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User: Zan+Thrax

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  1. Re:What a waste... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    I'm not saying a town of 6000 isn't urban, I'm saying that it is included in the communities that this project is connecting, which is, I assume, what we're discussing here, yes?

  2. Re:What a waste... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    No, I mean the 1999 census numbers The 2000 numbers are there too, I don't know why I missed them. Anyhow, if you look at these numbers, the 14 cities of Alberta make up 1.8 million people. The rest of the population live in or near small towns, and those are the communities that this supernet is being connected too, so those are the people who we have to consider in figuring out who's getting this service.

  3. Re:What a waste... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    I got mine from the government of alberta 1999 census numbers.

  4. Re:Nice Waste of Money on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    Nah, worried some self-righteous rich dickheads going to run me down in his expensive car. At which point I get to lie in the er and bleed out because the same rich prick is getting preferential treatment after causing himself some minor injury while wrapping his car around a lightpost. Earn healthcare hey? Does that mean that daddy's not allowed to pay for his dumbass spoiled brat who get hurt? Did you happen to notice that the people who protested Bill 11 were not rich people, but the one's who get screwed by private health care systems?

  5. Re:What a waste... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    And edmonton's very left wing. There are religious fundies hiding in the rural areas though. (*cough* Day *cough*)

  6. Re:Some facts from Calgary itself. on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    I'd say it goes nicely with his privatising spree. Why keep control of a profitable venture when you can privatise it and let the populace take it up the ass? If its already private, well by god, deregulate it! Who says that tripling power bills over six months isn't the same as having them go down like we claimed?

  7. Re:Fourty bucks for speed? on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    It is getting worse. No one bothers compaining about transfer rates anymore. We're just happy when the servers are up and responding. Mail goes down at least once a day, and for several hours at least once a week. A few days ago, no one could connect to about half the web. Shaw had a message on the tech desk claiming that a major backbone had gone down somewhere in North America and that their (shaw's) techs were working on the problem. Not that any other isp in the area noticed any problems....

  8. Re:Indeed, it's good health care. on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    mmm, cause there's only so many doctors and nurses to go around? (and already way too few)? 'cause private facilities duplicate existing resources, as well as each others? Regulated like drug prices are? The only reason that companies aren't willing to make minimal profits off of their medical research is because they can make really fricking huge profits. Companies will do whatever makes them the highest profit margins, and if the best they can do is whatever the regulated drug prices leave, they'll still make new drugs, because its still profitable. Business can thrive on one percent or less profit, despite what drug companies claim. Look at grocery retailers for an example.

  9. Re:No sales tax in Alberta on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    True, the rich spend more, but they won't even notice a 5% increase in the cost of consumption. It's simply not a large enough portion of their income. At the other end, you have sub-poverty-line single mothers who have to decide between rent/bills and food/clothing as it is. Add 5% to the cost of everything and she's even more screwed.

  10. Re:God bless socialism. on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    I assumed he was talking about the provincial election that Klien has said is coming in the spring...

  11. Re:What a waste... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    No, Glonk, if you did -your- research, you'd know that the 1.8 million -does- include all the small 'cities' in Alberta. You'd also realise that most towns with several thousand people aren't the ones that are mostly surrounded by farms. They're the ones like Drayton Valley that are based on oil & gas industry + maybe a pulp mill or similar industrial plant.

  12. Re:profitability on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    Thing is though, the gov won't be making any profit off this, because, naturally, Klien felt it best to leave ownership fully in Bell's hands after paying 2/3 of the cost for them... Isn't this what the Alberta Advantage has always refered to? Government handing out lucrative new ways for huge, non-competitive corporations to make large profits off the locals?

  13. The Journal article is better... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, can't pass up an opportunity to fuel the rivalry. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology1/stories /001103/4805036.html

  14. Re:Ontario (NY) on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    nah, I'm feeling quiotic. I'm voting NDP. Chretien's just too damned abusive of protesters and the media. Plus the liberals are no more left than the PC's now. (everybody says that reform / alliance / whatever stole the tories place, but they're much farther right. The grits have taken over the right. Thanks to Day though, no one's noticed.)

  15. Re:WHy not wireless? on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    Well, a few (40, iirc) communities are being connected using wireless systems, simply because of their remoteness (I assume they're in the northern reaches of the province, it is pretty empty up there). So wireless is at least considered. Must be cheaper to lay cable. Personally, I trust physical fibre for a network spread over a land mass as big as Alberta. (we're about the same size as Texas, I believe)

  16. Re:Nice Waste of Money on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    Klein doesn't need to drop more one-time payments on our health care system. He needs to increase the actual budgeted funding levels.

  17. Re:What a waste... on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    You know, if I was any good at ascii art, I'd draw a nice big middle finger at you. Total population alberta: 2,871,271 Total population cities: 1,851,449 Remaining population, which can be considered rural: (since this is where the connections are going) 1,019,822. These people are not farmers. Only a very small percentage (I'd say less than 1) of these people live on a farm. And you know what trollboy? Farmers can put the net to use too. You know why the vast majority of Albertans outside the major cities (Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer) don't have so much as dialup? Because right now, the only option for ~50% of our population is Telus at 26.95 or more per month for a low-quality connection with piss poor technical support. Way I see it, if you feel that you're better than rural people, you damned well better not eat anything that grew on a farm, or use any product made with wood or petroleum.

  18. Re:Oh, here another little thing. on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    Its not even the population of the rural communities being connected. Its the wonderful captive audience that all the government agencies provide. And you know the best part for Bell? They're only supplying 1/3 of the cost! How the hell do they not snicker while telling the province that they can't afford to make the full investment for themselves?

  19. Re:This is great! on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    My bad. (again) Bell, not ATT.

  20. Re:You moron. It wasn't the feds, it was the provi on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    My bad. Bell, not AT&T.

  21. Re:This is great! on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    The government's not building this. AT&T is.

  22. Re:You moron. It wasn't the feds, it was the provi on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 1

    The province isn't doing it either. AT&T is doing it. This isn't public infrastructure. The only government involvement is the massive subsidies that the province handed out to get the telco's to fight over who gets to make a massive, long-term profit. (I'm not actually against this method in general, but I'm wondering how long it'll take before someone realises that there isn't anything stopping AT&T from gouging the living hell out of the various government agencies that they're connecting up)

  23. Re:God bless socialism. on Alberta, Canada Goes Broadband -- By 2004 · · Score: 2

    its so cute when Americans make broad, uninformed generalisations. Alberta has no sales tax. None. There is a 7% federal sales tax though, which has a variety of exempted goods, and a rebate program for low-income families (kind of a roundabout way to do it. I don't like sales taxes at all) The federal tax brackets are: 17%, 25% (over $30K), 29% (over$60K). Alberta takes an amount equal to 44% of your federal taxes. Thus, combined, 24.48%, 36%, 41.76%. All assuming no deductions of any kind, of course. I've tried finding the equivalent information on the irs site, but can't seem to find any information; what are US federal tax brackets? I remember hearing that your tax levels aren't much different from ours, you just spend all of yours on guns and bombs... Go check out http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/ for actual facts before blithering about other nations tax systems.

  24. Re:Game theory... on Slashback: Palmistry, Lecture, Quid Quo Pro · · Score: 1

    Bad logic... You're assuming that there's going to be a bunch of Bush voters showing up at the end of the day too. There's no reason that large numbers of Bush voters will be showing up just before the polls close, however many people that vote at the end of the day for whatever reason will vote at the end of the day, almost all for Bush or Gore, likely in a reasonably close ration to the rest of the day. (there may be a small reduction in Gore votes, but only equal to the overlap of "wants to vote for Nader" voters and "shows up at the end of the day for whatever non-political-strategy reason")

  25. Re:Drug war lies on Has D.A.R.E Been Effective? · · Score: 1

    How 'bout "doesn't make you into a hardened junkie criminal, selling your mouth for your next hit while all your one-time-peers are in class getting law degrees"? That's the implication of all the gateway-drug propaganda and bogus claims that one (illegal) drug's as bad as another.