IANAL, IIRC, and other acronyms starting with "I", but...
I believe, after hearing about the recent wine-sales case in Michigan, that it's considered non-obstructing if the law is applied equally to both in-state and out-of-state businesses.
Make a law like that, though, and watch the Joe-jobs flood in. Those, and the claims by everyone else that they're just being Joe-jobbed or promoted by "unscrupulus independent affiliates".
What they lack in technical features, they greatly make up for in the human element. This is one of the few companies that I've actually raved over the tech support for, and have turned down cheaper competitors for.
For instance, I was having connection problems. For some reason, when I downloaded music from eMusic, over standard HTTP transactions, after about one or two albums, the site would just start timing out. I was new to broadband at the time, so I blindly did some research, and came to very few conclusions. It seemed like some sort of buffer overflow, but I couldn't find anything with my symptoms. I tried Actiontec, the maker of the DSL modem, whose moronic reply, "The site is sending too much data" told me nothing.
I called TDS, and told them what I thought might be the problem. Okay, tech support personnel, I'm one of those people you hate, I'm sure. I pre-diagnose a problem, and call in with a preconcieved expectation of what the answer might be. Anyhow, I'd only just gotten into broadband, so I was looking up the completely wrong transmission standard (PPPoE, not ATM), and completely botching at the whole research angle.
The tech on staff didn't just tell me "that's not it", but ended up getting into suprising depth about ATM, and the difference between PPPoE and ATM, etc, etc. They tried to procure me an older model of modem, to see if that would work. They ended up shipping me three replacements (the same model I had), which I returned for free, and I eventually did plug in one of the replacements, just for shits and giggles. It turns out, it was just a faulty modem.
Their sales team, as well, is commendable.
Every so often, the prices on different plans come down. Usually, they just bump it so that if you watch their sales fliers, you can upgrade to a much faster connection for the same price you had. I started with a 256/256 connection, and upgraded to a 720/720 synchronous when the prices shifted. Later, I called about an upgrade to a 2MBps/540kbps asynch connection at the same price.
The salesperson actually warned me against the upgrade, saying that I might be stuck with the asynch connection and the contract extension if I was too far from the CO to get 2Mb speeds. Not to mention that I was able to talk off-the-cuff about issues like the CO distance and local loops and such with someone in sales. It turned out that I was too far away (I'm close to the CO, but on the "back" part of the loop.), but I still have the 720 synchronous connection.
Downsides?
Since it's DSL, the speed/price might not be the best ratio. The current plan is 2Mbps at about $30, with a 2-year contract and requiring a landline plan as well.
They block port 25 (SMTP) outgoing. It's a PITA, but I deal with it.
The phone company and the ISP are somewhat separate. That means that if you look on the wrong site or get the wrong phone number, they kick you over to the counterpart, and you have to wait through hold music again.
There may be a couple technical shortfalls, but the service and support make TDSMetrocom a winner in my book.
I doubt it's as much a matter of a "Massive Shareholder" as the fact that it's just not worth it to support Linux for many consumer-level ISPs. Carve out the number of home Linux machines from the total market. From that, carve out the number of Linux users who AREN'T advanced enough to resolve their own issues. The handful of people you'd have left hardly justifies setting up a support infrastructure for Linux.
Bakeries and stationery stores don't have to retool their business models, because their business models aren't broken. (Although, those suffering from WalMartization might be forced to, just as ad companies suffering from blocking are forced to change.) The advert model in its current form is, appearantly, broken.
If the content draws enough people, and the owner wants it to persist, it (generally) will. A free/paid mix of content can be set up. The provider can monetize in different ways, such as audience data mining, affiliate plans, or swag sales. They can set up a "tip jar". They can network with other similar sites to make a network and take advantage of numbers. They can minimize costs by taking advantage of things like mirroring or BitTorrent. They can take advantage of their community by putting out a call for mirrorers. They can offload the content to a mailing list to relax web bandwidth needs. The can open-license the content and let it prosper in fansites.
Or, there's always failure. Not all ideas are good, and not all should be treated like they are.
Although the limitations can be simulated, as well, I think there is something to be said for learning on a restrictive system of film/paper photo printing. The lack of immediacy and the higher value of a given shot means that people who use (or even start by using) these limiting methods will be forced to think more about the process beforehand, and end up better at photography, even when using quicker digital methods.
It's similar to the fact of most graphic design studies requiring students to start with hand-drawn and hand-assembled layouts. Sure, it's anachronistic, and not really applicable in full to the modern world and workflow, but it blatantly requires the skills that will come into play subtly in later days.
This isn't to say that paper photography may not have other visual, artistic, or quality merits, but these merits are more personal and less concrete, and less objectively arguable.
Not to mention the old digital/analog difference in degradation. With digital, when it's good, it's good, but when it's bad, it's bad. If you get, say, a wrinkle in a VHS tape, the screen might roll for a moment and the audio might make that metallic static noise. If you scratch a DVD, a lot of times, the picture freezes, grind-grind-grind, and you either lose some time or bomb out with a "data error".
I don't think I've ever said this... in fact I find this type of post annoying and cluttersome, but, well, I must make an exception: The PP rings through loud and clear with Insightfulness and should be modded sky-high accordingly.
Now if I could just afford the blasted thing. Contrary to what I'd like to believe, Adobe did actually make one exemplary product, and that's Photoshop. Maybe After Effects, too, but definitely PS.
Comapnies like Adobe OWE a LOT to piracy, as I've never met a PS user who didn't owe some part of his/her PS skills to pirated copies, and who would have been as likly to support a PS purchase without piracy.
I got a copy of Aldus PhotoStyler SE free with my Sound Blaster 16. I used that for a number of years, and moved on to CorelDRAW 7.0 SE (A good deal for $99... enough for a working HS student). I made the jump to CD10 and now CD12. The skills I learned there allowed me to quickly pick up Photoshop in college.
Now, I'm not saying that a.) You know me, b.) I'm not an exception, c.) I've never pirated anything else, or d.) I disagree with your sentiment, just that...
well...
Okay, I really didn't have much of a point, 'cept maybe "Nyeah, nyeah", or "Au contraire!" (in a smug voice).
OTOH (the other hand to the sarcasm), there are people like me who just aren't cut out to be the entreprenurial(sp?) type. I suck at the things like deadlines, management, looking impressive, and those things that make shining entrepreneurial successes shining successes. I'm not sad or angry about this, because (albeit probably because of my inability) this is not what I want to do.
By trade, inclination, and love, I am a (starting) graphic designer. I don't want to be a business-owning graphic designer, but I also don't want to work somewhere awful or be the company bitch, which is why the boost in skills that college brought me helped.
Basically, I want to sit around and pump out artful, useful, and effective pieces of graphic communication, and an employee-style job, in my opinion, is an acceptable tradeoff to allow me to do this, while not having to deal with running the whole show with its struggles and liabilities. This allows me to have a stress-free(r) life, in which I can pursue other leisurely interests, perhaps even entreprenurial, which will not affect the "bread on my table" if I should either fail to or not wish to sustain profit.
There may be a 1st-Am violation from the perspective of a content producer that gets blocked, in that the state are the ones making the list.
I don't think there'd be a Commerce Clause violation, because (IIRC, from the recent wine-sale case in Michigan), a regulation that is applied equally to in- and out-of-state business is fairly restricting overall commerce. Not to say that the Court and Congress haven't overstretched the Commerce Clause. I still have yet to figure out the thought behind the recent medical marijuana SCOTUS ruling.
Slashdot Mirror
IANAL, IIRC, and other acronyms starting with "I", but...
I believe, after hearing about the recent wine-sales case in Michigan, that it's considered non-obstructing if the law is applied equally to both in-state and out-of-state businesses.
Make a law like that, though, and watch the Joe-jobs flood in. Those, and the claims by everyone else that they're just being Joe-jobbed or promoted by "unscrupulus independent affiliates".
TDS Metrocom, DSL, Grand Rapids, MI:
8.5 (Very satisfied)
What they lack in technical features, they greatly make up for in the human element. This is one of the few companies that I've actually raved over the tech support for, and have turned down cheaper competitors for.
For instance, I was having connection problems. For some reason, when I downloaded music from eMusic, over standard HTTP transactions, after about one or two albums, the site would just start timing out. I was new to broadband at the time, so I blindly did some research, and came to very few conclusions. It seemed like some sort of buffer overflow, but I couldn't find anything with my symptoms. I tried Actiontec, the maker of the DSL modem, whose moronic reply, "The site is sending too much data" told me nothing.
I called TDS, and told them what I thought might be the problem. Okay, tech support personnel, I'm one of those people you hate, I'm sure. I pre-diagnose a problem, and call in with a preconcieved expectation of what the answer might be. Anyhow, I'd only just gotten into broadband, so I was looking up the completely wrong transmission standard (PPPoE, not ATM), and completely botching at the whole research angle.
The tech on staff didn't just tell me "that's not it", but ended up getting into suprising depth about ATM, and the difference between PPPoE and ATM, etc, etc. They tried to procure me an older model of modem, to see if that would work. They ended up shipping me three replacements (the same model I had), which I returned for free, and I eventually did plug in one of the replacements, just for shits and giggles. It turns out, it was just a faulty modem.
Their sales team, as well, is commendable.
Every so often, the prices on different plans come down. Usually, they just bump it so that if you watch their sales fliers, you can upgrade to a much faster connection for the same price you had. I started with a 256/256 connection, and upgraded to a 720/720 synchronous when the prices shifted. Later, I called about an upgrade to a 2MBps/540kbps asynch connection at the same price.
The salesperson actually warned me against the upgrade, saying that I might be stuck with the asynch connection and the contract extension if I was too far from the CO to get 2Mb speeds. Not to mention that I was able to talk off-the-cuff about issues like the CO distance and local loops and such with someone in sales. It turned out that I was too far away (I'm close to the CO, but on the "back" part of the loop.), but I still have the 720 synchronous connection.
Downsides?
Since it's DSL, the speed/price might not be the best ratio. The current plan is 2Mbps at about $30, with a 2-year contract and requiring a landline plan as well.
They block port 25 (SMTP) outgoing. It's a PITA, but I deal with it.
The phone company and the ISP are somewhat separate. That means that if you look on the wrong site or get the wrong phone number, they kick you over to the counterpart, and you have to wait through hold music again.
There may be a couple technical shortfalls, but the service and support make TDSMetrocom a winner in my book.
I doubt it's as much a matter of a "Massive Shareholder" as the fact that it's just not worth it to support Linux for many consumer-level ISPs. Carve out the number of home Linux machines from the total market. From that, carve out the number of Linux users who AREN'T advanced enough to resolve their own issues. The handful of people you'd have left hardly justifies setting up a support infrastructure for Linux.
Hey, we've only got so many "m"s here.
Wow. I need synonyms for "advantage". You get the idea.
Bakeries and stationery stores don't have to retool their business models, because their business models aren't broken. (Although, those suffering from WalMartization might be forced to, just as ad companies suffering from blocking are forced to change.) The advert model in its current form is, appearantly, broken.
If the content draws enough people, and the owner wants it to persist, it (generally) will. A free/paid mix of content can be set up. The provider can monetize in different ways, such as audience data mining, affiliate plans, or swag sales. They can set up a "tip jar". They can network with other similar sites to make a network and take advantage of numbers. They can minimize costs by taking advantage of things like mirroring or BitTorrent. They can take advantage of their community by putting out a call for mirrorers. They can offload the content to a mailing list to relax web bandwidth needs. The can open-license the content and let it prosper in fansites.
Or, there's always failure. Not all ideas are good, and not all should be treated like they are.
And theologists continue to debate respawn.
Although, 20% of the teens will be innovative new media viral WOM-propagation marketing professionals.
Ah, hell, never mind. I reread the PP and realized my reply was totally on a tangent to what the author was saying. Disregard.
Although the limitations can be simulated, as well, I think there is something to be said for learning on a restrictive system of film/paper photo printing. The lack of immediacy and the higher value of a given shot means that people who use (or even start by using) these limiting methods will be forced to think more about the process beforehand, and end up better at photography, even when using quicker digital methods.
It's similar to the fact of most graphic design studies requiring students to start with hand-drawn and hand-assembled layouts. Sure, it's anachronistic, and not really applicable in full to the modern world and workflow, but it blatantly requires the skills that will come into play subtly in later days.
This isn't to say that paper photography may not have other visual, artistic, or quality merits, but these merits are more personal and less concrete, and less objectively arguable.
RTFS?
Black and white photo work (especially because you can use a safelight!) is a wonderful way of introducing someone to photography.
B&W photographaphic printing is easier (and cheaper, I think) than color, and it's a good way for beginners or hobbyists to print their own photos.
Perhaps a quiz on the article in the installer, to keep them motivated?
Perfect!
Not to mention the old digital/analog difference in degradation. With digital, when it's good, it's good, but when it's bad, it's bad. If you get, say, a wrinkle in a VHS tape, the screen might roll for a moment and the audio might make that metallic static noise. If you scratch a DVD, a lot of times, the picture freezes, grind-grind-grind, and you either lose some time or bomb out with a "data error".
The quest for a perfect metaphor continues...
Sneaking into theatres?
I don't think I've ever said this... in fact I find this type of post annoying and cluttersome, but, well, I must make an exception: The PP rings through loud and clear with Insightfulness and should be modded sky-high accordingly.
In defense, I've heard (through channels, no citation, unfortunately) that italics are actually easier to read.
Because, well, you didn't go out and write the piece of software yourself, so you've got no right to control the scope or terms of the distribution.
Professional software or not, it's still work you didn't do and the fruits of which you don't (legally, and I would say morally) control.
Oh, and, I use it at work... hence "user".
Now if I could just afford the blasted thing. Contrary to what I'd like to believe, Adobe did actually make one exemplary product, and that's Photoshop. Maybe After Effects, too, but definitely PS.
Comapnies like Adobe OWE a LOT to piracy, as I've never met a PS user who didn't owe some part of his/her PS skills to pirated copies, and who would have been as likly to support a PS purchase without piracy.
I got a copy of Aldus PhotoStyler SE free with my Sound Blaster 16. I used that for a number of years, and moved on to CorelDRAW 7.0 SE (A good deal for $99... enough for a working HS student). I made the jump to CD10 and now CD12. The skills I learned there allowed me to quickly pick up Photoshop in college.
Now, I'm not saying that a.) You know me, b.) I'm not an exception, c.) I've never pirated anything else, or d.) I disagree with your sentiment, just that...
well...
Okay, I really didn't have much of a point, 'cept maybe "Nyeah, nyeah", or "Au contraire!" (in a smug voice).
Yes, but the electrical energy used for the freezer is the source of more heat.
OTOH (the other hand to the sarcasm), there are people like me who just aren't cut out to be the entreprenurial(sp?) type. I suck at the things like deadlines, management, looking impressive, and those things that make shining entrepreneurial successes shining successes. I'm not sad or angry about this, because (albeit probably because of my inability) this is not what I want to do.
By trade, inclination, and love, I am a (starting) graphic designer. I don't want to be a business-owning graphic designer, but I also don't want to work somewhere awful or be the company bitch, which is why the boost in skills that college brought me helped.
Basically, I want to sit around and pump out artful, useful, and effective pieces of graphic communication, and an employee-style job, in my opinion, is an acceptable tradeoff to allow me to do this, while not having to deal with running the whole show with its struggles and liabilities. This allows me to have a stress-free(r) life, in which I can pursue other leisurely interests, perhaps even entreprenurial, which will not affect the "bread on my table" if I should either fail to or not wish to sustain profit.
Perhaps some sort of multiplexer, and a second, hidden POS machine running a demo.
There may be a 1st-Am violation from the perspective of a content producer that gets blocked, in that the state are the ones making the list.
I don't think there'd be a Commerce Clause violation, because (IIRC, from the recent wine-sale case in Michigan), a regulation that is applied equally to in- and out-of-state business is fairly restricting overall commerce. Not to say that the Court and Congress haven't overstretched the Commerce Clause. I still have yet to figure out the thought behind the recent medical marijuana SCOTUS ruling.