reminds me of a highway sign I saw a while back... it read "obey all signs" I broke out laughing, if you are already going to obey signs then there is no point to haveing a sign to tell you that, and if you aren't, then why would you obey that one?
the local home depot here has dimmable flourescents easilly and cheaply available... the problem is they are HUGE they don't FIT in any of my fixtures, in fact I can't immagine a fixture they WOULD fit in... so once again... when they come up with a useable solution... let me know...
The problem is, many people would choose NOT to have 911 service, figuring they'll never need it, then when they DO need it, and it doesn't work, they cry to the government for not protecting them, or even worse, if I am in your house, and you don't have 911 service, but I need help and I call 911, and nothing happens, chances are there's a lawsuit there because I EXPECT 911 service to work on all phones, and there is no way for me to tell just looking at the phone that it is not a "normal" 911 equiped phone.
People don't want 911 untill they need it, and then it's too late.
I gather that in SOME locations this is true... I also can tell you for sure that western canada is not one of those places... around here, if you don't pay for a phone line you don't get dialtone at all, you can't connect to anything or anyone with a disconnected line. you will either get "battery" on the line which tells you you are still physically hooked to equipment, but doesn't let you call anywhere, or you may be physically disconnected in which case you have a dead line, either way, you're not calling 911, 611, or any other number
Don't know how it works there, but where i am (Canada) NavCanada (our version of the FAA) is about the only organization that CAN "trump" Industry Canada (the government body that regulates use of the canadian radio spectrum), example: As a ham radio operator, if I want to put up an antenna the city (despite their best efforts) don't have the authority to tell me I can't. no community association can either, the only people that can are Industry Canada because they regulate radio installations, the one exception to that is that if I live in the flight path of the local airport, NavCanada will set a limit on the height of said antenna (note they won't say I can't have one, only that it must be less than XX height) in either case, the rules governing air travel are also a federal law, so at worst they would be on equal footing. Universities (again, despite their best efforts) do NOT have the right to TRUMP even local bylaws, let alone federal statutes
what I always find amazing is that people PAY to wear advertising for companies... you pay good money to wear a nike ballcap or adidas shirt or whatever... if it's plastered in advertising, why aren't they paying you to wear it?
The only advertising I wear is for non-profit groups I volunteer with, or in some cases a list of sponsors on the back of a shirt from an event I worked, where the shirt was free. I never have seen why I should pay someone to advertise for them.
I was about to post about this exact same event. An interesting note, the Halifax explosion would rate as the largest manmade explosion until the atomic bomb almost 28 years later.
The magnitude of the explosion was truly awesome The Mont Blanc vanished, parts of her landing over 5 km away 2000 dead, 9000 injured, 6000 left homeless, and 25,000 without adequate shelter. Over 12,000 buildings were damaged and 1630 destroyed the blast knocked items off shelves 100 km away and was heard over 350 km away.
Now I'd say this is not likely to be any worse (and probably not as bad) however if it were even a fraction of the devastation of the Halifax explosion it would still be a huge disaster.
source: http://www.foothills-sar.ab.ca/TOMLone.html#Halifa x
what's funny about this one is that where I live (Calgary AB Canada) the only things on the AM band are Country music, Golden Oldies, and talk radio... if you go to FM you get classic rock on 4 different stations and country on one... wow... what selection we have... so I guess classic rock isn't as harmfull as country, oldies, and talk eh?;)
I work for a large Canadian telco, people ALREADY come screaming to us every time they hear the faintest click on the line POSITIVE that someone is tapping their phone, as a field technician I get sent out to investigate many of these complaints (never mind the fact that if the police WERE tapping your phone you'd never hear a thing anyway)
There are a LOT of paranoid people out there, and if this does go through the customer support calls will go through the roof to explain this charge. (There will be a LOT of upset customers as well...)
Unfortunatly there's nothing you can do about the 9-1-1 fee, however you don't need to pay the 2.95 long distance admin fee, call them up and say that you aren't interested in their long distance plan, they will remove the fee from your phone bill. the catch is that if you don't pay the $2.95/month you end up paying about 2-3 times as much per minute on any long distance calls you do make, but if you don't call long distance much that still saves you a fair amount of money.
Although I can understand the line item for 9-1-1 service (and would never choose to have a phone without 9-1-1 access), I do object to them itemizing non-optional services, when I read through my phone bill (or any bill for that matter) I expect that each item listed is something I have chosen or that I can opt out of, if I can't opt out of it, what's the point of itemizing it?
What makes this new proposal so insulting is that not only can't you opt out of it, they are asking you to pay for something you obviously don't want. I WANT 911 service, I WANT the phone line, I WANT the long distance call they billed me for, and I WANT the internet access on the bill... I DO NOT WANT them wire-tapping me, and to specifically charge me for the "privledge" is extremely insulting.
I hope TELUS, MBTel, Aliant, etc (I'd list SaskTel as well, but they're still government owned I beleive so they probably don't care) join with Bell in fighting this proposal, let the Police associations know that this is not the way to expand their budgets. (what's actually interesting to note in the article that I read (no, I didn't read THIS article, but another one on the same proposal) is that Bell was actually offering to pay part of the costs of wire-tapping themselves without this fee, they say it should be payed for for jointly by the telcos and the police force. As an employee of the competition (not sure that I should admit that part...), let me say Bell just gained a few points in my books...)
that's ok... I can think of a specific bank around here that used to require that your password be all numeric and 4 digits long... they've now "increased sercurity" and made it 6 digits, still all numeric... and your choice of digits, not theat they're encouraging weak passwords or anything...
If you talk to people in civil aviation (small planes instead of the big commercial stuff) you'll find many of them leave their cell phones on when flying, this is ok for several reasones, they're moving slower and at lower altitude than something like a 737, they know that there is an extrememly slim chance of the phone interfering with anything, they know that even if it does interfere, it won't take them long to find their phone in their pocket and turn it off, and lastly, they know that they don't make any money off installing special "air phones" in the seatbacks...
The major reasons you can't use a phone airborne are because it will cause problems for the cell system as it will see MANY towers at once and changing between them so frequently, the airlines and the cell phone companies make lots of money off those air phone things, and lastly they want to play it safe rather than sorry with all the electronics on board, now I can't really blame them for the last one, but it seems that a little testing would probably prove to them how harmless a cellphone really is...
well that's creative... I'm a field tech for the local (relatively large) telco... and I've never heard of a MPOE or POD... here we have: - a NIB (Network Interface Box) on installs since 2002 (grey box outside house) - a NID (Network Interface Device) on installs between about 1975 and 2002 (grey box outside house, if the same box is mounted inside the house it is simply called a protector) - "protectors" (short for lightening protector) in old houses earlier than 1975ish (though protector is sometimes used generically for newer ones) (these are all mounted indoors) - demarc in businesses and multi-dwelling buildings (also used as a generic term everywhere, these come in all shapes and sizes from brown bakelite terminals, to the new green boxes in buildings, etc)
the official demarcation point "ours vs yours" for a house these days is a CCB (Customer Connecting Block) which is a beige box with 2 test jacks in it that is mounted near the electrical panel in new houses (this is connected to the NIB/NID/Protector on one side and the internal wiring on the other) we now have to install these in all houses we go in to if they don't already have them (they came in to use in the early 90's)
In multi-dwelling buildings and businesses, the demarcation point is the protector or demarc box itself.
ok... reading all that I just realized how complicated our current setup is... and how difficult it is to give a straight answer to where the "ours vs yours" point is... (Actually, it changes weekly... so even we can't keep track..)
yes, and no. the links from the businesses to the phone exchange, and from the boxes in the field to one exchange or another, or between local exchanges are still on the old mulitplexed systems (although now on fibre)
however, the telcos are moving to packet switched networks, as of last week the telco I work for (relatively large canadian telco) has transfered all of it's cross country long distance to our "next generation network", effectively voice over IP, so the signal from your phone, to the exchange is still analog, the signal from there to the next hop is digital, and the hops from there are effectively an internet link (though I suppose intranet is more appropriate, so as to be able to guaruntee quality of service)
as time goes by this will expand to other long distance routes, and then to links between exchanges, and eventually the "last mile" is innevitable, the whole goal being to simplify the network and therefore make it cheaper. also this allows other services to run concurrently with voice on the same "pipe" hence limiting needed infrastructure (no need for several networks for different uses, one network now does all) The days of trying to get phonecalls from one end of the country to the other over analog copper lines has come to an end...
I find this interesting, where I live (Canada) I actually have trouble thinking of a gas station that does NOT sell propane... the primary role of these filling stations seems to be for barbeque tanks and for motorhome accessories, however this is also where propane vehicles fill...
propane conversions were really popular here in the 80's, but demand has lessened signifigantly, propane conversions are expenzive, and your mileage is less, so even with the signifigantly cheaper cost of propane, you never recover from the initial cost of the conversion unless you put on a LOT of miles. There's also the disadvantage that you can't park in any covered parkade (they're worried about a possible leak as propane is heavier than air and will pool in lowlying areas instead of properly dissipating)...
A large number of taxis still use propane, and some police cars (though they seem to be giving up on it too these days)
Our transit system experimented with natural gas powered busses for a few years, but they gave up on that one too, apparently it took hours to fill the tanks, and the busses were constantly in for service, those that are still on the road are running off of their gasoline tanks only (they were all dual fuel). about the only vehicles I see on the streets on a regular basis that run on natural gas are those owned by our local natural gas supplier, and even they haven't converted their entire fleet.
things aren't looking entirely gloomy for alternative fuels though, just today our transit system released a press release saying they're trialing a diesel-electric hybrid bus... we'll see how that goes...
that's odd... you must have either MUCH worse technicians or MUCH better customers in the US than we have in Canada... I work for a large telco in Canada as a field technician... I do repair calls... interestingly enough, on well over half of the trouble calls that are dispatched the problem is found to be inside the customer's house, add to that the fact that over 80% of problems are solved over the phone without needing to dispatch someone at all (ie they aren't line problems at all, and are usually customer problems)
I'm not saying that technicians can't cause problems, but I would say I probably only find 2 or 3 employee caused problems a week, the rest are either customer, equipment, or environmental.
I have twice now had to boost a vehicle with a dead battery sitting at a gas pump... I'll admit I was a bit nervous about this concept (have you ever boosted a car WITHOUT sparks?) but neither time did it end up being an actual problem... mainly because the gas pumps are outdoors and hence well ventilated, and the engine compartment is a ways away from the filler tube, also realizing that every time you start a car at the pump it's probably not all that much safer...
at a company I used to work for we had some high up person (I think VP) come in from out of town, he walked up and "tailgated" one of the techs onto the floor, the tech turned around and asked him for ID, he responded with "don't you know who I am?" the tech said that she didn't and that he would have to show ID or she would have to ask him to leave, the VP fumbled through his pockets and showed his ID card and the tech thanked him, then the VP stopped for a moment, thought, and looked back at the tech, and realizing what had just happened, and what COULD have happened, thanked her for stopping him. I had a lot more respect for the VP after that.
On a related note... I heard of the opposite happening a while back as well... this one hit the news in Canada, sometime shortly after 9/11 when security was being tightened a police officer walked through airport security without stopping, the security guard challenged him and asked for ID, the police officer refused and tried to contimue, the security guard wouldn't let him past without seeing ID. the police officer then arrested the security guard, I felt really sorry for the guard, they were following the procedures put in place by their superiors and got arrested for it, and then to make matters worse, their employer refused to back them up on it...
and lastly, on a slightly funnier note... we had a major meeting of international leeders around here a few years back, they had police EVERYWHERE around the airport and the meeting area, as I work for the phone company, another tech and I were working on an outdoor wiring cross-connect near the edge of one of these "secure" areas, about 30 seconds to a minute after we started a police car pulled up, the officer got out and looked at the two of us working there (we had gotten out of a clearly marked company truck, and were both wearing shirts, jackets, and even pants with the company logo on them, and had ID cards clipped to our belts) and said "you're not going to beleive what they're making me do... I need you guys to prove you work for the phone company" we both pointed at our ID cards, he accepted those and left... I seriously considered asking him to prove he worked for the police department though... just because he drove up in a police car, and was wearing a full police uniform with badge... how did I know eh?
I have been doing this both intentionally and accidentally for years... I used to work for a local ISP installing/maintaining ADSL/ISDN lines, we did not have a uniform or ID, however we did have tools and these really official looking metal clipboards, you could go anywhere like that, and it was often easier to get where you needed to be by social engineering than following "correct" channels (some buildings were really anal about access to phone/server rooms if you ASKED, however if you simply TOLD a security guard or maintenance person that you needed access you'd get it right away, no questions asked (odd how re-phrasing the same request got completely different results...)
Nowadays I work for the local telco, I wear a shirt, pants and jacket with the company logo on them (and sometimes a company ball-cap as well), and have an ID card clipped to my belt, I carry a tool-belt over my shoulder, and a small notepad in my hand... not only can you go anywhere you want in any building, but I actually find this can sometimes be a problem, because it's hard to get people to give you directions because they all assume you already know!
> The instructions on the bottle said: > > 1. Wet hair > 2. Apply shampoo > 3. Lather > 4. Rinse > 5. Repeat
I actually noticed on a bottle of shampoo recently that the step 5 you show had been changed to "Repeat if desired"... I guess this is for those who get stuck in the infinite loop....
While I don't personally run win98, my work laptop does. I have no choice in the matter, our computerized dispatch system won't work under any newer version of windows.
Our company is planning to update our systems, but this is probably still 2-3 years out by the time they develop and replace the dispatch system, test things (ok, that one's in there as a joke... they never seem to TEST things before deploying them... GRRRR) train all the field techs (most of whom can barely use a computer at all) and then upgrade all the laptops (keep in mind this affects thousands of users who are mobile throughout the entire country in both urban and rural centres, and who can't be without their laptops for more than a few minutes during the work day (and keep in mind that we have techs working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week))
The costs, time, and other logistics associated with this upgrade are prohibative, so why change what works before you absolutely have to?
this depends on the area/provider. I work for the local telco here and we don't do this, for a while if you picked up a "dead" phone line you would automatically get connected to our sales department to order a new line, but you never get dialtone (we no longer provide that "service" it turned out to be far too much hassle and tied up far too many resources). on the other hand, if you have a cell phone and dial 911, even if the phone is not "activated" it will still connect you. as for voltage, on a disconnected phone line you may or may not get talk battery on the line, depending on wether or not the line equipment or the cable pair have been re-assigned since the phone line was last in use. in all cases, wether or not you have talk battery on your line you should discconect it from the outside of the house before connecting another service to the line.
>The closest I could come was phone cards and gift cards that self >expire but even those last so long they usually only expire because >they get lost/forgotten.
you will find that most people feel ripped-off when these expire as well, (I know I felt cheated when I was told my movie theatre gift certificates had expired because I hadn't used them soon enough) hence lending more credibility to the idea that people want to control the rate at which the item they pay for is used.
>Cordless phones operate at 800Mhz, or 2.4Ghz. Not in the 2Mhz - 80Mhz range.
not quite... older cordless phones work in the 49Mhz range, newer ones are either 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz... there are a LOT of those "older" phones still in service.
I remember seeing a piece of software a long time ago... (I think it was pkunzip) that didn't ask you to "press ANY key", instead it asked you to "press A key to continue".
I thought this was a perfect solution, the sentance means basically the same thing, and to anyone who knows what they're asking you can continue to blindly flop your hand down on the keyboard hitting whatever is there, however if you really are confused you simply press the letter "A" and that works just fine... limited tech support needed, no FAQ needed to address it, a couple less letters in the prompt, and doesn't restrict the more tech inclined people to any specific key...
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reminds me of a highway sign I saw a while back... it read "obey all signs" I broke out laughing, if you are already going to obey signs then there is no point to haveing a sign to tell you that, and if you aren't, then why would you obey that one?
the local home depot here has dimmable flourescents easilly and cheaply available... the problem is they are HUGE they don't FIT in any of my fixtures, in fact I can't immagine a fixture they WOULD fit in... so once again... when they come up with a useable solution... let me know...
The problem is, many people would choose NOT to have 911 service, figuring they'll never need it, then when they DO need it, and it doesn't work, they cry to the government for not protecting them, or even worse, if I am in your house, and you don't have 911 service, but I need help and I call 911, and nothing happens, chances are there's a lawsuit there because I EXPECT 911 service to work on all phones, and there is no way for me to tell just looking at the phone that it is not a "normal" 911 equiped phone.
People don't want 911 untill they need it, and then it's too late.
I gather that in SOME locations this is true... I also can tell you for sure that western canada is not one of those places... around here, if you don't pay for a phone line you don't get dialtone at all, you can't connect to anything or anyone with a disconnected line. you will either get "battery" on the line which tells you you are still physically hooked to equipment, but doesn't let you call anywhere, or you may be physically disconnected in which case you have a dead line, either way, you're not calling 911, 611, or any other number
Don't know how it works there, but where i am (Canada) NavCanada (our version of the FAA) is about the only organization that CAN "trump" Industry Canada (the government body that regulates use of the canadian radio spectrum), example: As a ham radio operator, if I want to put up an antenna the city (despite their best efforts) don't have the authority to tell me I can't. no community association can either, the only people that can are Industry Canada because they regulate radio installations, the one exception to that is that if I live in the flight path of the local airport, NavCanada will set a limit on the height of said antenna (note they won't say I can't have one, only that it must be less than XX height) in either case, the rules governing air travel are also a federal law, so at worst they would be on equal footing. Universities (again, despite their best efforts) do NOT have the right to TRUMP even local bylaws, let alone federal statutes
what I always find amazing is that people PAY to wear advertising for companies... you pay good money to wear a nike ballcap or adidas shirt or whatever... if it's plastered in advertising, why aren't they paying you to wear it?
The only advertising I wear is for non-profit groups I volunteer with, or in some cases a list of sponsors on the back of a shirt from an event I worked, where the shirt was free. I never have seen why I should pay someone to advertise for them.
I was about to post about this exact same event.
a x
An interesting note, the Halifax explosion would rate as the largest manmade explosion until the atomic bomb almost 28 years later.
The magnitude of the explosion was truly awesome
The Mont Blanc vanished, parts of her landing over 5 km away
2000 dead, 9000 injured, 6000 left homeless, and 25,000 without adequate shelter. Over 12,000 buildings were damaged and 1630 destroyed
the blast knocked items off shelves 100 km away
and was heard over 350 km away.
Now I'd say this is not likely to be any worse (and probably not as bad) however if it were even a fraction of the devastation of the Halifax explosion it would still be a huge disaster.
source: http://www.foothills-sar.ab.ca/TOMLone.html#Halif
what's funny about this one is that where I live (Calgary AB Canada) the only things on the AM band are Country music, Golden Oldies, and talk radio... if you go to FM you get classic rock on 4 different stations and country on one... wow... what selection we have... so I guess classic rock isn't as harmfull as country, oldies, and talk eh? ;)
I work for a large Canadian telco, people ALREADY come screaming to us every time they hear the faintest click on the line POSITIVE that someone is tapping their phone, as a field technician I get sent out to investigate many of these complaints (never mind the fact that if the police WERE tapping your phone you'd never hear a thing anyway)
There are a LOT of paranoid people out there, and if this does go through the customer support calls will go through the roof to explain this charge. (There will be a LOT of upset customers as well...)
Unfortunatly there's nothing you can do about the 9-1-1 fee, however you don't need to pay the 2.95 long distance admin fee, call them up and say that you aren't interested in their long distance plan, they will remove the fee from your phone bill. the catch is that if you don't pay the $2.95/month you end up paying about 2-3 times as much per minute on any long distance calls you do make, but if you don't call long distance much that still saves you a fair amount of money.
Although I can understand the line item for 9-1-1 service (and would never choose to have a phone without 9-1-1 access), I do object to them itemizing non-optional services, when I read through my phone bill (or any bill for that matter) I expect that each item listed is something I have chosen or that I can opt out of, if I can't opt out of it, what's the point of itemizing it?
What makes this new proposal so insulting is that not only can't you opt out of it, they are asking you to pay for something you obviously don't want. I WANT 911 service, I WANT the phone line, I WANT the long distance call they billed me for, and I WANT the internet access on the bill... I DO NOT WANT them wire-tapping me, and to specifically charge me for the "privledge" is extremely insulting.
I hope TELUS, MBTel, Aliant, etc (I'd list SaskTel as well, but they're still government owned I beleive so they probably don't care) join with Bell in fighting this proposal, let the Police associations know that this is not the way to expand their budgets. (what's actually interesting to note in the article that I read (no, I didn't read THIS article, but another one on the same proposal) is that Bell was actually offering to pay part of the costs of wire-tapping themselves without this fee, they say it should be payed for for jointly by the telcos and the police force. As an employee of the competition (not sure that I should admit that part...), let me say Bell just gained a few points in my books...)
that's ok... I can think of a specific bank around here that used to require that your password be all numeric and 4 digits long... they've now "increased sercurity" and made it 6 digits, still all numeric... and your choice of digits, not theat they're encouraging weak passwords or anything...
If you talk to people in civil aviation (small planes instead of the big commercial stuff) you'll find many of them leave their cell phones on when flying, this is ok for several reasones, they're moving slower and at lower altitude than something like a 737, they know that there is an extrememly slim chance of the phone interfering with anything, they know that even if it does interfere, it won't take them long to find their phone in their pocket and turn it off, and lastly, they know that they don't make any money off installing special "air phones" in the seatbacks...
The major reasons you can't use a phone airborne are because it will cause problems for the cell system as it will see MANY towers at once and changing between them so frequently, the airlines and the cell phone companies make lots of money off those air phone things, and lastly they want to play it safe rather than sorry with all the electronics on board, now I can't really blame them for the last one, but it seems that a little testing would probably prove to them how harmless a cellphone really is...
well that's creative... I'm a field tech for the local (relatively large) telco... and I've never heard of a MPOE or POD... here we have:
- a NIB (Network Interface Box) on installs since 2002 (grey box outside house)
- a NID (Network Interface Device) on installs between about 1975 and 2002 (grey box outside house, if the same box is mounted inside the house it is simply called a protector)
- "protectors" (short for lightening protector) in old houses earlier than 1975ish (though protector is sometimes used generically for newer ones) (these are all mounted indoors)
- demarc in businesses and multi-dwelling buildings (also used as a generic term everywhere, these come in all shapes and sizes from brown bakelite terminals, to the new green boxes in buildings, etc)
the official demarcation point "ours vs yours" for a house these days is a CCB (Customer Connecting Block) which is a beige box with 2 test jacks in it that is mounted near the electrical panel in new houses (this is connected to the NIB/NID/Protector on one side and the internal wiring on the other) we now have to install these in all houses we go in to if they don't already have them (they came in to use in the early 90's)
In multi-dwelling buildings and businesses, the demarcation point is the protector or demarc box itself.
ok... reading all that I just realized how complicated our current setup is... and how difficult it is to give a straight answer to where the "ours vs yours" point is... (Actually, it changes weekly... so even we can't keep track..)
yes, and no. the links from the businesses to the phone exchange, and from the boxes in the field to one exchange or another, or between local exchanges are still on the old mulitplexed systems (although now on fibre)
however, the telcos are moving to packet switched networks, as of last week the telco I work for (relatively large canadian telco) has transfered all of it's cross country long distance to our "next generation network", effectively voice over IP, so the signal from your phone, to the exchange is still analog, the signal from there to the next hop is digital, and the hops from there are effectively an internet link (though I suppose intranet is more appropriate, so as to be able to guaruntee quality of service)
as time goes by this will expand to other long distance routes, and then to links between exchanges, and eventually the "last mile" is innevitable, the whole goal being to simplify the network and therefore make it cheaper. also this allows other services to run concurrently with voice on the same "pipe" hence limiting needed infrastructure (no need for several networks for different uses, one network now does all)
The days of trying to get phonecalls from one end of the country to the other over analog copper lines has come to an end...
I find this interesting, where I live (Canada) I actually have trouble thinking of a gas station that does NOT sell propane... the primary role of these filling stations seems to be for barbeque tanks and for motorhome accessories, however this is also where propane vehicles fill...
propane conversions were really popular here in the 80's, but demand has lessened signifigantly, propane conversions are expenzive, and your mileage is less, so even with the signifigantly cheaper cost of propane, you never recover from the initial cost of the conversion unless you put on a LOT of miles. There's also the disadvantage that you can't park in any covered parkade (they're worried about a possible leak as propane is heavier than air and will pool in lowlying areas instead of properly dissipating)...
A large number of taxis still use propane, and some police cars (though they seem to be giving up on it too these days)
Our transit system experimented with natural gas powered busses for a few years, but they gave up on that one too, apparently it took hours to fill the tanks, and the busses were constantly in for service, those that are still on the road are running off of their gasoline tanks only (they were all dual fuel). about the only vehicles I see on the streets on a regular basis that run on natural gas are those owned by our local natural gas supplier, and even they haven't converted their entire fleet.
things aren't looking entirely gloomy for alternative fuels though, just today our transit system released a press release saying they're trialing a diesel-electric hybrid bus... we'll see how that goes...
that's odd... you must have either MUCH worse technicians or MUCH better customers in the US than we have in Canada... I work for a large telco in Canada as a field technician... I do repair calls... interestingly enough, on well over half of the trouble calls that are dispatched the problem is found to be inside the customer's house, add to that the fact that over 80% of problems are solved over the phone without needing to dispatch someone at all (ie they aren't line problems at all, and are usually customer problems)
I'm not saying that technicians can't cause problems, but I would say I probably only find 2 or 3 employee caused problems a week, the rest are either customer, equipment, or environmental.
I have twice now had to boost a vehicle with a dead battery sitting at a gas pump... I'll admit I was a bit nervous about this concept (have you ever boosted a car WITHOUT sparks?) but neither time did it end up being an actual problem... mainly because the gas pumps are outdoors and hence well ventilated, and the engine compartment is a ways away from the filler tube, also realizing that every time you start a car at the pump it's probably not all that much safer...
at a company I used to work for we had some high up person (I think VP) come in from out of town, he walked up and "tailgated" one of the techs onto the floor, the tech turned around and asked him for ID, he responded with "don't you know who I am?" the tech said that she didn't and that he would have to show ID or she would have to ask him to leave, the VP fumbled through his pockets and showed his ID card and the tech thanked him, then the VP stopped for a moment, thought, and looked back at the tech, and realizing what had just happened, and what COULD have happened, thanked her for stopping him. I had a lot more respect for the VP after that.
On a related note... I heard of the opposite happening a while back as well... this one hit the news in Canada, sometime shortly after 9/11 when security was being tightened a police officer walked through airport security without stopping, the security guard challenged him and asked for ID, the police officer refused and tried to contimue, the security guard wouldn't let him past without seeing ID. the police officer then arrested the security guard, I felt really sorry for the guard, they were following the procedures put in place by their superiors and got arrested for it, and then to make matters worse, their employer refused to back them up on it...
and lastly, on a slightly funnier note... we had a major meeting of international leeders around here a few years back, they had police EVERYWHERE around the airport and the meeting area, as I work for the phone company, another tech and I were working on an outdoor wiring cross-connect near the edge of one of these "secure" areas, about 30 seconds to a minute after we started a police car pulled up, the officer got out and looked at the two of us working there (we had gotten out of a clearly marked company truck, and were both wearing shirts, jackets, and even pants with the company logo on them, and had ID cards clipped to our belts) and said "you're not going to beleive what they're making me do... I need you guys to prove you work for the phone company" we both pointed at our ID cards, he accepted those and left... I seriously considered asking him to prove he worked for the police department though... just because he drove up in a police car, and was wearing a full police uniform with badge... how did I know eh?
I have been doing this both intentionally and accidentally for years... I used to work for a local ISP installing/maintaining ADSL/ISDN lines, we did not have a uniform or ID, however we did have tools and these really official looking metal clipboards, you could go anywhere like that, and it was often easier to get where you needed to be by social engineering than following "correct" channels (some buildings were really anal about access to phone/server rooms if you ASKED, however if you simply TOLD a security guard or maintenance person that you needed access you'd get it right away, no questions asked (odd how re-phrasing the same request got completely different results...)
Nowadays I work for the local telco, I wear a shirt, pants and jacket with the company logo on them (and sometimes a company ball-cap as well), and have an ID card clipped to my belt, I carry a tool-belt over my shoulder, and a small notepad in my hand... not only can you go anywhere you want in any building, but I actually find this can sometimes be a problem, because it's hard to get people to give you directions because they all assume you already know!
> The instructions on the bottle said:
>
> 1. Wet hair
> 2. Apply shampoo
> 3. Lather
> 4. Rinse
> 5. Repeat
I actually noticed on a bottle of shampoo recently that the step 5 you show had been changed to "Repeat if desired"... I guess this is for those who get stuck in the infinite loop....
While I don't personally run win98, my work laptop does. I have no choice in the matter, our computerized dispatch system won't work under any newer version of windows.
Our company is planning to update our systems, but this is probably still 2-3 years out by the time they develop and replace the dispatch system, test things (ok, that one's in there as a joke... they never seem to TEST things before deploying them... GRRRR) train all the field techs (most of whom can barely use a computer at all) and then upgrade all the laptops (keep in mind this affects thousands of users who are mobile throughout the entire country in both urban and rural centres, and who can't be without their laptops for more than a few minutes during the work day (and keep in mind that we have techs working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week))
The costs, time, and other logistics associated with this upgrade are prohibative, so why change what works before you absolutely have to?
this depends on the area/provider. I work for the local telco here and we don't do this, for a while if you picked up a "dead" phone line you would automatically get connected to our sales department to order a new line, but you never get dialtone (we no longer provide that "service" it turned out to be far too much hassle and tied up far too many resources). on the other hand, if you have a cell phone and dial 911, even if the phone is not "activated" it will still connect you. as for voltage, on a disconnected phone line you may or may not get talk battery on the line, depending on wether or not the line equipment or the cable pair have been re-assigned since the phone line was last in use. in all cases, wether or not you have talk battery on your line you should discconect it from the outside of the house before connecting another service to the line.
>The closest I could come was phone cards and gift cards that self
>expire but even those last so long they usually only expire because
>they get lost/forgotten.
you will find that most people feel ripped-off when these expire as well, (I know I felt cheated when I was told my movie theatre gift certificates had expired because I hadn't used them soon enough) hence lending more credibility to the idea that people want to control the rate at which the item they pay for is used.
>Cordless phones operate at 800Mhz, or 2.4Ghz. Not in the 2Mhz - 80Mhz range.
not quite... older cordless phones work in the 49Mhz range, newer ones are either 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz... there are a LOT of those "older" phones still in service.
I remember seeing a piece of software a long time ago... (I think it was pkunzip) that didn't ask you to "press ANY key", instead it asked you to "press A key to continue".
I thought this was a perfect solution, the sentance means basically the same thing, and to anyone who knows what they're asking you can continue to blindly flop your hand down on the keyboard hitting whatever is there, however if you really are confused you simply press the letter "A" and that works just fine... limited tech support needed, no FAQ needed to address it, a couple less letters in the prompt, and doesn't restrict the more tech inclined people to any specific key...