought. Depression is teen angst. Most teenagers are "depressed" because it gets them attention. Depression is like being a fan of the Back Street Boys, something you grow out of. Admittedly, there are the very select few that actualy suffer from a disorder and need treatment... of course, most medical evidence suggests that as this is a neurochemical inbalance the absence or presence of education will not agrivate it.
Run-aways -- I'm not sure where you're sending your kids. Running away from home is the kind of thing you skip town for. You're generaly not going to school with people from out of town.
Suicide -- I think you'd be hard pressed to find a suicide note from a teenager lamenting the state of public education.