This article submission is pure FUD, and very misleading.
The issue at hand is Level 3 currently have a peering agreement. They send each other traffic at a 1:1 ratio, more or less. Level 3 acquired Netflix as a customer. The traffic ratio will now change to 5:1 in Level 3's favor. Anytime traffic is that out of balance, a commercial (monetary) peering arrangement is made. This has nothing to do with neutrality, or video, or netflix, or anything else. This is simply Level 3 whipping up the childlike fear of no net neutrality in hopes to gain a better peering agreement. Very Shady on their part, and very silly for anyone who gobbles it up.
Once again, this farce is playing itself out and hardly anyone seems to have learned from history. Once the government is granted the authority to regulate the internet ISPs at the traffic level, it's all over.
Of course, at first it will be regulation to ensure a fair playing field. But now they have the authority. Next, it will be regulations to ensure a playing field the government wants. And in the end, the big corporations will influence the regulation by lobbying and hob-knobbing with the government to use the FCC to force smaller, innovative competitors out of business and cement their monopoly rule. They've already been doing this for years, on average, with telecoms and everything else. Oil, healthcare, you name it.
It's so sad that all of these super intelligent people on Slashdot are arguing for the FCC to be granted these powers, or for Congress to grant them this power when doing so will, according to history, bring about the exact situation everyone here seeks to avoid.
The ONLY solution to maximize internet freedom is no regulation at all.
Actually, you can open carry in more populated areas (ie, urban metropolitan areas) than you can concealed carry. For example, you can open carry in California. Additionally, open carry rarely requires a license, but concealed carry does.
No non-US source can operate successfully in the US. why? becasue the banks are regulated. All US banks are prohibited from doing business with anyone the US government or some unelected policy wonk says not to. If you cant' transfer money to this non-US entity via any american bank, how are you going to use them?
Everyone here is cyring for paypal to be regulated like a bank. That would change the problem, but would still be a problem nonetheless.
Gunpal.net was created specifically because of paypal draconian policies relating to anything firearms related. If you sell any product that is related to firearms in ANY way, paypal will not do business with you.
Your assertions would be correct if they were happening in a system where all that has gone before had not gone. However, given the way corporations lobby government entities, the way contracts are handed out, etc, means that experts are NOT the ones deciding for the state in the first place.
His article wasn't that much of a troll, he emphasized the commonality of FOSS and libertarian thought. FOSS is truly an exemplary example of what kind of things would and can happen in a more libertarian society.
You're completely out of sync with what most libertarians believe. Many libertarians would abolish corporations completely, as the government does not have the power to grant any "rights" to a non person entity. Given that a libertarian would likely take the argument that far, the idea that they *want* corporate feudalism is just absurd on its face. Please stop espousing ideas that are so far from the truth.
As someone mentioned above, a lot of printer manufacturers and retailers are basically using the razor model now. Give the printer away and charge for the cartridges. In light of this, I recommend at least thinking about the following:
Troll through sites like slickdeals.net or fatwallet.com and look for awesome printer deals. Especially around Black Friday coming up, and frequently from Office Depot. A lot of times between the coupons you can buy from ebay for a few bucks, (like 100 off of 300) and some instant in store rebates, you can get a 300d dollar printer down to 50 bucks, or 100 bucks. I've even seen them get the price down to -50 where you get PAID to take the printer. Given that this brand new printer comes with toner (granted, not a full cartridge, but enough to justify this method), just use the printer till the toner runs out, throw it away or ebay it, and get yourself a new printer again. Rinse, repeat.
I mean, why not? If they are going to use that kind of a business model, it only makes sense to adjust the buying strategy to fit.
While I appreciate your sentiment, it sounds like you don't quite grasp the fundamentals of "rights" and where they come from. Rights are not "granted" to us. If a right can be granted, then it can be un-granted or taken away. Rights are innate and inalienable. You are born with them and you die with them. Only governments and corporations are granted limited rights. It sounds like you're a fellow proponent of freedom, so hopefully you'll take this seemingly technical but absolutely fundamental distinction/correction in a spirit of goodwill and further the message.
Now's not the time to mince words, so let me just say it... we blew it.
I'm referring to a recent blog post from an ex-Dell kiosk employee that received more attention after the Consumerist blogged about it, and even more still after we asked them to remove it.
In this case, I agree with what Jeff Jarvis had to say: instead of trying to control information that was made public, we should have simply corrected anything that was inaccurate. We didn't do that, and now we're paying for it.
I believe in the customer voice--that's why I signed up for this job in the first place. There's simply no cheating the system. When we're on the right track, folks tend to say some good things about us (or at least give us a second chance). When we mess up, they let us know quickly and vocally. Then everyone watches our reaction like a hawk.
Now, if you'll allow me to shift gears just a bit, here's our own 22 23 Confessions list:
1) Ok, we goofed. We shouldn't have sent a notice. To my earlier point, we appreciate the reminder from the community. Point taken. Yesterday, we also responded to a related IdeaStorm idea from user jmxz. To see more, take a look for comments from our own dell_admin1 and my good pal richard_b.
2) An easy way to scope out deals is to go to the Home and Home Office section of Dell.com and click "As Advertised." In other words, click here. You can see what we're currently offering and then chat live with a rep if you like.
3) We have simplified our pricing and promos. We have reduced the number of promotions per product line and the number for a single product. We've also simplified our rebates.
4) Small Business will be different than Home and Home Office soon. There will be a real difference between systems we offer to consumers vs. small business users that goes beyond price. Since these details depend on upcoming changes in both our Inspiron line and our small business systems, I can't share more details just yet, but you will hear more in a few weeks.
5) We are committed to being the greenest technology company on the planet. It's the right thing to do for ourselves, our environment and our customers. See details in the Programs section of this page for more information.
6) When your computer's effective life has ended, we still care about it as much as you do, so we provide free recycling for all consumers worldwide. We can't wait for our competitors to catch up, since we all benefit from improving our environment. Please remind them.
7) We don't think many people get excited when they have to call the Geek Squad, wait around at their house and then fork over cash when you can do the same thing in the comfort of your home on your own schedule for free. Maybe we're crazy, but we think this is more effective. Turns out our customers seem to agree. DellConnect has helped over 5 million consumers for free and has a 93% satisfaction rate in a little over one year of service. Other tools like PC-Tune-Up help automate confusing aspects of system maintenance And new tools like Dell Support Center centralize system-specific information and provide several options for reaching support to make troubleshooting easier.
8) What if you only had to make one click to make a difference in the environment? Well, we do this everyday via our Plant a Tree for Me program. Through it, we empower our consumers to offset their system's carbon footprint by making a small contribution to purchase a tree at the time of purchase or whenever you want. And, Michael Dell is personally matching any contribution you make in June, July and August.
9) We normally wouldn't have said this in the past, but we have some very cool PCs being introduced later this month. Stay tuned and you'll see what we mean. Matter of fact, I've seen some pictures here and here.
10) We have a very great way for all of our customers to share ideas with us at www.ideastorm.
You're very confused about the reasoning behind these votes. A little more due diligence on your part would go a long way toward understanding government. I will comment on the reasons, though.
# Voted NO on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005) -- Government should not be funding research.
# Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005) -- Government is not constitutionally authorized to restrict such transport.
# Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004) -- Federal government is not authorized to make this a crime, this is an area where only states are supposed to have law making power.
# Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother's life. (Oct 2003) -- The abortion issue is tricky, all libertarians do not agree on this. The logic goes like this: All people own themselves, their life, their person, etc. All people have full control of their property, and nobody may take that away from you unless you are attempting to take it from someone else first. One person's rights ends where another persons begins. Two adults have an exactly equal right to life, and no matter how beneficial it is for one person to harm another person, you may never do so unless you are threatened.
So using the above principle, person a is an unborn baby, and person b is the mother. Person A and person B have equal right to life. But at exactly which moment do all of these rights kick in? When do they start to exist? Conception? Viability? Birth? We know they kick in at some point, because all people have them, and they are inalienable. So where is it? Viability is a moving target. Does it make sense that these rights exist now at 7 months whereas 100 years ago they existed at 8 months?
The above quandary will go away eventually. In 500 years when viability is the same as conception, it will no longer be a moving target, and then we can say that rights begin at conception, I suppose.
But don't say Ron Paul is not for the rights of women. He is for the rights of everybody equally. You only differ in when you think a baby's rights start to exist.
# Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003) -- Government is not authorized by the constitution to regulate cloning.
# Voted YES on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info. (Sep 2002) -- Government is not supposed to be promoting particular social agendas.
# Voted YES on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001) -- Government should not be taking money from hard working taxpayers in the US and sending out to foreign countries. If people wish to do do foreign charity work they should do it themselves. This is not in the purview of government.
Ran outta time, have to run. Hopefully the above will get you started.
# Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
# No federal funding of abortion, and pro-life. (Dec 2000)
Voted YES on restricting bankruptcy rules. (Jan 2004)
Voted YES on protecting the Pledge of Allegiance. (Sep 2004)
Voted YES on vouchers for private & parochial schools (AKA religious schools)
Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. Voted YES on barring website promoting Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump. Voted NO on establishing nationwide AMBER alert system for missing kids. Rated 76% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-family voting record. (Dec 2003) Voted YES on continuing intelligence gathering without civil oversight. (Apr 2006) Rated 100% by FAIR, indicating a voting record restricting immigration. (Dec 2003) Voted YES on eliminating the Estate Tax ("death tax"). (Apr 2001)
Here's the link to search the records.
None of this is new information, all counties everywhere have this information "publicly" available. Usually you have to drive there and ask for it.
There is a company that makes software that tracks your computers movements, calls home at specified hours, logs the phone number you dialed from, and can record inventory and programs. They work with law enforcement to recover your stolen things for you, as well.
They say their program survives fdisk, but it didn't survive mine. However, their inventory tracking software is one of the best I have seen at getting everything.
Seems Philips is right on target, so far. The GM of Philips copyright protection mentions this at the URL below:
Any kind of legal action would take years and we don't expect these [discs] to last that long," Wirtz told New Scientist. "At the moment we are trying to reason with people rather than sue them."
Slashdot Mirror
This article submission is pure FUD, and very misleading.
The issue at hand is Level 3 currently have a peering agreement. They send each other traffic at a 1:1 ratio, more or less. Level 3 acquired Netflix as a customer. The traffic ratio will now change to 5:1 in Level 3's favor. Anytime traffic is that out of balance, a commercial (monetary) peering arrangement is made. This has nothing to do with neutrality, or video, or netflix, or anything else. This is simply Level 3 whipping up the childlike fear of no net neutrality in hopes to gain a better peering agreement. Very Shady on their part, and very silly for anyone who gobbles it up.
http://gigaom.com/2010/11/29/level-3-comcast-in-a-cat-fight-over-online-video/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101129/17242612047/companies-come-out-woodwork-to-claim-comcast-is-violating-net-neutrality-exaggerations-abound.shtml
Once again, this farce is playing itself out and hardly anyone seems to have learned from history. Once the government is granted the authority to regulate the internet ISPs at the traffic level, it's all over.
Of course, at first it will be regulation to ensure a fair playing field. But now they have the authority. Next, it will be regulations to ensure a playing field the government wants. And in the end, the big corporations will influence the regulation by lobbying and hob-knobbing with the government to use the FCC to force smaller, innovative competitors out of business and cement their monopoly rule. They've already been doing this for years, on average, with telecoms and everything else. Oil, healthcare, you name it.
It's so sad that all of these super intelligent people on Slashdot are arguing for the FCC to be granted these powers, or for Congress to grant them this power when doing so will, according to history, bring about the exact situation everyone here seeks to avoid.
The ONLY solution to maximize internet freedom is no regulation at all.
Actually, you can open carry in more populated areas (ie, urban metropolitan areas) than you can concealed carry. For example, you can open carry in California. Additionally, open carry rarely requires a license, but concealed carry does.
See www.opencarry.org for more info.
No non-US source can operate successfully in the US. why? becasue the banks are regulated. All US banks are prohibited from doing business with anyone the US government or some unelected policy wonk says not to. If you cant' transfer money to this non-US entity via any american bank, how are you going to use them?
Everyone here is cyring for paypal to be regulated like a bank. That would change the problem, but would still be a problem nonetheless.
You should look into gunpal.net
That is not true. There is also gunpal.net
Gunpal.net was created specifically because of paypal draconian policies relating to anything firearms related. If you sell any product that is related to firearms in ANY way, paypal will not do business with you.
Gunpal is the solution.
Your assertions would be correct if they were happening in a system where all that has gone before had not gone. However, given the way corporations lobby government entities, the way contracts are handed out, etc, means that experts are NOT the ones deciding for the state in the first place.
His article wasn't that much of a troll, he emphasized the commonality of FOSS and libertarian thought. FOSS is truly an exemplary example of what kind of things would and can happen in a more libertarian society.
You're completely out of sync with what most libertarians believe. Many libertarians would abolish corporations completely, as the government does not have the power to grant any "rights" to a non person entity. Given that a libertarian would likely take the argument that far, the idea that they *want* corporate feudalism is just absurd on its face. Please stop espousing ideas that are so far from the truth.
As someone mentioned above, a lot of printer manufacturers and retailers are basically using the razor model now. Give the printer away and charge for the cartridges. In light of this, I recommend at least thinking about the following:
Troll through sites like slickdeals.net or fatwallet.com and look for awesome printer deals. Especially around Black Friday coming up, and frequently from Office Depot. A lot of times between the coupons you can buy from ebay for a few bucks, (like 100 off of 300) and some instant in store rebates, you can get a 300d dollar printer down to 50 bucks, or 100 bucks. I've even seen them get the price down to -50 where you get PAID to take the printer. Given that this brand new printer comes with toner (granted, not a full cartridge, but enough to justify this method), just use the printer till the toner runs out, throw it away or ebay it, and get yourself a new printer again. Rinse, repeat.
I mean, why not? If they are going to use that kind of a business model, it only makes sense to adjust the buying strategy to fit.
While I appreciate your sentiment, it sounds like you don't quite grasp the fundamentals of "rights" and where they come from. Rights are not "granted" to us. If a right can be granted, then it can be un-granted or taken away. Rights are innate and inalienable. You are born with them and you die with them. Only governments and corporations are granted limited rights. It sounds like you're a fellow proponent of freedom, so hopefully you'll take this seemingly technical but absolutely fundamental distinction/correction in a spirit of goodwill and further the message.
Dell's 23 Confessions
Now's not the time to mince words, so let me just say it... we blew it.
I'm referring to a recent blog post from an ex-Dell kiosk employee that received more attention after the Consumerist blogged about it, and even more still after we asked them to remove it.
In this case, I agree with what Jeff Jarvis had to say: instead of trying to control information that was made public, we should have simply corrected anything that was inaccurate. We didn't do that, and now we're paying for it.
I believe in the customer voice--that's why I signed up for this job in the first place. There's simply no cheating the system. When we're on the right track, folks tend to say some good things about us (or at least give us a second chance). When we mess up, they let us know quickly and vocally. Then everyone watches our reaction like a hawk.
Now, if you'll allow me to shift gears just a bit, here's our own 22 23 Confessions list:
1) Ok, we goofed. We shouldn't have sent a notice. To my earlier point, we appreciate the reminder from the community. Point taken. Yesterday, we also responded to a related IdeaStorm idea from user jmxz. To see more, take a look for comments from our own dell_admin1 and my good pal richard_b.
2) An easy way to scope out deals is to go to the Home and Home Office section of Dell.com and click "As Advertised." In other words, click here. You can see what we're currently offering and then chat live with a rep if you like.
3) We have simplified our pricing and promos. We have reduced the number of promotions per product line and the number for a single product. We've also simplified our rebates.
4) Small Business will be different than Home and Home Office soon. There will be a real difference between systems we offer to consumers vs. small business users that goes beyond price. Since these details depend on upcoming changes in both our Inspiron line and our small business systems, I can't share more details just yet, but you will hear more in a few weeks.
5) We are committed to being the greenest technology company on the planet. It's the right thing to do for ourselves, our environment and our customers. See details in the Programs section of this page for more information.
6) When your computer's effective life has ended, we still care about it as much as you do, so we provide free recycling for all consumers worldwide. We can't wait for our competitors to catch up, since we all benefit from improving our environment. Please remind them.
7) We don't think many people get excited when they have to call the Geek Squad, wait around at their house and then fork over cash when you can do the same thing in the comfort of your home on your own schedule for free. Maybe we're crazy, but we think this is more effective. Turns out our customers seem to agree. DellConnect has helped over 5 million consumers for free and has a 93% satisfaction rate in a little over one year of service. Other tools like PC-Tune-Up help automate confusing aspects of system maintenance And new tools like Dell Support Center centralize system-specific information and provide several options for reaching support to make troubleshooting easier.
8) What if you only had to make one click to make a difference in the environment? Well, we do this everyday via our Plant a Tree for Me program. Through it, we empower our consumers to offset their system's carbon footprint by making a small contribution to purchase a tree at the time of purchase or whenever you want. And, Michael Dell is personally matching any contribution you make in June, July and August.
9) We normally wouldn't have said this in the past, but we have some very cool PCs being introduced later this month. Stay tuned and you'll see what we mean. Matter of fact, I've seen some pictures here and here.
10) We have a very great way for all of our customers to share ideas with us at www.ideastorm.
You're very confused about the reasoning behind these votes. A little more due diligence on your part would go a long way toward understanding government. I will comment on the reasons, though.
# Voted NO on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005)
-- Government should not be funding research.
# Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)
-- Government is not constitutionally authorized to restrict such transport.
# Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)
-- Federal government is not authorized to make this a crime, this is an area where only states are supposed to have law making power.
# Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother's life. (Oct 2003)
-- The abortion issue is tricky, all libertarians do not agree on this. The logic goes like this: All people own themselves, their life, their person, etc. All people have full control of their property, and nobody may take that away from you unless you are attempting to take it from someone else first. One person's rights ends where another persons begins. Two adults have an exactly equal right to life, and no matter how beneficial it is for one person to harm another person, you may never do so unless you are threatened.
So using the above principle, person a is an unborn baby, and person b is the mother. Person A and person B have equal right to life. But at exactly which moment do all of these rights kick in? When do they start to exist? Conception? Viability? Birth? We know they kick in at some point, because all people have them, and they are inalienable. So where is it? Viability is a moving target. Does it make sense that these rights exist now at 7 months whereas 100 years ago they existed at 8 months?
The above quandary will go away eventually. In 500 years when viability is the same as conception, it will no longer be a moving target, and then we can say that rights begin at conception, I suppose.
But don't say Ron Paul is not for the rights of women. He is for the rights of everybody equally. You only differ in when you think a baby's rights start to exist.
# Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
-- Government is not authorized by the constitution to regulate cloning.
# Voted YES on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)
-- Government is not supposed to be promoting particular social agendas.
# Voted YES on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
-- Government should not be taking money from hard working taxpayers in the US and sending out to foreign countries. If people wish to do do foreign charity work they should do it themselves. This is not in the purview of government.
Ran outta time, have to run. Hopefully the above will get you started.
# Voted YES on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
# No federal funding of abortion, and pro-life. (Dec 2000)
Voted YES on restricting bankruptcy rules. (Jan 2004)
Voted YES on protecting the Pledge of Allegiance. (Sep 2004)
Voted YES on vouchers for private & parochial schools (AKA religious schools)
Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR.
Voted YES on barring website promoting Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.
Voted NO on establishing nationwide AMBER alert system for missing kids.
Rated 76% by the Christian Coalition: a pro-family voting record. (Dec 2003)
Voted YES on continuing intelligence gathering without civil oversight. (Apr 2006)
Rated 100% by FAIR, indicating a voting record restricting immigration. (Dec 2003)
Voted YES on eliminating the Estate Tax ("death tax"). (Apr 2001)
Here's the link to search the records. None of this is new information, all counties everywhere have this information "publicly" available. Usually you have to drive there and ask for it.
There is a company that makes software that tracks your computers movements, calls home at specified hours, logs the phone number you dialed from, and can record inventory and programs. They work with law enforcement to recover your stolen things for you, as well.
They say their program survives fdisk, but it didn't survive mine. However, their inventory tracking software is one of the best I have seen at getting everything.
Seems Philips is right on target, so far. The GM of Philips copyright protection mentions this at the URL below:
c le .jsp?id=99991783&sub=Hot%20Stories
Any kind of legal action would take years and we don't expect these [discs] to last that long," Wirtz told New Scientist. "At the moment we are trying to reason with people rather than sue them."
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/tech/arti