I have Comcast. They're not much more expensive (if at all) than the AT&T U-Verse or DirecTV offerings. I've configured similar packages for each and they all come out about the same. As far as service, they seem really attentive on the phone. If they can fix it while speaking with me, they do. The couple times someone had to come out has always been a problem ("Be there between noon and 5 PM...oh, sorry, technician was delayed...how about noon and 5 PM tomorrow?") but then I've always been credited something when I've complained.
Once I actually left a long rant on their phone questionnaire about the service because the technician had canceled, then shown up, and acted as if it were my fault for going back to work. They called that night to say they'd have a technician at my house at 7 AM sharp if that was appropriate for my work schedule. I was genuinely surprised -- I didn't think anyone actually listened to those "Customer Service Surveys".
I haven't been hit by any bandwidth caps yet, though one of my housemates just downloaded 9 DVDs worth of data last month. I guess I'll see how that affects my bill, if at all.
My point is, most of the time Comcast just works. And the times when it doesn't, they're best on the phone, but they do try.
All that being said, aside from tennis (why I need to watch standard definition anything these days...but the Tennis Channel HD isn't available on Comcast), I hardly watch TV anymore. I'm considering canceling the TV portion ($100/month) and just keeping the Internet...using that to stream Hulu, etc.
True. Being an asshole is very subjective. I think most cases wouldn't make it in front of a jury (and shouldn't less the legality of being an asshole confuse people). I would say leave the asshole claims for judge-only presidings -- more of a People's Court venue rather than something where lawyers can double-speak.
This is people being mean. Most kids hate their small towns. Most people hate their small towns (until they reach a certain age, at which point they consider anyone younger than them "newcomers" and feel the town was better without them). To print a kid's rant in a newspaper is flat out spiteful, unprofessional, and certainly not very adult.
If a judge could rule in favor of the principal and newspaper being complete asses (which I firmly believe should be possible under the law, and if it's not, let's start a ballot proposition), he should do so, and have them publicly apologize in their own newspaper for being such.
What the hell with these people. I'm not even that old, but I'm wise enough to know that 95% of what a teenager says is emotion and not reason. Shrug it off, ESPECIALLY if it offends you, as that was likely the intent. They're teenagers!
We had the Subaru and a Civic (now just a Civic due to circumstances beyond our control -- darn kids). We were thinking of trading in the Civic for an Acura TSX to have a more luxurious 4-door. Nice car, congratulations on a good deal.
You would think this would already be in the contract they signed. I mean, it's not only programmers who have to guess the possible errors users will make ("Enter the number of fingers on your right hand: [Same as my left.]"). Lawyers and consultants should have stipulations if something doesn't occur as planned. Point to page Section 27, paragraph 3, and avoid the cheesy media coverage.
Don't most places with an online presence WANT links to their sites? It's people clicking through these links and getting page hits that generate ad revenue for them.
I dunno, dog. This idea is just okay for me, ya know.
should have been a 25K car cost cap. That way most people could only barely not afford it.
Tell me about it. House or car? House...or car? We went with the house as at one point in recent American history owning a home was considered an investment. And we're a DIGK (dual income graduated kids) family. I don't understand what it takes to own a $30K+ car. The 4% loan on a Subaru WRX wagon at $24K was $450/month. Without serious money down on a $30K car, I wouldn't bother. Buy used.
Sure, Sprint can put several thousand dollars on your bill in one month because you used your data plan in Canada or something.
Blast it, he wandered north of the border again! Those bloody canucks are going to send their goons down here to collect for us using their network again. God, I hope he pays his bill on time...I don't want another "Flat Jimmy" incident...
But is the law under which she is considered guilty reasonable? That's really the question at the heart of RIAA vs The Consumer. Sometimes I look at all the hard work and money that goes into making and marketing a recording artist, and think it IS wrong to acquire songs without payment. The music has value, otherwise we wouldn't buy it.
But then the Internet has drastically changed how fast music can be sent around the world -- I envision in the not too distant future wireless connectivity everywhere and you just have a music subscription to everything (or maybe, like TV, certain channels, etc). Wherever you are, you can turn on your car, your iPod, your stereo, and select any of numerous playlists you've saved in your online profile, and just listen. Nothing is stored locally -- it doesn't have to be. But you pay for access.
With a 200 person law firm, you're probably the lowest of 2 or 3 people. Find a position somewhere where you're the jack-of-all-trades -- you do the tech support, server management, web development, purchasing, etc. You'll work long hours because the tech support prevents focused work on the other things, so be prepared. But you'll learn alot if you're driven and you can finally have "Server Administration" or "Web Design" on your resume. It won't get you into Google, but experience may get you a junior admin job.
To find this entry level everything job, look at 100 person or less businesses or colleges. Colleges will be easier as they aren't money driven.
I'm happy with a high fantasy setting -- I like Paladins, am fond of Elves, have it in for Dwarves, and think Orcs should be pitied. So leave me with Western mythology, but change up the gameplay. More than anything I'd like a game where there's a slight learning curve for the controls and such, but there isn't a level distinction. Even Pippin and Merry were useful alongside the likes of Aragorn and Legolas -- but in most MMOs, the difference between a level 5 and a level 50 is between a tricycle and a battleship. Give me a game with lateral skills rather than vertical -- Pippin should be able to do some serious damage if Aragorn isn't paying attention. I'd rather see Aragorn's Battle Sense skill increase than just a number which means anyone 5 levels below can't lay a hand on him.
And don't get me started on the World with a Purpose, thing: wolf attacks on neighboring farms cause a shortage in food at the bakers so characters either need to protect the farms or learn to hunt or starve. Then the baker's daughter earns a crush on you so you get reduced prices on your gooseberry pies, but then an orc raid captures or kills her (if only you'd been there to save her!). And when you go to collect 10 Furry Feathers, it's not just to turn into a garrison guard for XP, but it's so the garrison can continue to make arrows against those orc raids that captured the baker's daughter. People can lose a city if they don't help defend it -- can you imagine if Freeport was overrun in EQ?
But I will say that having lived on Nantucket Island, New York City, and now California's Central Valley, I definitely appreciate going back to the sandbar and seeing what a night sky really looks like. I did spend a night in the Badlands of South Dakota -- and I think that is the most stars I've ever seen...it was like the entire sky wasn't black with pinpoints of light, but more of a fuzzy white with brighter spots. Truly amazing until the buffalo attack... (kidding)
Tethering usually incurs an extra $30/month "tethering plan" on TOP of whatever data plan you already have. I helped faculty members on both Sprint and Verizon. Sprint didn't warn the person they would be charged an exorbitant amount for that 10 minutes of unplanned tethering. Verizon at least had the decency to display a website that stopped you unless you signed up for the $30/month plan. The first guy got nailed for $80 worth of data transfer -- for checking email.
I can see why you'd want to tether your laptop. iPhone is a pretty nice portable computer though.
Hang up your god damn phone and drive you stupid piece of shit!
I realize you're probably using "you" as a generic "you people who do this" but to clarify, I DO have an iPhone and wouldn't text while I drive anyway (I have enough trouble changing radio stations...)
I tend to feel the days of thinking it's okay to insult someone out of hand on the Internet are drawing to a close. People used to do it because they could. Now with user posting histories and login names, people are doing it less often. I'm hoping they are also not doing it as much because they are learning it's a big world and a "community" not a boxing ring.
The person may not have been a native English speaker, but I have doubts that calling him "dumb" is accurate.
I was turned off by the easily micro-scratched Storm display, it's cheap feel in general, and the "whole front is one button" sort of thing. If you're one of those text-while-you-drive people, tactile feedback is a must -- it's impossible to touch-type reliably on the iPhone (you can do it, just expect some gibberish). But while the Storm seemed close to the mark, it's cheesy (no offense if you like it, this is my opinion only) solution to touchscreen feedback and its cheap construction, and its lack of wi-fi make it inferior.
My wife's Blackberry Curve is, of course, a full keyboard and little pearl mouse thingy for scrolling around. And surprisingly, I like it -- the interface is snappy, intuitive, clean. I do prefer the font on the iPhone...have 1980s TTY font for everything is a little tough to read on the Blackberry, but it gets the job done.
I just like to note here that I started in the early 90s with a company that didn't care to invest too much in infrastructure. Now I'm working at a University and they care about their data, but also don't want to spend money on keeping it safe. This makes my job easier, but I don't sleep as well at night knowing that I don't have the best backup scheme or the best surge protection, simply because I can't afford it. Not having the experience of keeping truly critical data safe, my heart palpitates thinking about working in IT for a hospital where not just your job but people's lives are on the line if you screw up.
I stress enough about kicking Eudora to the curb, never mind trying to make 100s of TB of data highly available in case a doctor needs a patients allergy history pulled in a blink or we're all dead, Scotty.
But seriously... this is one of the biggest problems with the "paperless" society. Yes, it's nice to have electronic copies of things, but magnetically-stored data (or even optically-stored data) degrades far faster than a paper copy.
While you may not be able to rely on DVDs or CDs or even tape for as long as paper, the trend is to rely on active disks. You simply keep migrating the data to newer equipment. The cost of physical space required to store paper documents will likely exceed the cost of electronic documentation, especially as drive sizes keep growing and costs for the drives continue to shrink. It's easier to store two rooms of medical records on a TB RAID array and transfer the info as needed to newer equipment, than it is to enter it, print it, file it, archive it, and find a shelf to store it on.
I'm guessing that Microsoft has about 4 dozen guys that know so much about finance, they know what they're doing more than some random dude Slashdotting from work.
Also, really the only thing novel about Duke is the humor.
That may be (though some of the weapons looked pretty cool and climbing on the larger bosses was neat, though not original). But humor can go a loooong way to making a run-of-the-mill game worth playing. There was a mediocre game called "Blood" back in the 90s -- kind of dark, but during multiplayer your character would shout random things -- like when you use overuse the flamethrower on one target he'd shout something like, "Burn! Burn!" and give this made cackle for about 10 seconds.
Portal was a fun puzzle game in itself, but it was the humor that made it win the awards.
Slashdot Mirror
I have Comcast. They're not much more expensive (if at all) than the AT&T U-Verse or DirecTV offerings. I've configured similar packages for each and they all come out about the same. As far as service, they seem really attentive on the phone. If they can fix it while speaking with me, they do. The couple times someone had to come out has always been a problem ("Be there between noon and 5 PM...oh, sorry, technician was delayed...how about noon and 5 PM tomorrow?") but then I've always been credited something when I've complained.
Once I actually left a long rant on their phone questionnaire about the service because the technician had canceled, then shown up, and acted as if it were my fault for going back to work. They called that night to say they'd have a technician at my house at 7 AM sharp if that was appropriate for my work schedule. I was genuinely surprised -- I didn't think anyone actually listened to those "Customer Service Surveys".
I haven't been hit by any bandwidth caps yet, though one of my housemates just downloaded 9 DVDs worth of data last month. I guess I'll see how that affects my bill, if at all.
My point is, most of the time Comcast just works. And the times when it doesn't, they're best on the phone, but they do try.
All that being said, aside from tennis (why I need to watch standard definition anything these days...but the Tennis Channel HD isn't available on Comcast), I hardly watch TV anymore. I'm considering canceling the TV portion ($100/month) and just keeping the Internet...using that to stream Hulu, etc.
True. Being an asshole is very subjective. I think most cases wouldn't make it in front of a jury (and shouldn't less the legality of being an asshole confuse people). I would say leave the asshole claims for judge-only presidings -- more of a People's Court venue rather than something where lawyers can double-speak.
This is people being mean. Most kids hate their small towns. Most people hate their small towns (until they reach a certain age, at which point they consider anyone younger than them "newcomers" and feel the town was better without them). To print a kid's rant in a newspaper is flat out spiteful, unprofessional, and certainly not very adult.
If a judge could rule in favor of the principal and newspaper being complete asses (which I firmly believe should be possible under the law, and if it's not, let's start a ballot proposition), he should do so, and have them publicly apologize in their own newspaper for being such.
What the hell with these people. I'm not even that old, but I'm wise enough to know that 95% of what a teenager says is emotion and not reason. Shrug it off, ESPECIALLY if it offends you, as that was likely the intent. They're teenagers!
We had the Subaru and a Civic (now just a Civic due to circumstances beyond our control -- darn kids). We were thinking of trading in the Civic for an Acura TSX to have a more luxurious 4-door. Nice car, congratulations on a good deal.
You would think this would already be in the contract they signed. I mean, it's not only programmers who have to guess the possible errors users will make ("Enter the number of fingers on your right hand: [Same as my left.]"). Lawyers and consultants should have stipulations if something doesn't occur as planned. Point to page Section 27, paragraph 3, and avoid the cheesy media coverage.
Don't most places with an online presence WANT links to their sites? It's people clicking through these links and getting page hits that generate ad revenue for them.
I dunno, dog. This idea is just okay for me, ya know.
This is Slashdot. We are the firewall Nazis.
Wouldn't that be Dammit, Jim, I'm no battery scientist!
should have been a 25K car cost cap.
That way most people could only barely not afford it.
Tell me about it. House or car? House...or car? We went with the house as at one point in recent American history owning a home was considered an investment. And we're a DIGK (dual income graduated kids) family. I don't understand what it takes to own a $30K+ car. The 4% loan on a Subaru WRX wagon at $24K was $450/month. Without serious money down on a $30K car, I wouldn't bother. Buy used.
Sure, Sprint can put several thousand dollars on your bill in one month because you used your data plan in Canada or something.
Blast it, he wandered north of the border again! Those bloody canucks are going to send their goons down here to collect for us using their network again. God, I hope he pays his bill on time...I don't want another "Flat Jimmy" incident...
I think it's fairly clear she was guilty.
But is the law under which she is considered guilty reasonable? That's really the question at the heart of RIAA vs The Consumer. Sometimes I look at all the hard work and money that goes into making and marketing a recording artist, and think it IS wrong to acquire songs without payment. The music has value, otherwise we wouldn't buy it.
But then the Internet has drastically changed how fast music can be sent around the world -- I envision in the not too distant future wireless connectivity everywhere and you just have a music subscription to everything (or maybe, like TV, certain channels, etc). Wherever you are, you can turn on your car, your iPod, your stereo, and select any of numerous playlists you've saved in your online profile, and just listen. Nothing is stored locally -- it doesn't have to be. But you pay for access.
With a 200 person law firm, you're probably the lowest of 2 or 3 people. Find a position somewhere where you're the jack-of-all-trades -- you do the tech support, server management, web development, purchasing, etc. You'll work long hours because the tech support prevents focused work on the other things, so be prepared. But you'll learn alot if you're driven and you can finally have "Server Administration" or "Web Design" on your resume. It won't get you into Google, but experience may get you a junior admin job.
To find this entry level everything job, look at 100 person or less businesses or colleges. Colleges will be easier as they aren't money driven.
Alternatively, in this job market, go to school.
Well, the three native third-party MacOS development shops are okay with the lack of backwards conpatibility. :-)
That's a good question, but they definitely knew. I wonder if it was the browser headers -- knowing that it's not a mobile browser for example.
I realize it's a desktop OS as well, but whenever I think of "screenshots" for Linux, my eye twitches.
I'm happy with a high fantasy setting -- I like Paladins, am fond of Elves, have it in for Dwarves, and think Orcs should be pitied. So leave me with Western mythology, but change up the gameplay. More than anything I'd like a game where there's a slight learning curve for the controls and such, but there isn't a level distinction. Even Pippin and Merry were useful alongside the likes of Aragorn and Legolas -- but in most MMOs, the difference between a level 5 and a level 50 is between a tricycle and a battleship. Give me a game with lateral skills rather than vertical -- Pippin should be able to do some serious damage if Aragorn isn't paying attention. I'd rather see Aragorn's Battle Sense skill increase than just a number which means anyone 5 levels below can't lay a hand on him.
And don't get me started on the World with a Purpose, thing: wolf attacks on neighboring farms cause a shortage in food at the bakers so characters either need to protect the farms or learn to hunt or starve. Then the baker's daughter earns a crush on you so you get reduced prices on your gooseberry pies, but then an orc raid captures or kills her (if only you'd been there to save her!). And when you go to collect 10 Furry Feathers, it's not just to turn into a garrison guard for XP, but it's so the garrison can continue to make arrows against those orc raids that captured the baker's daughter. People can lose a city if they don't help defend it -- can you imagine if Freeport was overrun in EQ?
No, I won't continue with the Texas theme song.
But I will say that having lived on Nantucket Island, New York City, and now California's Central Valley, I definitely appreciate going back to the sandbar and seeing what a night sky really looks like. I did spend a night in the Badlands of South Dakota -- and I think that is the most stars I've ever seen...it was like the entire sky wasn't black with pinpoints of light, but more of a fuzzy white with brighter spots. Truly amazing until the buffalo attack... (kidding)
Tethering usually incurs an extra $30/month "tethering plan" on TOP of whatever data plan you already have. I helped faculty members on both Sprint and Verizon. Sprint didn't warn the person they would be charged an exorbitant amount for that 10 minutes of unplanned tethering. Verizon at least had the decency to display a website that stopped you unless you signed up for the $30/month plan. The first guy got nailed for $80 worth of data transfer -- for checking email.
I can see why you'd want to tether your laptop. iPhone is a pretty nice portable computer though.
Hang up your god damn phone and drive you stupid piece of shit!
I realize you're probably using "you" as a generic "you people who do this" but to clarify, I DO have an iPhone and wouldn't text while I drive anyway (I have enough trouble changing radio stations...)
I tend to feel the days of thinking it's okay to insult someone out of hand on the Internet are drawing to a close. People used to do it because they could. Now with user posting histories and login names, people are doing it less often. I'm hoping they are also not doing it as much because they are learning it's a big world and a "community" not a boxing ring.
The person may not have been a native English speaker, but I have doubts that calling him "dumb" is accurate.
Typed on iPhone.
I was turned off by the easily micro-scratched Storm display, it's cheap feel in general, and the "whole front is one button" sort of thing. If you're one of those text-while-you-drive people, tactile feedback is a must -- it's impossible to touch-type reliably on the iPhone (you can do it, just expect some gibberish). But while the Storm seemed close to the mark, it's cheesy (no offense if you like it, this is my opinion only) solution to touchscreen feedback and its cheap construction, and its lack of wi-fi make it inferior.
My wife's Blackberry Curve is, of course, a full keyboard and little pearl mouse thingy for scrolling around. And surprisingly, I like it -- the interface is snappy, intuitive, clean. I do prefer the font on the iPhone...have 1980s TTY font for everything is a little tough to read on the Blackberry, but it gets the job done.
I just like to note here that I started in the early 90s with a company that didn't care to invest too much in infrastructure. Now I'm working at a University and they care about their data, but also don't want to spend money on keeping it safe. This makes my job easier, but I don't sleep as well at night knowing that I don't have the best backup scheme or the best surge protection, simply because I can't afford it. Not having the experience of keeping truly critical data safe, my heart palpitates thinking about working in IT for a hospital where not just your job but people's lives are on the line if you screw up.
I stress enough about kicking Eudora to the curb, never mind trying to make 100s of TB of data highly available in case a doctor needs a patients allergy history pulled in a blink or we're all dead, Scotty.
But seriously... this is one of the biggest problems with the "paperless" society. Yes, it's nice to have electronic copies of things, but magnetically-stored data (or even optically-stored data) degrades far faster than a paper copy.
While you may not be able to rely on DVDs or CDs or even tape for as long as paper, the trend is to rely on active disks. You simply keep migrating the data to newer equipment. The cost of physical space required to store paper documents will likely exceed the cost of electronic documentation, especially as drive sizes keep growing and costs for the drives continue to shrink. It's easier to store two rooms of medical records on a TB RAID array and transfer the info as needed to newer equipment, than it is to enter it, print it, file it, archive it, and find a shelf to store it on.
I'm guessing that Microsoft has about 4 dozen guys that know so much about finance, they know what they're doing more than some random dude Slashdotting from work.
Unlike Microsoft's marketing department...
Also, really the only thing novel about Duke is the humor.
That may be (though some of the weapons looked pretty cool and climbing on the larger bosses was neat, though not original). But humor can go a loooong way to making a run-of-the-mill game worth playing. There was a mediocre game called "Blood" back in the 90s -- kind of dark, but during multiplayer your character would shout random things -- like when you use overuse the flamethrower on one target he'd shout something like, "Burn! Burn!" and give this made cackle for about 10 seconds.
Portal was a fun puzzle game in itself, but it was the humor that made it win the awards.