"Nerd" is the term applied to those who are socially inept, usually.
"Geek" is applied to the true computer afficionados - and many of those folks are increasingly interested in sports and athletic activities, from soccer to mountain biking to rock climbing and river-rafting.
Now I have no idea why I'm talking about exercise in a thread about athletics... oy.
Well, it didn't cost me a measureable amount of money. It just pissed off my ISP, which is a very dangerous thing to do, because they hold a broadband monopoly in my area. (See my comments from a few days ago to see my frustration on this topic)
Shaw offers a reduced speed package for a reduced rate, $24.95 for "five times dialup" and $40 for full cable (about 3 megabits on average).
Telus is $34.95, but for some reason they think it's an acceptable business practice to be totally completely and 100% incompetent in actually hooking their customers up. I went without internet for seven days last week because they were too incompetent to mail out a modem on time. It still hasn't arrived, 9 days after they said "3 to 7 business days". (This is why I said that Telus is the greater evil).
I don't like my $100/mo bill for cable tv and Internet, and I don't like waiting for a half hour or more on the phone to talk to someone from the company. I certainly don't like being on hold and then getting disconnected or hung up on, as happened with Telus.
Both companies have vast support issues, though Telus wins on the grounds of incompetency. My idea was intended to foster the technology community in Canada, and your points are very important. The service would be identical on the technical level, yes. Customers would indeed go with the lowest price, but you and I both know that ISPs normally offer services above and beyond purely technical service. Incentives, excellent customer support, features (hosting, static IPs, etc) - these, I feel, are more important than the technical offerings, and neither Telus nor Shaw seem to excel in offering these in an acceptable fashion.
Measures would have to be put in place to prevent the monopoly/consolidation syndrome from recurring, but I think it could be done. At the very least, I'd like to see some communities participate in pilot projects of the idea. I think that the mega coporations would love to be business-to-business; customer support is the worst thing to have to provide, especially on that kind of scale. The government might be inclined to step in because of the boost it would provide to the technology community - all the unemployed computer science people would quit complaining about the lack of work, move out to where the cost of living is much lower, and have decent jobs doing the things they like to do.
Anyway, it's just an idea. Brought about primarily because of my utter disgust and near rage against the Telus Corporation and their gross incompetence in this field - and, indeed, in their entire organization. Don't get me started on cell phones. (The infrastructure rocks, but the billing and stuff... pure crap. And it's nae scottish.)
I hate that Shaw is such a monopoly in my particular region. In cities, they compete with Telus - but frankly, Telus is the greater of the two evils. That's another topic for another day, however.
Out here in Ruralland Canada, Shaw Cable is the only choice for highspeed, and they charge an arm and a leg AND make you sign over your firstborn. It's very annoying. I'd like to see them put in charge of the infrastructure alone, and have mom & pop ISPs handle the cable modems, and the end-user support. They should only have to pay a small per-client licensing fee, and be given free reign to charge what they'd like above that for internet access. They should also have the option of regulating speeds at their own discretion, for various bundle offerings.
Does anyone think this is a good way to break up monopoly power, or is it just silly?
Re:Sad news ... Stephen King dead at 55
on
Practical mod_perl
·
· Score: -1, Troll
That's funny, except for one thing. Stephen King is 56. His birthday was 8 days ago.
Now see here!
May the Schwartz be with you!
(Hmm, I wonder if the spaceballs theme will make it on the music site... or if any of the non-mainstream stuff, like Alabama 3 or Shocore, will be represented)
The funniest joke in the world. It had to be translated one word at a time, because seeing more than two words at a time could incapacitate someone for a week (with laughter).
I think the modern-day equivalent would be an open letter from Darl McBride.
Slashdot Mirror
As an RBC customer, this makes me sad. I think I might complain.
Penguins aren't farm animals.
"Nerd" is the term applied to those who are socially inept, usually.
... oy.
"Geek" is applied to the true computer afficionados - and many of those folks are increasingly interested in sports and athletic activities, from soccer to mountain biking to rock climbing and river-rafting.
Now I have no idea why I'm talking about exercise in a thread about athletics
I beat the internet. The end boss was hard.
Would it be TCP in his case if the dictionary bounced off someone's head? :)
uh, maybe I'm just reading it wrong, but I think there's a small glitch in your closed-universe formula.
"in an open universe there are an infinite number of these points that could possibly look identical"
Shouldn't that read "in a closed universe"? I dunno, maybe I'm wrong.
A week ago it was shaped like a donut (or is that a Torus).
Mmm, universal donut.
Well, it didn't cost me a measureable amount of money. It just pissed off my ISP, which is a very dangerous thing to do, because they hold a broadband monopoly in my area. (See my comments from a few days ago to see my frustration on this topic)
Current market valuation is three quarters.
For forged bounced emails, the fine is 1 day in prison and/or $734. Per email.
:)
I got 500 bounced emails from a university in Canada once, should I sue them using this as a precedent?
I could *really* use $365,000. I'd even accept it in Canadian dollars (in fact, that would be easier, given that I am Canadian).
... how long Enlightment has existed for Sun machines? :)
Shaw offers a reduced speed package for a reduced rate, $24.95 for "five times dialup" and $40 for full cable (about 3 megabits on average).
... pure crap. And it's nae scottish.)
Telus is $34.95, but for some reason they think it's an acceptable business practice to be totally completely and 100% incompetent in actually hooking their customers up. I went without internet for seven days last week because they were too incompetent to mail out a modem on time. It still hasn't arrived, 9 days after they said "3 to 7 business days". (This is why I said that Telus is the greater evil).
I don't like my $100/mo bill for cable tv and Internet, and I don't like waiting for a half hour or more on the phone to talk to someone from the company. I certainly don't like being on hold and then getting disconnected or hung up on, as happened with Telus.
Both companies have vast support issues, though Telus wins on the grounds of incompetency. My idea was intended to foster the technology community in Canada, and your points are very important. The service would be identical on the technical level, yes. Customers would indeed go with the lowest price, but you and I both know that ISPs normally offer services above and beyond purely technical service. Incentives, excellent customer support, features (hosting, static IPs, etc) - these, I feel, are more important than the technical offerings, and neither Telus nor Shaw seem to excel in offering these in an acceptable fashion.
Measures would have to be put in place to prevent the monopoly/consolidation syndrome from recurring, but I think it could be done. At the very least, I'd like to see some communities participate in pilot projects of the idea. I think that the mega coporations would love to be business-to-business; customer support is the worst thing to have to provide, especially on that kind of scale. The government might be inclined to step in because of the boost it would provide to the technology community - all the unemployed computer science people would quit complaining about the lack of work, move out to where the cost of living is much lower, and have decent jobs doing the things they like to do.
Anyway, it's just an idea. Brought about primarily because of my utter disgust and near rage against the Telus Corporation and their gross incompetence in this field - and, indeed, in their entire organization. Don't get me started on cell phones. (The infrastructure rocks, but the billing and stuff
I'm beginning to think that Fight Club had it right.
Topple the credit companies, and society must start anew.
I hate that Shaw is such a monopoly in my particular region. In cities, they compete with Telus - but frankly, Telus is the greater of the two evils. That's another topic for another day, however.
Out here in Ruralland Canada, Shaw Cable is the only choice for highspeed, and they charge an arm and a leg AND make you sign over your firstborn. It's very annoying. I'd like to see them put in charge of the infrastructure alone, and have mom & pop ISPs handle the cable modems, and the end-user support. They should only have to pay a small per-client licensing fee, and be given free reign to charge what they'd like above that for internet access. They should also have the option of regulating speeds at their own discretion, for various bundle offerings.
Does anyone think this is a good way to break up monopoly power, or is it just silly?
That's funny, except for one thing. Stephen King is 56. His birthday was 8 days ago.
Is that a job offer? Because I could really use the money.
(note that the above contains intentional grammatical no-nos, designed to indicate my overwhelming potential as a New York Times editor.)
Ion propulsion ... that's fun. Has anyone heard of other probes being constructed that use other fun propulsion technologies?
(Frankly, the physics of using rockets in space has never made sense to me - how do they go anywhere? - but it seems to work, so that's fine.)
I would like to remind them that as a trusted television reporter, I can be useful in rounding up workers to toil in their underground vinyl caves.
Now see here! May the Schwartz be with you! (Hmm, I wonder if the spaceballs theme will make it on the music site ... or if any of the non-mainstream stuff, like Alabama 3 or Shocore, will be represented)
Evil will always triumph over Good, because Good is Dumb.
That's not a Beowulf cluster, that's a hub. Possibly a switch, if the drums differ in tone enough. :)
The funniest joke in the world. It had to be translated one word at a time, because seeing more than two words at a time could incapacitate someone for a week (with laughter).
I think the modern-day equivalent would be an open letter from Darl McBride.
You shouldn't insult the russian mafia like that.
Windows XP telnet works fine for me.