Many cable companies offer phone serivce now (Qwest does in the apartment building my mother lives in). This comes into the home from an RG6 cable outside and is usually converted to normal telephone cable in a box outside the dwelling.
I had heard that any disconnected land-line was supposed to be able to dial 0 and 911. So since I did not have a land-line phone (a few months ago when I tried it), I hooked up a phone and picked up the handset. I had a dialtone. I hit 0. Still the dialtone. I hit all the numbers (one at a time). Still dialtone. Thinking it was odd that I didn't just get a 'hey stupid! call the phone company for phone service!' message I decided to hit 911. Hitting 9 -- I still had dialtone. Hitting the 1 -- I still had dialtone. Hitting the last 1 -- I STILL had dialtone.
Nothing happened when I dialed 911!
I remember when I was a little kid. I was at a friends house and they had no phone service. I decided to hook up a phone anyway and when I picked it up, there was a dialtone. I tried to call my mom (to see what would happen) and the phone company answered wanting to know if I wanted phone service. Apparently this doesn't happen anymore (well, not on CenturyTel's network, anyway.).
The local Wal*Mart registers are set up to do this. The only ones that don't are the automated ones. Wierd thing happened, though. I chose "Credit" on the screen and then swiped my card as asked, except when I swiped my card, it went through as "debit", so the machine rejected it.
Don't know if they ever fixed that lil' problem...
I don't know about the rest of the world (although I'm sure the reasons I think they hold off are the same pretty much everywhere), but I think it all comes down to the $bottom line$.
If you have read the news lately, all you will see are companies making sacrifices in quality (think the HP Deskjet 3000 series printers) for short term gains.
Theater owners already complain that they don't make any money on the movie tickets as it is. This is supposedly why the popcorn/soda/candy is so expensive. It is simply a matter of money that they don't upgrade. I think it goes under the "Why upgrade to digital at the enormous cost when people seem perfectly happy to see scratched copies of the movies?" Sure, down the road, it could save the movie theaters some money in distribution costs, but that is too long term a thought for seemingly 99% of the businesses in operation today.
As for the sound in theaters -- Even though they still use 'film', the audio in many theaters (especially the ones that boast Sony DTS or THX) is actually digital. The signal is encoded onto the normal film inbetween the holes that the projector uses to advance the film through itself. Somewhere attatched to the projector is a little reader that reads in the signal and sends it to the sound processor. Ahh, the things you learn while watching Discovery/TLC instead of Fox/UPN/*BC..:)
Being as I don't use iTunes, I have always wondered. Once someone burns a full CD of songs from iTunes, what is to stop them from making copies of *that* CD through normal software (roxio, nero, (insert linux/bsd/OSX software))?
*cough*STAC Electronics*cough* (Their HDD Compression software) *cough*Corel*cough* (WordPerfect anyone?) *cough*IBM*cough* (What did they do to OS/2 again?)
I am SURE there are others. Those weren't, for their time, "small" companies with no money to defend themselv's.
Modify the ATA's to start at port 1 and go to port 1024 (or higher) when connecting to Vonages' servers. They will need to modify their server software to listen for incoming connections on whatever port range (excluding 80 and whatever other specific ports they need for things).
Lets see the ISP's block ports 1 through 1024!
Forget all the fancy DNS routing crap I've seen in here. This sounds (at least on the surface) much more simple..
Of course, right here I could be showing how little I know about TCP/IP type stuff anyway..:)
Right, but there are a couple of caveats. That PC will come in the usual cheap plastic case roughly 15 times bigger than the Mac mini, with fans than remind you of a vacuum cleaner, and to get it under $500 you probably have to pirate most of the software.
Absurd. Many of our computers are Mini-ATX towers, have a couple 80mm fans that are FAR more quiet than any vacuum cleaner I've ever heard (including those industrial models that Hotels use for the low sound output) and, for the $500 (at least in a P4/Celeron version) come with Windows XP Home, Works (which includes MS Word), and who knows what else. Your statement is just as stupid as people claiming that Apple's units are many times more expensive than comparably equipped PC.
I will argue with you about the case too. The cases we use are 95% metal (with only the front panel being plastic).
If it breaks you have to drag it down to the PC shop, wait a couple of weeks, and then pick it up again. When a Mac breaks you call Apple, they send out a prepaid FedEx box, and I'll have it back working within a week.
This depends on who you are. I maintain my, and family, machines. If it takes you a couple weeks to get an x86 machine repaired, then the local shops around you suck. We are running a day or two turn around times right now, and only when we have more than 10 machines in here do we have more than one week turn around times. We even do house calls (that is my job). Try again.
Even as a unix professional I've come to appreciate these things since they let me concentrate on my work and not fixing computers. I'll give you a splendid example: I recently installed a new Linksys wireless router, and had to upgrade firmware both on that box and on their wireless adapter as well as disabling the Linksys wireless monitor that interefered with windows XP, just to get them talking to each other!
Are you an info-mercial script writer? The case you cite above is *extreamly* rare in all my years of setting up equipment, and in the several years of dealing with wireless. As a matter of fact, I can't recall one single event that I've had to go through what you list.
The point is simply that a lot of people (including unix performance users) simply think it is worth paying a couple of $$$ extra for nice design, good support, not to mention legal software.
That's great. My point is that just because you are a 'unix professional' doesn't mean you are that great with hardware. A good majority of people that can get around and use the software in their computers are also poor hardware people. The "PC" (I refuse to use the 'wintel' phrase) side of things is no where near as bad as you'd have people believe from your post.
He's nitpicking the issue to defend his dear baby...Linux.
Actually, it's not my 'dear baby'. I've typed all my replies to your ignorance in Windows while at work (and this is being typed in Windows from home).
Do people not consider Windows insecure because of Internet Explorer? Of course they do.
I don't know about other people, but I consider IE a huge security problem with Windows, however, it's been proven that there are other security problems with other parts as well. I'm sure there are some security problems with the kernel in use in 2000/XP as well. So, your statement would be correct. Windows is insecure because of IE and it's hooks into the various bits of the OS.
Is Internet Explorer Windows? Not by his definition.
And my definition would be correct. Windows' kernel is Windows. Explorer, Internet Explorer, Systray, etc are all parts of the OS. It isn't any different in that respect than Linux and it's utilities.
But how often do you think he jumps in and says "Internet Explorer isn't Windows!"?
I don't need to. IE is a program that, while very integrated into the Windows operating environment, is not the OS itself (though I'm sure MS would love if it were for the Antitrust crap they were in).
You are battling on a sinking ship. How about bailing out while you still can?
Xandros, by your own example, is a DISTRIBUTION of linux, and therefore, not representative of what LINUX, in general, is capable of (Nor is it representative of how stable a linux distribution can be).
You've a point about the manufacturers. Damn. It takes months to set up a manufacuring line with or without the flag. They're screwed -- they might have to flog cards or PVR's crippled with the control mechanism for months until they get rid of the inventory, or else have to eat a season's worth of profit if they are compelled to destroy them.
Why aren't you sharing the crack you are smoking with the rest of us?
I don't think the TV's are what are looking for the broadcast flag. (Unless they have a digital tuner built into them)
It's the set-top boxes and PC TV Tuners. Guess what? Both are controled by software. Software is upgradable.
I don't know how they would get an upgrade into a TV with a built in tuner, but I'm sure it'd be possible too (hell, they could even upgrade unsold TV's before they leave the factory and "recall" to fix the others). All of this would cost money, no doubt about that, but it'd be FAR LESS than just 'trashing existing inventory and making new".
I'm not sure it's contradictory to the law of the land. No religion is being established by the government. It could be argued that reverence for a higher power (generically named "God") is part of American civics.
What the hell do you think the FMA was? It was an attempt to force a part of W's FAITH BASED beliefs onto the entire population of the US.
But don't make me pay for something that I may or may not want
You forgot one point. That is what voting is for. You don't want it, VOTE. If it gets through anyway and you don't like it, either educate people (yes, this is going to take time and your own money) or move to another town that doesn't provide it.
I can second your experiences, excpet I was punished all through high-school for it. (I didn't realize that I could go against my parents forcing me into religion untill I was aroung 14. They didn't like it. They didn't like the constant phone calls from teachers for how evil I was. They eventually got over it.)
Because you would be in the wrong just as much as Congress was when they added "Under God" in June 8, 1954, and Eisenhower was wrong to sign it into law on June 14.
I've stated it here before, and I'll state it again. The first 'settlers' from Europe fled here to get AWAY from being forced into a particular religion.
Here is a little info that was found by a friend of mine (I don't have the link anymore, but I do have the email he sent me).
It is a little know fact that the founding fathers of the United States of America were not, as some would lead you to believe, Christians at all. Seeing the word "God" repeated through out the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution may cause you to think that - because, of course, no other religions call their higher power just plain old "God". However, these founding fathers were actually Deists.
To quote dictionary.com, Deism is "The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation." Certainly not the God which gave his only son up for martyrdom, or the one which burned the occasional bush to get the attention of some people. Indeed, the God they believed in was the abstract God, and that belief was always secondary to the persuit of rational knowledge.
The reason why the freedom of religion was written into the Constitution is because more wars were fought over bother protecting one's own religion, and also enforcing it upon others. Guarranteeing that freedom, that right, to every citizen was to acknowledge that belief cannot and will not EVER be regulated. The separation of church and state was designed to give no one religion a particular upper hand - so that it could not dominate the country over other religions. It is there so that the free schooling system which all children must attend does not endorse one belief over another. It is there so that laws cannot be made which can be used to allow one religion to dominate this diverse country's varied belief systems. There are those who want prayer in school, but to them I ask, who's prayer? Your's or mine? Would you be offended if your child were forced to pray to Allah before every school event? Stop acting like it's only offensive when other people do it.
Thomas Jefferson would not approve of religion being taught in science class for the simple fact that reason is not the same thing as faith. Reason is about taking the measurable, the observable, and the manipulatable and abstracting the process and system by which they work. Faith is about believing, in the absence of reason or evidence, that something must be true for the simple fact that nobody can say that it isn't. You can use reason to reinforce your faith, but you cannot use faith to reinforce your reason. Science cannot be about faith. We've got other subjects for religion and philosophy. Science is pure reason, pristine and untouchable.
Someone should let David E. Kelley know that if he is going to state on his show, Boston Legal, that if he is going to use the reason that the founding fathers believed in a God as a reason to teach intelligent design in school science classes, he should at least point out that their god is not the Christian god - and if their god was taught in schools, it would still not preclude the science of evolution. It would SUPPORT it.
I promise you that if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, there'd be a whole lot of ass kicking going on. I'll leave you with some quotes, lest you doubt the facts on his beliefs, by the red headed rational himself:
"Whenever... preachers, instead of a lesson in religion, put [their congregation] off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and giving them, instea
Well, firstly, it wouldn't be "free", it'd be taxed.
Secondly, there are only so many 'features' a municipality could offer without the service taking up too much time/resources.
If a company (or more) came in and offered better/faster/more service, and it was something the local people *wanted*, then they would switch (assuming the prices were also what the local people want to pay). If enough people ended up switching, I can guarentee you that the tax for the "free" internet service would go up for a vote and get turned down (or the city could just stop providing it if there weren't enough interest).
This is the way a free society works. If you don't like it, move to the middle eastern countries. You'll have plenty of opression there.
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Don't tell that to 'Dubya...
Mine was as good as dead. As I mentioned, pressing the numbers accomplished nothing, but the dialtone was there the whole time.
:(
Doesn't matter now, though, as I was forced into the landline when I switched from the over-priced fixed 'high-speed' wireless to DSL.
He probably meant RG6 -- TV Cable.
Many cable companies offer phone serivce now (Qwest does in the apartment building my mother lives in). This comes into the home from an RG6 cable outside and is usually converted to normal telephone cable in a box outside the dwelling.
I had heard that any disconnected land-line was supposed to be able to dial 0 and 911. So since I did not have a land-line phone (a few months ago when I tried it), I hooked up a phone and picked up the handset. I had a dialtone. I hit 0. Still the dialtone. I hit all the numbers (one at a time). Still dialtone. Thinking it was odd that I didn't just get a 'hey stupid! call the phone company for phone service!' message I decided to hit 911. Hitting 9 -- I still had dialtone. Hitting the 1 -- I still had dialtone. Hitting the last 1 -- I STILL had dialtone.
:)
Nothing happened when I dialed 911!
I remember when I was a little kid. I was at a friends house and they had no phone service. I decided to hook up a phone anyway and when I picked it up, there was a dialtone. I tried to call my mom (to see what would happen) and the phone company answered wanting to know if I wanted phone service. Apparently this doesn't happen anymore (well, not on CenturyTel's network, anyway.).
Ok.. now I'm rambling..
The local Wal*Mart registers are set up to do this. The only ones that don't are the automated ones. Wierd thing happened, though. I chose "Credit" on the screen and then swiped my card as asked, except when I swiped my card, it went through as "debit", so the machine rejected it.
Don't know if they ever fixed that lil' problem...
I don't know about the rest of the world (although I'm sure the reasons I think they hold off are the same pretty much everywhere), but I think it all comes down to the $bottom line$.
:)
If you have read the news lately, all you will see are companies making sacrifices in quality (think the HP Deskjet 3000 series printers) for short term gains.
Theater owners already complain that they don't make any money on the movie tickets as it is. This is supposedly why the popcorn/soda/candy is so expensive. It is simply a matter of money that they don't upgrade. I think it goes under the "Why upgrade to digital at the enormous cost when people seem perfectly happy to see scratched copies of the movies?" Sure, down the road, it could save the movie theaters some money in distribution costs, but that is too long term a thought for seemingly 99% of the businesses in operation today.
As for the sound in theaters -- Even though they still use 'film', the audio in many theaters (especially the ones that boast Sony DTS or THX) is actually digital. The signal is encoded onto the normal film inbetween the holes that the projector uses to advance the film through itself. Somewhere attatched to the projector is a little reader that reads in the signal and sends it to the sound processor. Ahh, the things you learn while watching Discovery/TLC instead of Fox/UPN/*BC..
Being as I don't use iTunes, I have always wondered. Once someone burns a full CD of songs from iTunes, what is to stop them from making copies of *that* CD through normal software (roxio, nero, (insert linux/bsd/OSX software))?
And then post a duplicate of it at least once.
Or have a /pizza command attached to your favorite MMOG....
Strange.. All I had to do was "emerge mono".
I can't even imagine what it would be like installing it from source by hand (or even trying to do it with RPM's)
Two cores at once? What, you want TWO of 'em pissed at you?
:)
Heh..
*cough*STAC Electronics*cough* (Their HDD Compression software)
*cough*Corel*cough* (WordPerfect anyone?)
*cough*IBM*cough* (What did they do to OS/2 again?)
I am SURE there are others. Those weren't, for their time, "small" companies with no money to defend themselv's.
Modify the ATA's to start at port 1 and go to port 1024 (or higher) when connecting to Vonages' servers. They will need to modify their server software to listen for incoming connections on whatever port range (excluding 80 and whatever other specific ports they need for things).
:)
Lets see the ISP's block ports 1 through 1024!
Forget all the fancy DNS routing crap I've seen in here. This sounds (at least on the surface) much more simple..
Of course, right here I could be showing how little I know about TCP/IP type stuff anyway..
Right, but there are a couple of caveats. That PC will come in the usual cheap plastic case roughly 15 times bigger than the Mac mini, with fans than remind you of a vacuum cleaner, and to get it under $500 you probably have to pirate most of the software.
Absurd. Many of our computers are Mini-ATX towers, have a couple 80mm fans that are FAR more quiet than any vacuum cleaner I've ever heard (including those industrial models that Hotels use for the low sound output) and, for the $500 (at least in a P4/Celeron version) come with Windows XP Home, Works (which includes MS Word), and who knows what else. Your statement is just as stupid as people claiming that Apple's units are many times more expensive than comparably equipped PC.
I will argue with you about the case too. The cases we use are 95% metal (with only the front panel being plastic).
If it breaks you have to drag it down to the PC shop, wait a couple of weeks, and then pick it up again. When a Mac breaks you call Apple, they send out a prepaid FedEx box, and I'll have it back working within a week.
This depends on who you are. I maintain my, and family, machines. If it takes you a couple weeks to get an x86 machine repaired, then the local shops around you suck. We are running a day or two turn around times right now, and only when we have more than 10 machines in here do we have more than one week turn around times. We even do house calls (that is my job). Try again.
Even as a unix professional I've come to appreciate these things since they let me concentrate on my work and not fixing computers. I'll give you a splendid example: I recently installed a new Linksys wireless router, and had to upgrade firmware both on that box and on their wireless adapter as well as disabling the Linksys wireless monitor that interefered with windows XP, just to get them talking to each other!
Are you an info-mercial script writer? The case you cite above is *extreamly* rare in all my years of setting up equipment, and in the several years of dealing with wireless. As a matter of fact, I can't recall one single event that I've had to go through what you list.
The point is simply that a lot of people (including unix performance users) simply think it is worth paying a couple of $$$ extra for nice design, good support, not to mention legal software.
That's great. My point is that just because you are a 'unix professional' doesn't mean you are that great with hardware. A good majority of people that can get around and use the software in their computers are also poor hardware people. The "PC" (I refuse to use the 'wintel' phrase) side of things is no where near as bad as you'd have people believe from your post.
He's nitpicking the issue to defend his dear baby...Linux.
Actually, it's not my 'dear baby'. I've typed all my replies to your ignorance in Windows while at work (and this is being typed in Windows from home).
Do people not consider Windows insecure because of Internet Explorer? Of course they do.
I don't know about other people, but I consider IE a huge security problem with Windows, however, it's been proven that there are other security problems with other parts as well. I'm sure there are some security problems with the kernel in use in 2000/XP as well. So, your statement would be correct. Windows is insecure because of IE and it's hooks into the various bits of the OS.
Is Internet Explorer Windows? Not by his definition.
And my definition would be correct. Windows' kernel is Windows. Explorer, Internet Explorer, Systray, etc are all parts of the OS. It isn't any different in that respect than Linux and it's utilities.
But how often do you think he jumps in and says "Internet Explorer isn't Windows!"?
I don't need to. IE is a program that, while very integrated into the Windows operating environment, is not the OS itself (though I'm sure MS would love if it were for the Antitrust crap they were in).
You are battling on a sinking ship. How about bailing out while you still can?
Would appear you are underqualified for it.
Everything I have read states that linux is, in fact, the kernel.
The rest are tools that sit atop and provide you the interface.
Have a nice day.
No, I'm not mistaken.
I'll repeat, for those of you slow morons.
Xandros != Linux!
Xandros, by your own example, is a DISTRIBUTION of linux, and therefore, not representative of what LINUX, in general, is capable of (Nor is it representative of how stable a linux distribution can be).
Go troll somewhere else.
Xandros != Linux!
You've a point about the manufacturers. Damn. It takes months to set up a manufacuring line with or without the flag. They're screwed -- they might have to flog cards or PVR's crippled with the control mechanism for months until they get rid of the inventory, or else have to eat a season's worth of profit if they are compelled to destroy them.
Why aren't you sharing the crack you are smoking with the rest of us?
I don't think the TV's are what are looking for the broadcast flag. (Unless they have a digital tuner built into them)
It's the set-top boxes and PC TV Tuners. Guess what? Both are controled by software. Software is upgradable.
I don't know how they would get an upgrade into a TV with a built in tuner, but I'm sure it'd be possible too (hell, they could even upgrade unsold TV's before they leave the factory and "recall" to fix the others). All of this would cost money, no doubt about that, but it'd be FAR LESS than just 'trashing existing inventory and making new".
Well, in THAT case, let's not even bother TRYING to make it any better.
For that matter, lets just roll over and take it in the ass for whatever anyone wants to force on us, then..
Nice attitude.
I'm not sure it's contradictory to the law of the land. No religion is being established by the government. It could be argued that reverence for a higher power (generically named "God") is part of American civics.
What the hell do you think the FMA was? It was an attempt to force a part of W's FAITH BASED beliefs onto the entire population of the US.
But don't make me pay for something that I may or may not want
You forgot one point. That is what voting is for. You don't want it, VOTE. If it gets through anyway and you don't like it, either educate people (yes, this is going to take time and your own money) or move to another town that doesn't provide it.
This is why we call it a democracy.
I can second your experiences, excpet I was punished all through high-school for it. (I didn't realize that I could go against my parents forcing me into religion untill I was aroung 14. They didn't like it. They didn't like the constant phone calls from teachers for how evil I was. They eventually got over it.)
Because you would be in the wrong just as much as Congress was when they added "Under God" in June 8, 1954, and Eisenhower was wrong to sign it into law on June 14.
I've stated it here before, and I'll state it again. The first 'settlers' from Europe fled here to get AWAY from being forced into a particular religion.
Here is a little info that was found by a friend of mine (I don't have the link anymore, but I do have the email he sent me).
It is a little know fact that the founding fathers of the United States of America were not, as some would lead you to believe, Christians at all. Seeing the word "God" repeated through out the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution may cause you to think that - because, of course, no other religions call their higher power just plain old "God". However, these founding fathers were actually Deists.
To quote dictionary.com, Deism is "The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation." Certainly not the God which gave his only son up for martyrdom, or the one which burned the occasional bush to get the attention of some people. Indeed, the God they believed in was the abstract God, and that belief was always secondary to the persuit of rational knowledge.
The reason why the freedom of religion was written into the Constitution is because more wars were fought over bother protecting one's own religion, and also enforcing it upon others. Guarranteeing that freedom, that right, to every citizen was to acknowledge that belief cannot and will not EVER be regulated. The separation of church and state was designed to give no one religion a particular upper hand - so that it could not dominate the country over other religions. It is there so that the free schooling system which all children must attend does not endorse one belief over another. It is there so that laws cannot be made which can be used to allow one religion to dominate this diverse country's varied belief systems. There are those who want prayer in school, but to them I ask, who's prayer? Your's or mine? Would you be offended if your child were forced to pray to Allah before every school event? Stop acting like it's only offensive when other people do it.
Thomas Jefferson would not approve of religion being taught in science class for the simple fact that reason is not the same thing as faith. Reason is about taking the measurable, the observable, and the manipulatable and abstracting the process and system by which they work. Faith is about believing, in the absence of reason or evidence, that something must be true for the simple fact that nobody can say that it isn't. You can use reason to reinforce your faith, but you cannot use faith to reinforce your reason. Science cannot be about faith. We've got other subjects for religion and philosophy. Science is pure reason, pristine and untouchable.
Someone should let David E. Kelley know that if he is going to state on his show, Boston Legal, that if he is going to use the reason that the founding fathers believed in a God as a reason to teach intelligent design in school science classes, he should at least point out that their god is not the Christian god - and if their god was taught in schools, it would still not preclude the science of evolution. It would SUPPORT it.
I promise you that if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, there'd be a whole lot of ass kicking going on. I'll leave you with some quotes, lest you doubt the facts on his beliefs, by the red headed rational himself:
"Whenever... preachers, instead of a lesson in religion, put [their congregation] off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and giving them, instea
Well, firstly, it wouldn't be "free", it'd be taxed.
Secondly, there are only so many 'features' a municipality could offer without the service taking up too much time/resources.
If a company (or more) came in and offered better/faster/more service, and it was something the local people *wanted*, then they would switch (assuming the prices were also what the local people want to pay). If enough people ended up switching, I can guarentee you that the tax for the "free" internet service would go up for a vote and get turned down (or the city could just stop providing it if there weren't enough interest).
This is the way a free society works. If you don't like it, move to the middle eastern countries. You'll have plenty of opression there.