Canada has twice the space, a tenth the population.
The issue is DISTANCE.. We're already more wired then anybody (depending whos study you believe) in the cities, it's getting a fat pipe out to no-where-land-up-north that's an issue.. Goverment takes care of digging up the landscape (railways, roads, fibers, they're good at that), private companies ultimatly run the ISPs..
I grew up in a rural location living on crappy copper I could hardly "CONNECT 1200BPS" on, even if there was a BBS in my tiny little local calling area..
I'd be happy to spend my tax dollars getting it so any kid, anywhere in Canada, gets the same deal online..
Communications is what ties a nation together and say what you will about the Canadian goverment, they understand that Canada has some issues with 'together'.. For my money, some kind of national ethernet would really help with that..
Besides, Canada is also one of the home of Nortel and JDS-Uniphase, we do know how to do some tricks with fiber and networks..
All other things aside, people seem to be missing the fact that these things are not realtime.. There is no big board back at Acme with your locatrion on it.. The download it all out after you get back.. So basically, you're agreeing to let them know where you've taken their van, and how fast it was going..
This is exactly the same stuff semi drivers have had for years..
I got one of the last Palm 3xe's.. Bigger display then an m105, same OS, same RAM, lower price..
It looks like Palm is offering all manner of mail in rebates and such to get these things off the shelves so they can sell the new models.. I got mine for less then $200CDN..
I'm not even sure how much an iPaq costs, and running linux in my poxket would be cool, but I'm still having trouble finding enough palmwarez to fill 8m..
See how successful you are sending radio stations a URL instead of a big presspack and a CD..
It's not the best system, it's just the ONLY system.. It's doomed in the long term (what isn't?), but it's *so* much more complex then pressing cost vs. retail cost..
The second CD costs a dollar, the first one costs *so* much more..
Recording costs are just the start of it.. Just sending a copy of your CD to every collage station in the US costs several thousand dollars worth of postage alone.. All that has to get paid for between that dollar and the sale price..
I'm fairly sure that wasn't apple bashing, it was owner bashing.. People who buy over powered computers based on looks are in the same boat as a lot of people who buy SUVs and sports cars, and to a large extent, LCD displays. They 'want' one, they don't 'need' one..
That said, I'm pretty sure I don't need my groovy designer sunglasses, or my Nokia 8260, I'm no better, it's just worth noting that looks count in the LCD game.
That is a good point.. People with the money to save the space.. Not so common is spacious north america, but definitly a factor..
I remember kids in school who had had the laptops because they fit pretty in their dorm rooms.. Apple sells a lot of real powerful pretty notebooks to people who don't know a MIP from a Mouse.
I suspect it's because the whole 'LCD on the desktop' industry deal is still very much a special thing for people who want a slick front office. Yes, I know people (more then average around here) use them for solving real problems when a big CRT won't do it, but I'd say at least 80% of units sold goto vanity applications. Vanity means color.
All good opinion IMO, but I would argue music can't be fully compaired to material goods. Also, it does have a kind of "everyone is a sheep but me" favor, although not as bad as some of these replies.
The reason all the payola-esque game playing is nessessary is partially to try and manipluate cool the same way the Gap does with TV, but that's only a side effect..
Music is all about exposure. Humans are all; to a greater or lesser extent; hardwired to like music. We'll like anything with a beat if we hear it often enough. Getting the listener to hear it often enough is the goal, the fact that they'll often start to think it's socially "cool" after that is just a useful side effect.
Lots of people buy lots of records by bands that aren't going to win any cool contests at the club.. All these bitter folks who "don't care about cool", they still care about music, and that's where you get them.
I would argue, that even at the most pop level (Britney), cool is just a side effect. Britney's music appeals to little kids because they lack the context to compair it to anything, not because they use it in Pepsi commericals and slip it into Dawson's Creek.
They've got at least tens of thousands of players last time I heard.. I'm sure that's 5% of something..
Anyway, I suspect geography has more to do with it then culture.. I bet if the USA was populated the way south korea is, the UO player density would get high enough to lead to similar effects..
Thank god when I kill and tease people, odds are they're a good long car ride away from being able to punch me in the face over it..
I can see where all your hate comes from, but Flash is all the love HTML could never give me..
It's all about the cross browser.. It's a non-stop nightmare in HTML(DOM, Javascript, etc, etc), but it's all one love in Flash.. If your platform doesn't support it, you're not in a desirable demographic anyway (you jaded linux nerd you)..
If there was a way, I'd probably do sites in raw postscript..
What an enlightened viewpoint.. Thanks for telling me who and I and where I grew up.. Of course, as only you can clearly see any metasocial phenomenon, without your insight we would be lost.
So, in your future, it's a big facist goverment which keeps corperations out of our asses? That's *so* much better..
Nothing like more laws to solve a problem..
Oddly, I'm a democrat, but this kind of thinking is so luddite.. Corperations are made of people who are remarkable like you and I, and run by people who actually grew up pretty much the same as you did.. Don't hate me for what you can't do..
Fiberoptic patch cables are very expensive and still require polishing if you re-patch very often. It would be a nightmare to have to deal with fiber everytime I wanted to swap a hard drive or ethernet card..
Also, as another poster pointed out, photons aren't electrons.. You can't send power down a fiber, so any interface based on it is still going to require another power cable.
Basically, no matter how good the technology is, glass is still glass, and it sucks if you're used to copper..
Agreed.. I've used many differient Canadian and American hosting services and Pair.com is by far the best all around.. I don't work for them and I have nothing to gain, but they rule.. Excellent staff, deliver what they promise, and their control panel is actually seriously useful even if you do know unix just fine..
The hardware isn't the cost in the web game, it's bandwidth and after that, administrators.. If all the computer in the server farm where free, it wouldn't really change the bottom line that much.. Still gotta pay for the bandwidth, still gotta pay the admins..
Jeez.. It's the coolest thing going, but there is a bigger universe.. Not to mention, all I have to do is change a few numbers in my network setup and ICANN is out of the picture.. Nobody's forcing me to use their database..
I makes me feel good to know that the people on the space station spend a lot of time doing exactly the same crap I do.. Hell, I could actually help those guys out..
I wonder if Alpha needs a sysadmin? I promise I won't run warez servers off their bandwidth or anything..
Most people want 468x60, but we certainly don't turn them away when they want something else.. We just judge what we think they'll pay and compair that to the karma we'd lose..
If someone offers a million bucks per thousand for 1024x768 screaming-flashing-popups-of-doom, wouldn't you take it? Damn right..
Slashdot Mirror
Canada has twice the space, a tenth the population.
The issue is DISTANCE.. We're already more wired then anybody (depending whos study you believe) in the cities, it's getting a fat pipe out to no-where-land-up-north that's an issue.. Goverment takes care of digging up the landscape (railways, roads, fibers, they're good at that), private companies ultimatly run the ISPs..
I grew up in a rural location living on crappy copper I could hardly "CONNECT 1200BPS" on, even if there was a BBS in my tiny little local calling area..
I'd be happy to spend my tax dollars getting it so any kid, anywhere in Canada, gets the same deal online..
Communications is what ties a nation together and say what you will about the Canadian goverment, they understand that Canada has some issues with 'together'.. For my money, some kind of national ethernet would really help with that..
Besides, Canada is also one of the home of Nortel and JDS-Uniphase, we do know how to do some tricks with fiber and networks..
All other things aside, people seem to be missing the fact that these things are not realtime.. There is no big board back at Acme with your locatrion on it.. The download it all out after you get back.. So basically, you're agreeing to let them know where you've taken their van, and how fast it was going..
This is exactly the same stuff semi drivers have had for years..
I got one of the last Palm 3xe's.. Bigger display then an m105, same OS, same RAM, lower price..
It looks like Palm is offering all manner of mail in rebates and such to get these things off the shelves so they can sell the new models.. I got mine for less then $200CDN..
I'm not even sure how much an iPaq costs, and running linux in my poxket would be cool, but I'm still having trouble finding enough palmwarez to fill 8m..
See how successful you are sending radio stations a URL instead of a big presspack and a CD..
It's not the best system, it's just the ONLY system.. It's doomed in the long term (what isn't?), but it's *so* much more complex then pressing cost vs. retail cost..
I hate the "CDs cost a dollar to make" argument..
The second CD costs a dollar, the first one costs *so* much more..
Recording costs are just the start of it.. Just sending a copy of your CD to every collage station in the US costs several thousand dollars worth of postage alone.. All that has to get paid for between that dollar and the sale price..
I'm fairly sure that wasn't apple bashing, it was owner bashing.. People who buy over powered computers based on looks are in the same boat as a lot of people who buy SUVs and sports cars, and to a large extent, LCD displays. They 'want' one, they don't 'need' one..
That said, I'm pretty sure I don't need my groovy designer sunglasses, or my Nokia 8260, I'm no better, it's just worth noting that looks count in the LCD game.
That is a good point.. People with the money to save the space.. Not so common is spacious north america, but definitly a factor..
I remember kids in school who had had the laptops because they fit pretty in their dorm rooms.. Apple sells a lot of real powerful pretty notebooks to people who don't know a MIP from a Mouse.
I suspect it's because the whole 'LCD on the desktop' industry deal is still very much a special thing for people who want a slick front office. Yes, I know people (more then average around here) use them for solving real problems when a big CRT won't do it, but I'd say at least 80% of units sold goto vanity applications. Vanity means color.
All good opinion IMO, but I would argue music can't be fully compaired to material goods. Also, it does have a kind of "everyone is a sheep but me" favor, although not as bad as some of these replies.
The reason all the payola-esque game playing is nessessary is partially to try and manipluate cool the same way the Gap does with TV, but that's only a side effect..
Music is all about exposure. Humans are all; to a greater or lesser extent; hardwired to like music. We'll like anything with a beat if we hear it often enough. Getting the listener to hear it often enough is the goal, the fact that they'll often start to think it's socially "cool" after that is just a useful side effect.
Lots of people buy lots of records by bands that aren't going to win any cool contests at the club.. All these bitter folks who "don't care about cool", they still care about music, and that's where you get them.
I would argue, that even at the most pop level (Britney), cool is just a side effect. Britney's music appeals to little kids because they lack the context to compair it to anything, not because they use it in Pepsi commericals and slip it into Dawson's Creek.
The game looks a lot like Ultima Online..
They've got at least tens of thousands of players last time I heard.. I'm sure that's 5% of something..
Anyway, I suspect geography has more to do with it then culture.. I bet if the USA was populated the way south korea is, the UO player density would get high enough to lead to similar effects..
Thank god when I kill and tease people, odds are they're a good long car ride away from being able to punch me in the face over it..
I can see where all your hate comes from, but Flash is all the love HTML could never give me..
It's all about the cross browser.. It's a non-stop nightmare in HTML(DOM, Javascript, etc, etc), but it's all one love in Flash.. If your platform doesn't support it, you're not in a desirable demographic anyway (you jaded linux nerd you)..
If there was a way, I'd probably do sites in raw postscript..
> People like you
What an enlightened viewpoint.. Thanks for telling me who and I and where I grew up.. Of course, as only you can clearly see any metasocial phenomenon, without your insight we would be lost.
So, in your future, it's a big facist goverment which keeps corperations out of our asses? That's *so* much better..
Nothing like more laws to solve a problem..
Oddly, I'm a democrat, but this kind of thinking is so luddite.. Corperations are made of people who are remarkable like you and I, and run by people who actually grew up pretty much the same as you did.. Don't hate me for what you can't do..
Get them drunk? For that kind of money, I'll get you shit that will make you think you *are* gravity..
There are lots of reasons it would be hard, but if it where ever pulled off, wow..
One big untracable anonymous SQL server with everything in the world on it.. That would be some hot ish..
IBM vs. Oakland street gangs
That's a PPV event I'd write a blank check to see..
Not to mention, FIBER ISN'T LIKE COPPER.
Fiberoptic patch cables are very expensive and still require polishing if you re-patch very often. It would be a nightmare to have to deal with fiber everytime I wanted to swap a hard drive or ethernet card..
Also, as another poster pointed out, photons aren't electrons.. You can't send power down a fiber, so any interface based on it is still going to require another power cable.
Basically, no matter how good the technology is, glass is still glass, and it sucks if you're used to copper..
Agreed.. I've used many differient Canadian and American hosting services and Pair.com is by far the best all around.. I don't work for them and I have nothing to gain, but they rule.. Excellent staff, deliver what they promise, and their control panel is actually seriously useful even if you do know unix just fine..
Hire someone with a degree in communications.. In house.. Then can do marketing on the side if you don't have the cash for a full time PR person.
I know, I know, "It's a phoney major," but that's what they teach those people..
If you get a keener kid right out of collage, you don't even have to pay them much..
The hardware isn't the cost in the web game, it's bandwidth and after that, administrators.. If all the computer in the server farm where free, it wouldn't really change the bottom line that much.. Still gotta pay for the bandwidth, still gotta pay the admins..
Jeez.. It's the coolest thing going, but there is a bigger universe.. Not to mention, all I have to do is change a few numbers in my network setup and ICANN is out of the picture.. Nobody's forcing me to use their database..
I makes me feel good to know that the people on the space station spend a lot of time doing exactly the same crap I do.. Hell, I could actually help those guys out..
I wonder if Alpha needs a sysadmin? I promise I won't run warez servers off their bandwidth or anything..
Actually, people generally measure their heights in centimeters.. I'm 169cm, your wife is 146cm, you are 167cm..
We'll set a price for as big an ad as you want..
Most people want 468x60, but we certainly don't turn them away when they want something else.. We just judge what we think they'll pay and compair that to the karma we'd lose..
If someone offers a million bucks per thousand for 1024x768 screaming-flashing-popups-of-doom, wouldn't you take it? Damn right..
Comic Strip Creator
You just entry your text, pick your chracters and backgrounds and pow..
Sadly, doesn't work in Netscape though.