I was paying $45 per month for the same plan, but I've been on it for years so they ended the 'introductory price' and jumped me to $67. Since Comcast is the only option I have, I can't use the threat of canceling the service to get them to lower the price.
This is my problem. I was dumb enough to buy a house that only has Comcast as an option. I'm paying $67 per month for 25/5. And if they raise the price, there's not a damn thing I can do about it except sell my house and go somewhere else.
Comcast had 6.8 billion dollars of profit in 2013. So they have plenty of money available to build out their network and offer higher bandwidth for lower costs. But in any territory where they have an effective monopoly, why would they? Until there's serious competition for ISPs, we the consumers are screwed.
My impression - and I'm no automotive engineer or even able to do more than change a tire - is that the automakers must be getting better at obtaining good all day behavior and stability under load from smaller engines with forced induction. Volkswagen (and Audi), BMW, and Mercedes have all replaced larger V8s with smaller turbocharged or supercharged V8s or six cylinder engines over the past few years. Ford's last GT super-car used a supercharged 5.4 liter engine, while the one they just revealed at the 2015 Detroit auto show makes more power (final numbers not announced yet) from a new version of the twin turbocharged V6 Ford looks like they're trying to use everywhere.
Crash testing is more than strength. Your vehicle has to crumple properly or your nice, sturdy dashboard and windshield will be just fine and dandy with little bits of crushed driver scattered all over them. Or your airbag will bounce the front passenger's head into the passenger side pillar hard enough to crack a skull. Or the front of your hood will pop up at a 30 degree angle and decapitate the occupants of the vehicle you hit.
I had a Ting phone, and during a prolonged power outage due to an ice storm, my wife had flawless reception on her Verizon phone and I had nothing on my Ting phone. This was in the Philadelphia suburbs. That frustrating experience was the impetus for me to switch back from Ting - which was awesome in every way except reception - to Verizon.
It's not a religion. It's a considered set of ideas - and considering the common comments on Slashdot, I think assuming the person writing something is a radical conservative is a safe bet. This is the first time in a long time I made that bet and was mistaken.
A religion is blind to logic. I'm an atheist, and in terms of 'political religions' I am open to logical discussion on both sides. But libertarianism, which Rand Paul supports a flavor of, isn't logical.
I itemize deductions, but never needed to fill out a Schedule C. I've never been audited. So that means a Schedule C would be more likely to trigger one.
I understand Formula 1 gets a lot more power, but I don't think their engines can pass street-legal emissions testing. The Koenigsegg, as far as I know, has.
I thought the Bugatti Veyron is actually a W16, not a V16? It actually has four banks of four cylinders instead of two banks of eight. Am I wrong?
But in any event, if Koenigsegg can make 1100-odd horsepower from a twin-turbocharged 5 liter V8, then Volkswagen/Bugatti only went with a quad-turbo 8 liter 16 cylinder engine for the sake of being ostentatious.
The Leaf feels a lot faster than it is because there is no combustion engine to wind up or gears to shift before it accelerates. You put your foot two inches closer to the floor, and before you even have a half inch of pedal travel it has started to move more rapidly - with no audible cues to accompany the change. So it feels much faster than it actually is - even though your WRX will blow its doors off in anything except (maybe) 0-5 mph.
And the truth is, the sensation of speed matters more than actual measurable speed for 'fun to drive' unless you plan to race your car. Within reason, of course - I bet if the parent post author had your WRX for a week he or she would stop calling a Leaf fast. But I bet the Leaf feels subjectively faster than most vehicles with an 8 second 0-60 and a 16 second quarter mile. I've ridden in one but never driven one.
Nice car, by the way. I have too many kids to drive anything other than a minivan.:)
If you feel like sharing, what kind of work do you do and roughly what's your income level? I don't know anyone that's mentioned being audited, and - as you yourself have done - I imagine it's the kind of thing a person would complain bitterly about. You are the first person I've encountered on any of Slashdot, Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus to mention it.
Again, I've never been audited and, for example, our household income has been in the six figure range for over a decade.
That's only true if there is little competition, or collusion between all of the vendors (which is illegal in the US). If Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all had great cell phone coverage in my area, then most consumers would pick the one with the lowest price. That would force the others to lower prices in turn. Instead, AT&T and Verizon know they have most of the US market locked up, and they only have to compete with each other.
Why does Comcast charge me $2 per Mbps for my internet connection while Google charges people $0.12 per Mbps in Kansas City? Because I have no choice - if I want 25 Mbps internet service at my house I can choose Comast or I can sell my house and move somewhere else. If I had a choice between two ISPs prices might drop a little, but they could still operate an informal, never explicitly communicated agreement not to price bandwidth below a certain level. If I could choose four ISPs, unless all four specifically engage in illegal price-fixing my cost will start moving towards that Google $0.12 per Mbps level - maybe even better than that.
I did misread your mention of Paul Ryan, and I grant that it does take courage to address the issue.
I have more socialist leanings, or at least a desire for a much stronger social safety net at all levels and what I believe to be the moral justification for it and for raising taxes on the wealthy to support it too.
I have the exact same problem. I can get good prices from Sprint or T-Mobile and great prices from MVNOs that operate on the Sprint or T-Mobile networks, but in my particularly corner of American suburb hell the reception sucks on either carrier. So I'm stuck paying Verizon or AT&T more than twice as much money for the same data phone plan I could get from Ting.com (shameless plug) because Verizon and AT&T know they offer a better product.
I'm really hoping Google's investment in T-Mobile and Sprint narrows the wireless service gap, because having four more or less equal choices for wireless quality would probably send prices way down.
The "old people" paid their Medicare and Social Security taxes for their entire lives. Plus, for many of them if you do cut Social Security or Medicare, they will be forced to rely upon other social services - food stamps, housing assistance, etc...
So Paul Ryan's plan to cut those programs is both immoral - to take away a program the recipients paid into like a pension fund - and short-sighted, since most of the money saved by cuts will be lost through other state and federal agencies picking up the slack.
Next you'll propose that we just execute everyone over the age of 68. Or maybe everyone over the age of 68 that doesn't have a million dollars of net wealth.
Now, you can make a separate argument that the IRS needs a management change, or needs their entire IT strategy to be re-evaluated and possibly massively overhauled. You can also make an argument that they should be able to work efficiently with less resources than they get now. But I don't think anyone can make a serious argument that problems with their ability to function are desirable.
I'm ten years rusty with C++, and I wasn't a very good C++ developer back when I used it professionally. If I was starting something new in C++ from scratch (not building on older C++ code), are there any specific resources you recommend - books, websites, etc... - to point me to the newest idiomatic way to get things done?
Lots of people need a better C++. But they need a better C++ that's easily interoperable with millions of lines of existing C++ code, and that's damn difficult to manage.
You can use D without automatic garbage collection, but most of the system libraries depend upon it. The two main language designers are working on an architectural change so you can use the system libraries with or without garbage collection as you choose.
I still think legacy code and legacy expertise are the biggest obstacles, and they are formidable.
The DMD compiler isn't free software because Walter Bright doesn't own all of the intellectual property rights. He has the right from other copyright holders to redistribute the code, but not the right to relicense it.
Python nearly kneecapped itself with its switch from 2.x to 3.x. But most major Python code is 3.x -compatible. I expect the language to stay pretty popular.
The whitespace convention that drives so many people bonkers (and among other things, prevents quick one-line commands) and other language features may be annoying, but the language has got to be one of the most readable duck-typed languages available. Since all but the most trivial code is read much more often than it's written, I'd call that Python's killer feature and the source of its staying power. Otherwise it doesn't have anything in particular to recommend it over Perl, Ruby, or even PHP.
The only power of C and C++ that D doesn't provide is seamless integration with existing C and C++ code. And that's a big obstacle - in most cases, if you're doing serious C or C++ programming you've got thousands or millions of lines of code in libraries at your disposal. D can interface pretty easily with the C, but not as easily with C++.
Otherwise, it's likely that every feature you care about in C and C++ is available in D.
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I was paying $45 per month for the same plan, but I've been on it for years so they ended the 'introductory price' and jumped me to $67. Since Comcast is the only option I have, I can't use the threat of canceling the service to get them to lower the price.
This is my problem. I was dumb enough to buy a house that only has Comcast as an option. I'm paying $67 per month for 25/5. And if they raise the price, there's not a damn thing I can do about it except sell my house and go somewhere else.
Comcast had 6.8 billion dollars of profit in 2013. So they have plenty of money available to build out their network and offer higher bandwidth for lower costs. But in any territory where they have an effective monopoly, why would they? Until there's serious competition for ISPs, we the consumers are screwed.
My impression - and I'm no automotive engineer or even able to do more than change a tire - is that the automakers must be getting better at obtaining good all day behavior and stability under load from smaller engines with forced induction. Volkswagen (and Audi), BMW, and Mercedes have all replaced larger V8s with smaller turbocharged or supercharged V8s or six cylinder engines over the past few years. Ford's last GT super-car used a supercharged 5.4 liter engine, while the one they just revealed at the 2015 Detroit auto show makes more power (final numbers not announced yet) from a new version of the twin turbocharged V6 Ford looks like they're trying to use everywhere.
Crash testing is more than strength. Your vehicle has to crumple properly or your nice, sturdy dashboard and windshield will be just fine and dandy with little bits of crushed driver scattered all over them. Or your airbag will bounce the front passenger's head into the passenger side pillar hard enough to crack a skull. Or the front of your hood will pop up at a 30 degree angle and decapitate the occupants of the vehicle you hit.
Thank you! I'll give some of them a look.
I had a Ting phone, and during a prolonged power outage due to an ice storm, my wife had flawless reception on her Verizon phone and I had nothing on my Ting phone. This was in the Philadelphia suburbs. That frustrating experience was the impetus for me to switch back from Ting - which was awesome in every way except reception - to Verizon.
It's not a religion. It's a considered set of ideas - and considering the common comments on Slashdot, I think assuming the person writing something is a radical conservative is a safe bet. This is the first time in a long time I made that bet and was mistaken.
A religion is blind to logic. I'm an atheist, and in terms of 'political religions' I am open to logical discussion on both sides. But libertarianism, which Rand Paul supports a flavor of, isn't logical.
I itemize deductions, but never needed to fill out a Schedule C. I've never been audited. So that means a Schedule C would be more likely to trigger one.
I understand Formula 1 gets a lot more power, but I don't think their engines can pass street-legal emissions testing. The Koenigsegg, as far as I know, has.
I thought the Bugatti Veyron is actually a W16, not a V16? It actually has four banks of four cylinders instead of two banks of eight. Am I wrong?
But in any event, if Koenigsegg can make 1100-odd horsepower from a twin-turbocharged 5 liter V8, then Volkswagen/Bugatti only went with a quad-turbo 8 liter 16 cylinder engine for the sake of being ostentatious.
The Leaf feels a lot faster than it is because there is no combustion engine to wind up or gears to shift before it accelerates. You put your foot two inches closer to the floor, and before you even have a half inch of pedal travel it has started to move more rapidly - with no audible cues to accompany the change. So it feels much faster than it actually is - even though your WRX will blow its doors off in anything except (maybe) 0-5 mph.
:)
And the truth is, the sensation of speed matters more than actual measurable speed for 'fun to drive' unless you plan to race your car. Within reason, of course - I bet if the parent post author had your WRX for a week he or she would stop calling a Leaf fast. But I bet the Leaf feels subjectively faster than most vehicles with an 8 second 0-60 and a 16 second quarter mile. I've ridden in one but never driven one.
Nice car, by the way. I have too many kids to drive anything other than a minivan.
If you feel like sharing, what kind of work do you do and roughly what's your income level? I don't know anyone that's mentioned being audited, and - as you yourself have done - I imagine it's the kind of thing a person would complain bitterly about. You are the first person I've encountered on any of Slashdot, Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus to mention it.
Again, I've never been audited and, for example, our household income has been in the six figure range for over a decade.
I'll consider it, thanks.
That's only true if there is little competition, or collusion between all of the vendors (which is illegal in the US). If Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all had great cell phone coverage in my area, then most consumers would pick the one with the lowest price. That would force the others to lower prices in turn. Instead, AT&T and Verizon know they have most of the US market locked up, and they only have to compete with each other.
Why does Comcast charge me $2 per Mbps for my internet connection while Google charges people $0.12 per Mbps in Kansas City? Because I have no choice - if I want 25 Mbps internet service at my house I can choose Comast or I can sell my house and move somewhere else. If I had a choice between two ISPs prices might drop a little, but they could still operate an informal, never explicitly communicated agreement not to price bandwidth below a certain level. If I could choose four ISPs, unless all four specifically engage in illegal price-fixing my cost will start moving towards that Google $0.12 per Mbps level - maybe even better than that.
I did misread your mention of Paul Ryan, and I grant that it does take courage to address the issue.
I have more socialist leanings, or at least a desire for a much stronger social safety net at all levels and what I believe to be the moral justification for it and for raising taxes on the wealthy to support it too.
I have the exact same problem. I can get good prices from Sprint or T-Mobile and great prices from MVNOs that operate on the Sprint or T-Mobile networks, but in my particularly corner of American suburb hell the reception sucks on either carrier. So I'm stuck paying Verizon or AT&T more than twice as much money for the same data phone plan I could get from Ting.com (shameless plug) because Verizon and AT&T know they offer a better product.
I'm really hoping Google's investment in T-Mobile and Sprint narrows the wireless service gap, because having four more or less equal choices for wireless quality would probably send prices way down.
The "old people" paid their Medicare and Social Security taxes for their entire lives. Plus, for many of them if you do cut Social Security or Medicare, they will be forced to rely upon other social services - food stamps, housing assistance, etc...
So Paul Ryan's plan to cut those programs is both immoral - to take away a program the recipients paid into like a pension fund - and short-sighted, since most of the money saved by cuts will be lost through other state and federal agencies picking up the slack.
Next you'll propose that we just execute everyone over the age of 68. Or maybe everyone over the age of 68 that doesn't have a million dollars of net wealth.
Sorry I don't have mod points. Nice.
Now, you can make a separate argument that the IRS needs a management change, or needs their entire IT strategy to be re-evaluated and possibly massively overhauled. You can also make an argument that they should be able to work efficiently with less resources than they get now. But I don't think anyone can make a serious argument that problems with their ability to function are desirable.
I'm ten years rusty with C++, and I wasn't a very good C++ developer back when I used it professionally. If I was starting something new in C++ from scratch (not building on older C++ code), are there any specific resources you recommend - books, websites, etc... - to point me to the newest idiomatic way to get things done?
Lots of people need a better C++. But they need a better C++ that's easily interoperable with millions of lines of existing C++ code, and that's damn difficult to manage.
Walter Bright named the language Mars, and then the community kept calling it D. After a few years he gave up and started calling it 'D' himself.
You can use D without automatic garbage collection, but most of the system libraries depend upon it. The two main language designers are working on an architectural change so you can use the system libraries with or without garbage collection as you choose.
I still think legacy code and legacy expertise are the biggest obstacles, and they are formidable.
The DMD compiler isn't free software because Walter Bright doesn't own all of the intellectual property rights. He has the right from other copyright holders to redistribute the code, but not the right to relicense it.
Python nearly kneecapped itself with its switch from 2.x to 3.x. But most major Python code is 3.x -compatible. I expect the language to stay pretty popular.
The whitespace convention that drives so many people bonkers (and among other things, prevents quick one-line commands) and other language features may be annoying, but the language has got to be one of the most readable duck-typed languages available. Since all but the most trivial code is read much more often than it's written, I'd call that Python's killer feature and the source of its staying power. Otherwise it doesn't have anything in particular to recommend it over Perl, Ruby, or even PHP.
The only power of C and C++ that D doesn't provide is seamless integration with existing C and C++ code. And that's a big obstacle - in most cases, if you're doing serious C or C++ programming you've got thousands or millions of lines of code in libraries at your disposal. D can interface pretty easily with the C, but not as easily with C++.
Otherwise, it's likely that every feature you care about in C and C++ is available in D.