It was the left ramp, which increased in value from 25,000 up to 1 million points after 5-7 consecutive hits (depending on machine difficulty setting). In high school, I hit the ramp 9 times in a row. It was a great feeling to be the youngest guy in a college arcade, dominate the machine in front of the crowd that gathered, and then walk away with credits on the machine and the new high score when the game was over (my dad was waiting outside). I'll often walk away from a free credit these days if a kid is hovering nearby. I would always check the machines when I was a kid -- unlike videos, every 10th time or so I found a credit.
It's just too expensive these days, I learned on 5 balls/25c in sleazy arcades and Putt Putt Super Saturday (40 tokens+golf/$5 with 1 token/5 balls). Make it cheap for kids to play the old machines and they'll lust to play the modern ones (and enjoy it when they do because they have some skill).
As a datapoint I just replaced an oxygen sensor in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The OEM part is $180. The aftermarket part is $60. The ONLY DIFFERENCE is the plastic interface plug on the end (the sensors are identical and are both manufactured by Bosch). $120 compensated me nicely for five minutes with a crimp kit.
Jeep is notorious for jacking up the price of old parts.
Corvettes are like this. But in a good way since they are notorious for high maintenance costs. They are designed for minimal maintenance. BTW, the maintenance manuals are outstanding but about $125 for a four volume set and the codes are all visible on the dashboard and extensively documented online and in the manuals.
Maintenance first 100,000 miles for a C5 Corvette
---
Change oil every 6-10K (counter shows oil life)
Inspect air filter every 20K and probably replace
Drain and refill radiator every 5 years
Replace spark plugs at 100K; Inspect rest of ignition
Replace tires when necessary
Replace brake pads when necessary
Replace battery when necessary
Replace windshield wipers, headlights, washer fluid when necessary
That's it -- differential, transmission, brake fluid, etc. are all maintenance free under normal driving conditions. And every single piece of routine maintenance is easily performable by a home mechanic with the manuals.
You obviously haven't been to many areas of the country. I have driven for hours in the Southwest US where the only channel FM or AM (during the day) strong enough to receive was religious. Then that channel died too. There is no NPR or alt-rock station between Norfolk, VA and Raleigh, NC (leaving a 100+ mile gap I drive twice a month) which is a reasonably populated area. The "normal" stations that you expect from the top 100 radio markets just don't exist in most of the rest of the country.
That doesn't even include unfilled niches like jazz (there's a good (not smooth jazz) station in my major market for 3 hours/day) and folk (3 hours/week) that satellite radio can address.
I'd certainly pay $12/month for satellite radio before I'd pay it for OnStar.
Apparently a senator is appointed as a representative of the (presumably democratic) homeworld government to represent the government in the Senate. Much like the selection of ministers for the European Union (or the ambassadors to the UN). If you separately elect the senator, you could have significant tension if they had different political views from the Queen since communication latency forces them to act in an independent fashion while relatively immune from political pressure from the public of their homeworld. This would explain the deference shown by Portman to the Queen on her return to Naboo. If they were equals (such as a US senator vs. a US governor) it would have played differently.
One problem with personal safe deposit boxes is that they are normally sealed at death until an executor is certified for the estate which normally takes several weeks. This is why you shouldn't keep your will in a safe deposit box (or at least the primary copy).
Big corporations avoid it all the time. I rented a car at 17 on the contract of a firm I was interviewing with. Most towns have non name-brand places that will rent to 21 year olds. Its only the national chains that are vehement about 25 (and only as a chain policy -- I've rented at individual locations at 21; usually with a $10 surcharge).
The VCs and founders are the overhang that is being discussed. Normal IPO agreements require all major shareholders to sign lockup agreements. Now that Paypal has gone public, VCs will distribute their shares to their investors (VCs always deliver shares since a major VC turning all shares into cash would decimate the market). As soon as the lockup ends, the investors start dumping because most take a pretty conservative view toward stocks like this. If the stock can survive this dumping (and then insider dumping, which takes a while due to negative PR, but is almost a certainty since so much of their net worth is in the company), it should stabilize at its "real" value.
For more examples, see numerous.BOMBS (eToys, The Globe come to mind).
I'm a bit dubious about the honor code impact. I know several people who have extensively cheated based on a liberal honor code. I appreciated the fact that my institution had no honor code and instead had real proctors (outsiders/retirees hired as a temp job) at all finals. And profs kept a close eye on this sort of thing. An honor code only works when people are honorable, which is becoming distressingly less common.
I disagree. Look how popular the tiny, fairly high quality (for their market/price range) "executive stereos" are. Interfaces make things harder for users, demand a more difficult user interface, (and for us high end) require very expensive cabling. Having Dolby Digital decoding on the DVD player (which saved significantly on the amp) means I have about $200 in cables (70% of the player price) on the back end.
Why do I buy integrated amps instead of amps/preamps? Because I can find the same quality in a unified package which is at a lower price (largely due to case/sales/interconnects). For amps, why do people buy 5-channel amps instead of single channel monoblocks? Price.
Integration is only suitable for stable technologies. In a fast changing market I'm glad I have a nonintegrated DVD since I can swap it out for a new progressive/DTS after two years. But VCRs haven't changed meaningfully in over a decade. So I'm perfectly happy with my TV/VCR combo in my bedroom that's been running fine for a decade. The user interface on the combos are far, far better than a normal VCR and TV. You hit play the VCR plays, hit stop and you're back on TV changing channels. My parents have an expensive VCR in their living room they haven't used for years because control is too difficult -- but the el cheapo combo in the kitchen is used everyday.
The other advantage of an integrated box in this scenario is shared infrastructure. Your VCR and TV have no common parts, but your Tivo, MP3 audio component, internet video component, digital radio component all share a hard disk, processor, etc. Therefore the potential cost savings are far greater, especially for high-cost items like networking or high-quality video interfaces.
As a former sonar officer on a nuclear submarine, sonar is almost entirely visual using modern equipment due to heavy analytical processing (you can see quieter signals than you can hear). The "good ears" stuff is pretty much a myth in the modern Navy (they're taking away sound entirely in the next generation).
Jitter is not based on "missing bits". It is based on the timing of the bits as processed by the DAC and output. If you have a CD player that has a slight rotational aberration (like my portable CD player) you will get jitter. If your DAC is a fraction of a second slow on occasion you will get jitter (this may be caused by physical placement of the data). That's why a "high-end" player will be heavier and seem more solid because those are virtual prerequisites to more consistent disc rotation. A "normal" CD player will lose 2-3 seconds over a CD. An "audiophile" one should be less than.1 seconds.
Your idea of a CD-ROM drive is a good one. Sony or another supplier to CD manufacturers makes an anti-jitter device that reads a disc and with very precise timing burns the master disc. It stores the data and uses its internal clock (rather than disc rotation) to control data flow. The nature of a PC gives it a pretty darn precise internal clock already. This is also the answer to the audiophile question I initially thought unbelievable -- Columbia House and BMG CDs can actually sound different from the "manufacturer" CD even though they are bit-perfect since they may have different physical timing caused by pit placement since they are not manufactured from the same master.
To hear this stuff you need excellent source material. The average Brittany Spears CD has been so preprocessed before mastering that any information obscured by jitter has long since been lost.
A friend of mine learned this the hard way when he carved his name on the label of each of his CDs with a knife to prevent theft. No theft worries now -- or useful CDs.
As a current Navy IT Officer, here's the current deal. Note that this may vary somewhat from the "past" since this is the most rapidly changing career field in the Navy. The Navy stood up the "Information Professional" community about September 1. I am technically not an IP since my intake community (submarines) both pays more and refuses to let me out of the community. However, my "shore duty" is as an IP.
1) With a college degree you should go in as an officer. Period. End of story. You will be very unhappy with your treatment as a junior enlisted person. Even with accelerated advancement to E-4 or E-5 you still will be unhappy. You will spend much of your first two years cleaning and standing relatively menial (but important, nonetheless) watches with minimal computer use. With a college degree you can attend Officer Candidate School.
2) Officers rarely if ever program. They work in IT management, system design and implementation, and contracting. If you want to program see 1) but realize enlisted personnel rarely if ever program (5-10 years down the road). They do a lot of front-line system management and network management though.
3) There is currently no direct method into IP. Either become a surface officer or as an Engineering Duty officer (specializes in IT acquisition as well as shipyard management). Direct accessions are planned in a few years.
4) If what you want is to do the job of a network engineer, programmer, etc. don't join the Navy. The 4+ years of training in surface warfare is not worth it if computers are what you're in for (and equals lots of sea time). There is a large and important role for people with a substantial warfighting background in IT management but that's years down the road (and may not be what the surface force has in mind for you).
Apparently (I've talked to several drivers and supervisors on this subject) UPS has a fairly sophisticated neighborhood/route tracking system to determine whether to leave or not leave. "Signature required" is pretty much meaningless in some areas since they're considered so safe they'll leave anything (I found 12 boxes containing over 600 pounds of stuff in the middle of my surburban driveway once). I currently live in a "bad" neighborhood and they won't leave anything where I lived a mile away (but will give to neighbors and such) but will leave almost anything on the back porch of my new house. Fedex won't leave anything insured (though "adult signature is no problem) at either place though they consider "under the bushes" reasonable for uninsured items.
But this is all a very conscious decision that the driver has very little control over. Probably the main reason they don't drop in my neighborhood is high recipient fraud instead of actual theft.
As a historical note, Slackware won because it was more extensive (it had far more package series which allowed distribution of "precompiled/preconfigured" utilities) and had a far better installation routine (you could install Slackware packages at a later date). Also, its X configuration documentation was much better (but still pretty poor). SLS was also falling behind at maintaining things current. My first Linux was SLS downloaded on 1.44MB floppies at the campus computer lab the night before leaving college freshman year (better than 9600bps at the dorms) in spring 1993. I moved to Slackware the next fall. Slackware was introduced, spread like wildfire via word of mouth and in just a few months SLS was no longer in general use (in those days you upgraded your distributions monthly because many common device drivers and utilities were just being written/ported). SLS didn't really seem to be interested in the "distribution" market, they were just a guy who'd stumbled into a key role in Linux. One thing good about SLS was it had carefully documented update logs so you could upgrade individual floppies as programs changed. Since dialup networking was very hard to use and rare in Linux at the time, downloading the disk images with xmodem was a way of life if you didn't have an Ethernet connection.
I used to manage all photos taken on a US Navy warship. Its all about the procedures -- they took the photos and gave me the cameras/memory chips as applicable at the end of the event. Full, half-full, whatever. If there was a problem with running out of capacity, then you buy more chips for next time. I put all the photos in an archive by date and sent a copy to the taker for whatever purposes they wanted. Public Affairs, Intelligence, Operations all kept their own libraries of photos for their purposes but each could access the master archive to search it if they wanted something from another roll, had accidentally deleted theirs, etc. Nothing ever came out of the archive (storage is cheap) which is better than analog (I for one have lost or damaged negatives).
Occasionally someone would delete a picture midroll to make room. But more often they'd grab me or someone for another digital camera, memory chip, etc. instead. While having extra cameras and extra memory chips is more expensive than an extra roll of film in the short term, we saved a fortune in the long term (primarily due to developing costs and speed).
The primary advantage was that I could keep an archival copy of everything without incurring film development costs and while giving a "best" copy to the customer. Normally we'd fight over film negatives since I wanted to keep them so they wouldn't lose them or so multiple customers could use them while they wanted to keep them for instant access. With digital, my copy is safely stashed away (filing by date has almost no overhead but is reasonably accessible) until it comes time to help someone out. The customer can do all the data (mis)management their heart desires.
I used to be the IT guy for an accounting firm. As such I used to get this sort of advice as a fringe benefit:)
The way they accounted for their software was as a consumable expense. Essentially any shrink-wrapped software can be treated this way since you're buying a license rather than a piece of software -- this is not necessarily the case for custom-developed software in which you have a real asset (the source code and licensing rights) which you may resell or modify down the road. This wouldn't apply to in-house developed custom software though since those costs (wages, computers) would be part of general business costs -- it makes no sense to try to quantify development overhead so something could be treated as an asset.
This is for taxes where the goal is to drive down profits. If you have alternate goals (or are already making too big a loss) you may want to expense long-term projects. This is sometimes done on corporate financial statements for the markets which "expense" a $10 million software package over a number of years to keep profits up. This can also lead to the big write-off numbers you see post-merger. All the software that is no longer is use can be written off in one fell swoop allowing bigger profits to be reported in future quarters.
I think the way we did it was the best way I saw it handled. Make your own teams. Live or die by the consequences. If you don't like it, split up the team (teams worked roughly in parallel). Weaker teams can be compensated by allowing them extra people or more help by teaching assistants. Most people ended up pretty happy -- super egos grabbed a quiescent rider, all nighters teamed up, etc. My favorite team had a very disciplined partner who would prep and begin everything after we finished the design. I would come along for a massive concentrated effort on backshifts. She would pick up the pieces after I crashed 36 hours later, finish debugging and final features, and prep for turnin. And she still slept 10 hours/night.
Forced teams are just plain unfair if code quality is the end product measured. MIT does it in an original way -- some forced teams get the option to go it alone for grades or accept the lowest member's grade with a "bonus". Works very well for teams confident enough to pick the second option.
Usually this happens due to the original purchaser buying it under a volume license, site license, or educational license. I had several DEC Ultrix machines given to me for free for non-profit work which ended up costing the grantee several thousand a year each since they were being used by a non-profit affiliate (and thus remained under the site license). So often it made sense at the time:(
And plenty of clubs you'd better make more money than I to go to -- the "restaurant" that averages the highest tab in American for Amex is a Texas strip club ($200+).
Actually a six foot plastic/glass water pipe is excellent for smoking a tobacco/molasses/fruit mixture from the middle east called "sheeshah". This is what water pipes were designed for, long before their "repurposing". Very hard to find the stuff in the United States but accessible on the Internet (about $10 for a box good for 80+ 2 hour smokes). Very popular in Bahrain and UAE in recent years as an "old-school" habit that the young adopted with a vengeance.
This is key -- municipal IP is purely an economic development issue. It's true that are severe management problems in many towns (I do, however, know of several small and medium-sized towns that are very well managed), but these management problems are already reflected in the poor use of economic development funds. It seems a no-brainer to cut tax breaks as bait to lure big companies (that don't meet their promises and then lay people off) and instead build IP networks to encourage the return of professionals to urban residential areas and the growth of small and medium businesses.
Even if a municipal IP utility loses $5 or $10 million a year they're getting tremendous bang for their buck compared to traditional economic development tax breaks and site development funds.
A better idea, however, is for local governments to require universal deployment of high-speed access as part of their franchise agreements for cable and to maintain ownership of colocation points and rights of way to allow alternate providers to compete. Rights of way are often horribly managed (I watched my entire street torn up and rebuilt three times in a year as the sewer, cable, and phone people all upgraded their systems -- why not tear it up once and let all three sets of workers install simultaneously). Also many have excess capacity on their "internal" networks that could be sold to provide incremental revenue and assist new providers.
The line of reasoning that providing information or services on the Internet costs more bothers me. I went to renew my vehicle registration last night online and they wanted $6 extra (2 cars x $3) for the convenience. This is on top of the.60-$1.60 extra paid for a mailed renewal vs. walk-in.
In reality I'm saving them a lot of money (other than the credit card processing fee online). They don't need office space, waiting areas, sufficient customer service representatives at all times (since they can delay a day or two without repercussions allowing use of part-time or second-shift workers). By charging me for the (quite real) costs of the Internet but not charging existing customers for the (quite real) costs of the existing methods, they are significantly discouraging the use of online methods (I mailed my renewal).
If they run out of space in a pedestal, they'll install a "temporary" line splitter (kiss your 56K modem goodbye) and install the second line. This could split an existing line of yours (normally) or sometimes a complete stranger.
Normally this will also eventually lead to a new pedestal being installed or replacement of the whole thing. My father got several thousand dollars for allowing BellSouth to consolidate two old-school pedestals in a modern one the size of a freezer on a concrete slab with room for growth. Of course it takes six months for siting, buying the land, installation, switchover, etc. BellSouth seemed pretty competent at this sort of thing. The techs were happy since they could park their truck at the new site instead of pulling off the side of the road and it wasn't all nasty and rusted out from heavy rain like the predecessors. Be nice to your phone techs -- you can learn a lot!
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It was the left ramp, which increased in value from 25,000 up to 1 million points after 5-7 consecutive hits (depending on machine difficulty setting). In high school, I hit the ramp 9 times in a row. It was a great feeling to be the youngest guy in a college arcade, dominate the machine in front of the crowd that gathered, and then walk away with credits on the machine and the new high score when the game was over (my dad was waiting outside).
I'll often walk away from a free credit these days if a kid is hovering nearby. I would always check the machines when I was a kid -- unlike videos, every 10th time or so I found a credit. It's just too expensive these days, I learned on 5 balls/25c in sleazy arcades and Putt Putt Super Saturday (40 tokens+golf/$5 with 1 token/5 balls). Make it cheap for kids to play the old machines and they'll lust to play the modern ones (and enjoy it when they do because they have some skill).
As a datapoint I just replaced an oxygen sensor in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The OEM part is $180. The aftermarket part is $60. The ONLY DIFFERENCE is the plastic interface plug on the end (the sensors are identical and are both manufactured by Bosch). $120 compensated me nicely for five minutes with a crimp kit.
Jeep is notorious for jacking up the price of old parts.
Corvettes are like this. But in a good way since they are notorious for high maintenance costs. They are designed for minimal maintenance. BTW, the maintenance manuals are outstanding but about $125 for a four volume set and the codes are all visible on the dashboard and extensively documented online and in the manuals. Maintenance first 100,000 miles for a C5 Corvette
---
Change oil every 6-10K (counter shows oil life)
Inspect air filter every 20K and probably replace
Drain and refill radiator every 5 years
Replace spark plugs at 100K; Inspect rest of ignition
Replace tires when necessary
Replace brake pads when necessary
Replace battery when necessary
Replace windshield wipers, headlights, washer fluid when necessary
That's it -- differential, transmission, brake fluid, etc. are all maintenance free under normal driving conditions. And every single piece of routine maintenance is easily performable by a home mechanic with the manuals.
You obviously haven't been to many areas of the country. I have driven for hours in the Southwest US where the only channel FM or AM (during the day) strong enough to receive was religious. Then that channel died too. There is no NPR or alt-rock station between Norfolk, VA and Raleigh, NC (leaving a 100+ mile gap I drive twice a month) which is a reasonably populated area. The "normal" stations that you expect from the top 100 radio markets just don't exist in most of the rest of the country.
That doesn't even include unfilled niches like jazz (there's a good (not smooth jazz) station in my major market for 3 hours/day) and folk (3 hours/week) that satellite radio can address.
I'd certainly pay $12/month for satellite radio before I'd pay it for OnStar.
Apparently a senator is appointed as a representative of the (presumably democratic) homeworld government to represent the government in the Senate. Much like the selection of ministers for the European Union (or the ambassadors to the UN). If you separately elect the senator, you could have significant tension if they had different political views from the Queen since communication latency forces them to act in an independent fashion while relatively immune from political pressure from the public of their homeworld. This would explain the deference shown by Portman to the Queen on her return to Naboo. If they were equals (such as a US senator vs. a US governor) it would have played differently.
One problem with personal safe deposit boxes is that they are normally sealed at death until an executor is certified for the estate which normally takes several weeks. This is why you shouldn't keep your will in a safe deposit box (or at least the primary copy).
Big corporations avoid it all the time. I rented a car at 17 on the contract of a firm I was interviewing with. Most towns have non name-brand places that will rent to 21 year olds. Its only the national chains that are vehement about 25 (and only as a chain policy -- I've rented at individual locations at 21; usually with a $10 surcharge).
The VCs and founders are the overhang that is being discussed. Normal IPO agreements require all major shareholders to sign lockup agreements. Now that Paypal has gone public, VCs will distribute their shares to their investors (VCs always deliver shares since a major VC turning all shares into cash would decimate the market). As soon as the lockup ends, the investors start dumping because most take a pretty conservative view toward stocks like this. If the stock can survive this dumping (and then insider dumping, which takes a while due to negative PR, but is almost a certainty since so much of their net worth is in the company), it should stabilize at its "real" value.
.BOMBS (eToys, The Globe come to mind).
For more examples, see numerous
I'm a bit dubious about the honor code impact. I know several people who have extensively cheated based on a liberal honor code. I appreciated the fact that my institution had no honor code and instead had real proctors (outsiders/retirees hired as a temp job) at all finals. And profs kept a close eye on this sort of thing. An honor code only works when people are honorable, which is becoming distressingly less common.
I disagree. Look how popular the tiny, fairly high quality (for their market/price range) "executive stereos" are. Interfaces make things harder for users, demand a more difficult user interface, (and for us high end) require very expensive cabling. Having Dolby Digital decoding on the DVD player (which saved significantly on the amp) means I have about $200 in cables (70% of the player price) on the back end.
Why do I buy integrated amps instead of amps/preamps? Because I can find the same quality in a unified package which is at a lower price (largely due to case/sales/interconnects). For amps, why do people buy 5-channel amps instead of single channel monoblocks? Price.
Integration is only suitable for stable technologies. In a fast changing market I'm glad I have a nonintegrated DVD since I can swap it out for a new progressive/DTS after two years. But VCRs haven't changed meaningfully in over a decade. So I'm perfectly happy with my TV/VCR combo in my bedroom that's been running fine for a decade. The user interface on the combos are far, far better than a normal VCR and TV. You hit play the VCR plays, hit stop and you're back on TV changing channels. My parents have an expensive VCR in their living room they haven't used for years because control is too difficult -- but the el cheapo combo in the kitchen is used everyday.
The other advantage of an integrated box in this scenario is shared infrastructure. Your VCR and TV have no common parts, but your Tivo, MP3 audio component, internet video component, digital radio component all share a hard disk, processor, etc. Therefore the potential cost savings are far greater, especially for high-cost items like networking or high-quality video interfaces.
As a former sonar officer on a nuclear submarine, sonar is almost entirely visual using modern equipment due to heavy analytical processing (you can see quieter signals than you can hear). The "good ears" stuff is pretty much a myth in the modern Navy (they're taking away sound entirely in the next generation).
Jitter is not based on "missing bits". It is based on the timing of the bits as processed by the DAC and output. If you have a CD player that has a slight rotational aberration (like my portable CD player) you will get jitter. If your DAC is a fraction of a second slow on occasion you will get jitter (this may be caused by physical placement of the data). That's why a "high-end" player will be heavier and seem more solid because those are virtual prerequisites to more consistent disc rotation. A "normal" CD player will lose 2-3 seconds over a CD. An "audiophile" one should be less than .1 seconds.
Your idea of a CD-ROM drive is a good one. Sony or another supplier to CD manufacturers makes an anti-jitter device that reads a disc and with very precise timing burns the master disc. It stores the data and uses its internal clock (rather than disc rotation) to control data flow. The nature of a PC gives it a pretty darn precise internal clock already. This is also the answer to the audiophile question I initially thought unbelievable -- Columbia House and BMG CDs can actually sound different from the "manufacturer" CD even though they are bit-perfect since they may have different physical timing caused by pit placement since they are not manufactured from the same master.
To hear this stuff you need excellent source material. The average Brittany Spears CD has been so preprocessed before mastering that any information obscured by jitter has long since been lost.
A friend of mine learned this the hard way when he carved his name on the label of each of his CDs with a knife to prevent theft. No theft worries now -- or useful CDs.
As a current Navy IT Officer, here's the current deal. Note that this may vary somewhat from the "past" since this is the most rapidly changing career field in the Navy. The Navy stood up the "Information Professional" community about September 1. I am technically not an IP since my intake community (submarines) both pays more and refuses to let me out of the community. However, my "shore duty" is as an IP.
1) With a college degree you should go in as an officer. Period. End of story. You will be very unhappy with your treatment as a junior enlisted person. Even with accelerated advancement to E-4 or E-5 you still will be unhappy. You will spend much of your first two years cleaning and standing relatively menial (but important, nonetheless) watches with minimal computer use. With a college degree you can attend Officer Candidate School.
2) Officers rarely if ever program. They work in IT management, system design and implementation, and contracting. If you want to program see 1) but realize enlisted personnel rarely if ever program (5-10 years down the road). They do a lot of front-line system management and network management though.
3) There is currently no direct method into IP. Either become a surface officer or as an Engineering Duty officer (specializes in IT acquisition as well as shipyard management). Direct accessions are planned in a few years.
4) If what you want is to do the job of a network engineer, programmer, etc. don't join the Navy. The 4+ years of training in surface warfare is not worth it if computers are what you're in for (and equals lots of sea time). There is a large and important role for people with a substantial warfighting background in IT management but that's years down the road (and may not be what the surface force has in mind for you).
Apparently (I've talked to several drivers and supervisors on this subject) UPS has a fairly sophisticated neighborhood/route tracking system to determine whether to leave or not leave. "Signature required" is pretty much meaningless in some areas since they're considered so safe they'll leave anything (I found 12 boxes containing over 600 pounds of stuff in the middle of my surburban driveway once). I currently live in a "bad" neighborhood and they won't leave anything where I lived a mile away (but will give to neighbors and such) but will leave almost anything on the back porch of my new house. Fedex won't leave anything insured (though "adult signature is no problem) at either place though they consider "under the bushes" reasonable for uninsured items.
But this is all a very conscious decision that the driver has very little control over. Probably the main reason they don't drop in my neighborhood is high recipient fraud instead of actual theft.
Bangback
As a historical note, Slackware won because it was more extensive (it had far more package series which allowed distribution of "precompiled/preconfigured" utilities) and had a far better installation routine (you could install Slackware packages at a later date). Also, its X configuration documentation was much better (but still pretty poor). SLS was also falling behind at maintaining things current. My first Linux was SLS downloaded on 1.44MB floppies at the campus computer lab the night before leaving college freshman year (better than 9600bps at the dorms) in spring 1993. I moved to Slackware the next fall. Slackware was introduced, spread like wildfire via word of mouth and in just a few months SLS was no longer in general use (in those days you upgraded your distributions monthly because many common device drivers and utilities were just being written/ported). SLS didn't really seem to be interested in the "distribution" market, they were just a guy who'd stumbled into a key role in Linux. One thing good about SLS was it had carefully documented update logs so you could upgrade individual floppies as programs changed. Since dialup networking was very hard to use and rare in Linux at the time, downloading the disk images with xmodem was a way of life if you didn't have an Ethernet connection.
I used to manage all photos taken on a US Navy warship. Its all about the procedures -- they took the photos and gave me the cameras/memory chips as applicable at the end of the event. Full, half-full, whatever. If there was a problem with running out of capacity, then you buy more chips for next time. I put all the photos in an archive by date and sent a copy to the taker for whatever purposes they wanted. Public Affairs, Intelligence, Operations all kept their own libraries of photos for their purposes but each could access the master archive to search it if they wanted something from another roll, had accidentally deleted theirs, etc. Nothing ever came out of the archive (storage is cheap) which is better than analog (I for one have lost or damaged negatives).
Occasionally someone would delete a picture midroll to make room. But more often they'd grab me or someone for another digital camera, memory chip, etc. instead. While having extra cameras and extra memory chips is more expensive than an extra roll of film in the short term, we saved a fortune in the long term (primarily due to developing costs and speed).
The primary advantage was that I could keep an archival copy of everything without incurring film development costs and while giving a "best" copy to the customer. Normally we'd fight over film negatives since I wanted to keep them so they wouldn't lose them or so multiple customers could use them while they wanted to keep them for instant access. With digital, my copy is safely stashed away (filing by date has almost no overhead but is reasonably accessible) until it comes time to help someone out. The customer can do all the data (mis)management their heart desires.
I used to be the IT guy for an accounting firm. As such I used to get this sort of advice as a fringe benefit :)
The way they accounted for their software was as a consumable expense. Essentially any shrink-wrapped software can be treated this way since you're buying a license rather than a piece of software -- this is not necessarily the case for custom-developed software in which you have a real asset (the source code and licensing rights) which you may resell or modify down the road. This wouldn't apply to in-house developed custom software though since those costs (wages, computers) would be part of general business costs -- it makes no sense to try to quantify development overhead so something could be treated as an asset.
This is for taxes where the goal is to drive down profits. If you have alternate goals (or are already making too big a loss) you may want to expense long-term projects. This is sometimes done on corporate financial statements for the markets which "expense" a $10 million software package over a number of years to keep profits up. This can also lead to the big write-off numbers you see post-merger. All the software that is no longer is use can be written off in one fell swoop allowing bigger profits to be reported in future quarters.
I think the way we did it was the best way I saw it handled. Make your own teams. Live or die by the consequences. If you don't like it, split up the team (teams worked roughly in parallel). Weaker teams can be compensated by allowing them extra people or more help by teaching assistants. Most people ended up pretty happy -- super egos grabbed a quiescent rider, all nighters teamed up, etc. My favorite team had a very disciplined partner who would prep and begin everything after we finished the design. I would come along for a massive concentrated effort on backshifts. She would pick up the pieces after I crashed 36 hours later, finish debugging and final features, and prep for turnin. And she still slept 10 hours/night.
Forced teams are just plain unfair if code quality is the end product measured. MIT does it in an original way -- some forced teams get the option to go it alone for grades or accept the lowest member's grade with a "bonus". Works very well for teams confident enough to pick the second option.
Usually this happens due to the original purchaser buying it under a volume license, site license, or educational license. I had several DEC Ultrix machines given to me for free for non-profit work which ended up costing the grantee several thousand a year each since they were being used by a non-profit affiliate (and thus remained under the site license). So often it made sense at the time :(
And plenty of clubs you'd better make more money than I to go to -- the "restaurant" that averages the highest tab in American for Amex is a Texas strip club ($200+).
Mine is only four feet.
Bangback
This is key -- municipal IP is purely an economic development issue. It's true that are severe management problems in many towns (I do, however, know of several small and medium-sized towns that are very well managed), but these management problems are already reflected in the poor use of economic development funds. It seems a no-brainer to cut tax breaks as bait to lure big companies (that don't meet their promises and then lay people off) and instead build IP networks to encourage the return of professionals to urban residential areas and the growth of small and medium businesses.
Even if a municipal IP utility loses $5 or $10 million a year they're getting tremendous bang for their buck compared to traditional economic development tax breaks and site development funds.
A better idea, however, is for local governments to require universal deployment of high-speed access as part of their franchise agreements for cable and to maintain ownership of colocation points and rights of way to allow alternate providers to compete. Rights of way are often horribly managed (I watched my entire street torn up and rebuilt three times in a year as the sewer, cable, and phone people all upgraded their systems -- why not tear it up once and let all three sets of workers install simultaneously). Also many have excess capacity on their "internal" networks that could be sold to provide incremental revenue and assist new providers.
In reality I'm saving them a lot of money (other than the credit card processing fee online). They don't need office space, waiting areas, sufficient customer service representatives at all times (since they can delay a day or two without repercussions allowing use of part-time or second-shift workers). By charging me for the (quite real) costs of the Internet but not charging existing customers for the (quite real) costs of the existing methods, they are significantly discouraging the use of online methods (I mailed my renewal).
If they run out of space in a pedestal, they'll install a "temporary" line splitter (kiss your 56K modem goodbye) and install the second line. This could split an existing line of yours (normally) or sometimes a complete stranger.
Normally this will also eventually lead to a new pedestal being installed or replacement of the whole thing. My father got several thousand dollars for allowing BellSouth to consolidate two old-school pedestals in a modern one the size of a freezer on a concrete slab with room for growth. Of course it takes six months for siting, buying the land, installation, switchover, etc. BellSouth seemed pretty competent at this sort of thing. The techs were happy since they could park their truck at the new site instead of pulling off the side of the road and it wasn't all nasty and rusted out from heavy rain like the predecessors. Be nice to your phone techs -- you can learn a lot!