Not trying to defend Comcast, but this statement simply isn't true, at least not in the Twin Cities area. I'm on the current top-tier offering from Comcast, and I routinely see 12-15Mbps results using Speakeasy's speed test. There ARE times that I don't, of course.
"sold the agencies servers for searching documents"
They sold them a Google network appliance!! So what? We're considering the purchase of one for our internal network, does that mean we're partaking in "clandestine operations" with Google? Talk about misleading hype...
We have SimonDelivers here in the Twin Cities, and used them for a while. I would love to use them exclusively, but I can't justify the higher prices. My Saturday mornings are shot anyway running teenagers around to various activities, I take care of the grocery run while I'm waiting on them to finish up. Seriously, it takes 30 minutes max to go in with an organized shopping list. A couple times a month I will take my grocery receipt and compare prices to Simon, Simon is always considerably more expensive. For instance, this past weekend, I bought a 20oz package of skinless chicken breast for $3.99 from Cub Foods. The same chicken, same brand, same size package, is $6.99 from Simon. Every single item that I purchased was more expensive from Simon, and some of the items they don't even carry.
I shop online for a LOT of things, and I would love to support Simon, but it's hard to justify that kind of price difference. Buying stuff from Amazon that is indeed lower-priced AND shipped for free is different.
Apparently we both are! I drank as a teenager, managed to survive it, but I was never stupid enough to document my activities. Drinking or not, the WHOLE STORY here is that the kids signed a pledge to not do activity XYZ, then proceed to do activity XYZ, allowed themselves to be photographed doing activity XYZ, photos were posted on a public forum, and now kids are being punished for violating their pledge. Parents, let them learn the consequences of their actions, don't bail them out (yet again). My kids have done dumb things, I pat them on the head and say "Next time think about what you're doing".
Did your "friend" sign a contract in which he agreed NOT to use his middle finger for anything, in return for participating in extracurricular activities? I live in Eden Prairie, have teenage kids, and I RTFA - the kids who are in trouble are student athletes who signed pledges that they would not be involved with alcohol, drugs, etc.. They violated the pledge, and thus their sports privileges are being taken away - it's a simple breach of contract. If only the alcohol hadn't killed the "don't post photos" brain cells, the younglings wouldn't be in trouble now.
The ACLU has already chimed in on this. Quoted from the Star Tribune article:
"Any kid who thinks what they post on a social networking website is private is an idiot," ACLU executive director Charles Samuelson said.
Samuelson says the students rights were not violated because the students in question are part of athletic teams or extra-curricular activities that strictly enforce a zero tolerance policy when it comes to using drugs or consuming alcohol.
"Schools have the right to withhold extra curricular activities from students for almost any reason," Samuelson points out.
I see crap like this hit my Linux box all the time. I started using a tool called ssh_block to firewall off machines that this stuff comes from. Works really well.
I used the Google Talk exclusively. Most of my friends have moved over from the other protocols. For those who haven't, I have my own Jabber server running at home, with the MSN and AIM gateways running. Using XMPP, I can communicate with those stragglers using Google Talk, through my Jabber server. All of my IM conversations take place in the same client (and can even happen within a browser), and all of them are logged in one convenient place.
Actually, I turn 40 next month, live in Minnesota, and while generally healthy, am slightly overweight and have a debilitating caffeine addiction. My "intrigue" is from the perspective of a systems & database guy (my daytime alter-ego).
> If I'm talking to my boss, I'm probably not going to use much profanity
Ha, my previous boss couldn't complete a sentence without an effenheimer or two. "Fucking marketing wants to move the goddamn web site to some piss-ant web host down in BumFuck, Iowa."
> and in one of those cases, the card company contacted me
> one of those cards had only been used once at CostCo
Was this by chance a Bank Of America card? Two years ago, BOA contacted me about suspicious activity on my card. That particular card had only been used a couple of times in the previous month, one of those times at Costco. Interesting...
I think it's depressing to see how screwed up our priorities are. All of that money that we've spent to blow things up could have been spent in SOOOOO many more useful ways. Depressing...
"Every time she forgets to log out, I am presented with that garish thing"
Gosh, in my house, my wife and each of the kids has their own browser profile. One user's preferences aren't forced on the others. Can't you simply give her a profile of her own? Oh, you must be using stuck on that "other" browser.
By following the method described here and my own private Jabber server, I have all of my contacts (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, and GTalk) available in one place - GTalk. No matter what machine or OS I'm on, I always have my IM contacts available. It's not fancy, shiny stuff is minimal, but it works.
There's definitely room for further improvement. The new dynamic management views in SQL 2005 expose so much valuable information on indexes and query plans, I'm finding all sorts of things that are non-optimal or just plain badly written. Still, the "old" production server hummed along at 70-80% CPU all day long, we're in an entirely new ballpark now.
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Not trying to defend Comcast, but this statement simply isn't true, at least not in the Twin Cities area. I'm on the current top-tier offering from Comcast, and I routinely see 12-15Mbps results using Speakeasy's speed test. There ARE times that I don't, of course.
"sold the agencies servers for searching documents"
They sold them a Google network appliance!! So what? We're considering the purchase of one for our internal network, does that mean we're partaking in "clandestine operations" with Google? Talk about misleading hype...
"one-way manned missions"
Sign me up, I'm ready to go!!!! I'm halfway through my expected life-span on this planet, why not start the second half on a different one?
That is just so friggin cool. Seeing stuff like this makes me regret spending 20 years sitting in various cubicles twiddling database bits...
Quick! Somebody cue up the "Jaws" theme...
We have SimonDelivers here in the Twin Cities, and used them for a while. I would love to use them exclusively, but I can't justify the higher prices. My Saturday mornings are shot anyway running teenagers around to various activities, I take care of the grocery run while I'm waiting on them to finish up. Seriously, it takes 30 minutes max to go in with an organized shopping list. A couple times a month I will take my grocery receipt and compare prices to Simon, Simon is always considerably more expensive. For instance, this past weekend, I bought a 20oz package of skinless chicken breast for $3.99 from Cub Foods. The same chicken, same brand, same size package, is $6.99 from Simon. Every single item that I purchased was more expensive from Simon, and some of the items they don't even carry.
I shop online for a LOT of things, and I would love to support Simon, but it's hard to justify that kind of price difference. Buying stuff from Amazon that is indeed lower-priced AND shipped for free is different.
Apparently we both are! I drank as a teenager, managed to survive it, but I was never stupid enough to document my activities. Drinking or not, the WHOLE STORY here is that the kids signed a pledge to not do activity XYZ, then proceed to do activity XYZ, allowed themselves to be photographed doing activity XYZ, photos were posted on a public forum, and now kids are being punished for violating their pledge. Parents, let them learn the consequences of their actions, don't bail them out (yet again). My kids have done dumb things, I pat them on the head and say "Next time think about what you're doing".
You must not be from the Twin Cities area. Being Eden Prairie students, there's a 95% chance that they're "well off".
Did your "friend" sign a contract in which he agreed NOT to use his middle finger for anything, in return for participating in extracurricular activities? I live in Eden Prairie, have teenage kids, and I RTFA - the kids who are in trouble are student athletes who signed pledges that they would not be involved with alcohol, drugs, etc.. They violated the pledge, and thus their sports privileges are being taken away - it's a simple breach of contract. If only the alcohol hadn't killed the "don't post photos" brain cells, the younglings wouldn't be in trouble now.
The ACLU has already chimed in on this. Quoted from the Star Tribune article:
"Any kid who thinks what they post on a social networking website is private is an idiot," ACLU executive director Charles Samuelson said.
Samuelson says the students rights were not violated because the students in question are part of athletic teams or extra-curricular activities that strictly enforce a zero tolerance policy when it comes to using drugs or consuming alcohol.
"Schools have the right to withhold extra curricular activities from students for almost any reason," Samuelson points out.
I see crap like this hit my Linux box all the time. I started using a tool called ssh_block to firewall off machines that this stuff comes from. Works really well.
Sadly, until religion and politics are eliminated, Utopia will never be reached...
Great. My dog finally stopped sniffing the crotch of everyone who visits my house. Now my Roomba is going to start.
I used the Google Talk exclusively. Most of my friends have moved over from the other protocols. For those who haven't, I have my own Jabber server running at home, with the MSN and AIM gateways running. Using XMPP, I can communicate with those stragglers using Google Talk, through my Jabber server. All of my IM conversations take place in the same client (and can even happen within a browser), and all of them are logged in one convenient place.
Actually, I turn 40 next month, live in Minnesota, and while generally healthy, am slightly overweight and have a debilitating caffeine addiction. My "intrigue" is from the perspective of a systems & database guy (my daytime alter-ego).
> If I'm talking to my boss, I'm probably not going to use much profanity
Ha, my previous boss couldn't complete a sentence without an effenheimer or two. "Fucking marketing wants to move the goddamn web site to some piss-ant web host down in BumFuck, Iowa."
Staff meetings were such fun...
> and in one of those cases, the card company contacted me
> one of those cards had only been used once at CostCo
Was this by chance a Bank Of America card? Two years ago, BOA contacted me about suspicious activity on my card. That particular card had only been used a couple of times in the previous month, one of those times at Costco. Interesting...
Ok, honestly, am I the only one who is mildly intrigued by this? :-)
> What does everyone think?
I think it's depressing to see how screwed up our priorities are. All of that money that we've spent to blow things up could have been spent in SOOOOO many more useful ways. Depressing...
Agreed. What does "hacked" mean in this case? According to ssh_block, the Chinese "hack" my Linux server at least four times a week.
Firefox can do multiple profiles independently of the OS login.
"Every time she forgets to log out, I am presented with that garish thing"
Gosh, in my house, my wife and each of the kids has their own browser profile. One user's preferences aren't forced on the others. Can't you simply give her a profile of her own? Oh, you must be using stuck on that "other" browser.
Ditto what he said!
By following the method described here and my own private Jabber server, I have all of my contacts (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, and GTalk) available in one place - GTalk. No matter what machine or OS I'm on, I always have my IM contacts available. It's not fancy, shiny stuff is minimal, but it works.
There's definitely room for further improvement. The new dynamic management views in SQL 2005 expose so much valuable information on indexes and query plans, I'm finding all sorts of things that are non-optimal or just plain badly written. Still, the "old" production server hummed along at 70-80% CPU all day long, we're in an entirely new ballpark now.