No. Go read the terms. Newegg is the one reserving the right to ship things ground.
I don't fault them for trying to lower costs. I fault them for wanting to take more money out of my pocket and then not providing anything additional for it, except maybe a fatter paycheck to the execs.
Read my comment about Newegg getting rid of UPS Ground and instead charging you for 3-day select. They will still ship it to you via ground if you are close enough to make it in 3 days or less, but they'll charge you for 3-day select and pocket the difference.
I received a 24-port managed switch inside a plastic bag full of water from Newegg in the fall. I don't know how it happened, but your comment may shed some light on it. The switch was fine, but the box was waterlogged.
Be sure to read my comment about Newegg.com triping their shipping charges. I am outraged about it and I want to get as many people pissed off about it as I can so they'll bring back UPS Ground as a shipping option.
Newegg quietly triples shipping charges
on
A Look Inside Newegg
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Having frequently purchased things from Newegg.com and been relatively satisfied with being close enough to one of their warehouses to get overnight ground shipping on the cheap, I was recently horrified to discover that they have quietly changed the way they offer shipping in order to pad their own pockets. In case you haven't noticed, Newegg.com no longer offers UPS Ground as a shipping option. They have instead created a new service called "UPS 3-day Guaranteed," which, if you read the terms, basically says that you have to pay for UPS 3-Day Select, but will still get ground shipping if you are close enough to receive your order in 3 days or less. For people like me, that equates to a tripling of shipping charges and nothing else. Newegg.com could not be reached for comment as of the writing of this story. Am I the only one who is outraged?
In 1978 or so (not sure exactly), my dad picked up a TRS-80 model I with the upgrade to 16K of ram and the external cassette player. We had all kinds of games. Eliza. Pinball. Some game where you try to drop bombs on a city of buildings. Another game that I can only remember there being shapes like a pound sign and a square, and something about moving them around. Boy, those were some memories. The last time I used that computer was around 1990. It finally bit the dust and was laid to rest at a local computer recycling company. My old CoCo-2, Tandy 1000A, and Tandy 1000TX ultimately met the same fate.
Google has saved all search queries, timestamped and IP-logged, since the dawn of time. Google has also demonstrated a complete willingness to furnish access to this database to the government at any time the DoJ wishes.
So, the short answer is, no, we cannot trust a company that will harvest our private information and turn it over to the current fascist administration on a whim.
No, the problem is that I have GOOD speakers, and a GOOD stereo. The artifacts in 128kbit stereo are absolutely glaring on a decent system. Portable devices and computer speakers all use class-C amplifiers that have such poor dynamic range that many artifacts are lost (along with the "good" information), and the output tank circuits in class-C amplifiers, while also masking artifacts, also distort the output wildly. If you play a 128kbit MP3 through a device that has significantly good dynamic range and a class-A or B amplifier, you'll be astonished at the crap that comes out of your speakers.
iTunes, XM, Sirius, Live365... it's all low-bitrate, over-compressed garbage that is difficult in the extreme to listen to. All are nifty ideas, but are held hostage by the general refusal of ISPs to roll out higher bandwidth and a resonable price. When Vz starts charging content providers on top of their regular access charges, internet radio will disappear.
It has come to my attention that, pursuant to the Telecom Act of 1996 (the "Act"), that you have been receiving tax-free, interest free government loans to improve residential and commercial Internet infrastructure. These loans are funded with taxpayer money, and as such, as a taxpayer, I believe I am entitled to a share of the profits derived from such loans. Verizon has been receiving a "free lunch" at the expense of my hard-earned tax dollars, and it must be put to an end. Using "Verizon Logic," it is easy to come to this conclusion.
Since I do not know how much of my tax dollars have been used to subsidize your profits over the last 10 years, I will simply be suing you for all of my taxes for that period of time. I will give you this one-time opportunity to settle out of court. The terms of this settlement are that you must provide Internet access infrastructure that DOESN'T SUCK. I know this seems like an impossible goal to meet, so in lieu of having to provide Internet access that DOESN'T SUCK, you may pay me a one-time sum of (pinky to face) one hundred billion dollars.
Yes, I have an idea. A long time ago, the FCC cared a great deal about electromagnetic compliance of digital devices. It used to require that any PC sold be compliance tested for both radiation and succeptibility to RF interference. It used to be that a machine had to be tested complete, with all components installed. Well, that became impractical with the advent of do-it-yourself computers. There was no law preventing people from building their own computers. So, then the FCC backed off to simply requiring the "barebone" to be compliance tested in order to be sold. This would be a case/motherboard combination. Again, this hurt small businesses as it cost an arm and a leg to do anything dealing with the government. I can speak from first-hand experience that it could cost up to $100K to have a PC type-accepted in the early 90's. The process involved a consulting firm, lawyers, lobbyists, and all kinds of government corruption. Your consulting firm would do the tests, and hire their lawyers to petition the FCC. It would take some discrete intervention on the part of the lobbyist to "encourage" the officer at the FCC to approve the application.
Finally, they did away with government-regulated type acceptance all together and switched to the honor system. Now, it's a free for all with a catch. PCs still have to be tested to comply with FCC standards, but there is no direct oversight. However, if you build and sell a PC and it ends up interfering, and you cannot demonstrate that you had that configuration tested, you are quite literally up the creek as the FCC will descend upon you like locusts and take every penny you have and will ever make.
In any case, this thing is probably an RF nightmare. Glass is nearly transparent to RF, so the bottle will let anything in or out. There is a switching power supply used in this thing, several actually, and they tend to be the "gatling gun" of radiated interference.
"Linux is packaged together with the custom software. Does this mean that the software must be made available to anyone who will ask for it?"
Not at all... packaging software with linux is not the same as making a change in the source code and then offering it for sale. You can package any s/w you want with a linux distribution and you are under no requirement to release the source.
Similarly, you can make any code changes you want to the kernel, or any open source software, and you are under no requirement to release that source code just because you made changes.
" Stop treating IT like a cost center, and treat them as a money maker. "
Why should we treat a cost center like a money maker? IT is not a money-maker, it is a cost center. IT costs money and does not produce revenue. If a computer breaks, the cost of repairing it is not an "enabler" as your logic proposes. Computers are a required cost of doing business, and that's all there is to it. We have to buy them to get things done, just like we have to buy office furnituer, phones, stationary, cars, and whatever else. These are not money-makers, either. Computers are no different, nor are the services required to maintain them.
There is absolutely nothing non-obvious or novel involved in neither claim 6 nor claim 9 in this patent, or any of the other claims for that matter. The stated claims in this patent are standard practice for terrestrial wireless lan deployment, just applied to a mobile platform, which for all intents and purposes is a fixed deployment because the network and the users move congruently. So, relativistically speaking, this is not a mobile network because the users move with it and are stationary relative to the network.
This patent was granted in error, as have been thousands of others.
I asked the very same question. The response was that since I have a laptop and not a desktop, I am not guaranteed to be on our network at night, so the backup must be done during the day.
Maps are representation of Fact. Dictionaries are representation of fact. Almanacs... encyclopedias... owner's manuals... All are publishings of fact, yet all are copyrighted...
I am at work from 5AM until 4PM usually, and out of those 11 hours, my computer is only usable for about 4 of them.
5AM-6AM: Usable 6AM-10AM: Unusable because IT folks force a full virus scan at top CPU priority and I can't change it. 10AM-11:30AM: Usable 11:30AM-12PM: Unusable, some process called RPG.exe runs at highest CPU priority during this time. I don't know what it does, but a quick google says it's for some kind of backup and restore function. 12PM-2PM: Unusable: mandatory daily over-the-network "full" backup of local drives, even though work product is not stored locally and the local disk doesn't change much. I suspect this is actually just to see if I am putting "unapproved" software on my PC. I have had shareware apps simply disappear in the past, including FireFox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice (we have a contract with M$) 2PM-4PM: usable, except when pushing M$ patches, when my PC reboots w/o warning and at random, not allowing me to save my work.
I've complained all the way up to the VP of engineering, and the attitude I get is "tough ****, deal with it, we will not compromise data security for your convenience."
Well, there are a lot of aluminum power transmission lines, just not in houses. If you have, for example, a run of miles and miles and miles, and can properly have access to the interconnects at the ends, you can maintain them just fine.
Just in houses, it is not possible to open up the walls and check for corrosion or mitigate it, so that is why it is against code.
In fact, most service cables to homes still are aluminum, but are terminated at special aluminum connectors that lead to less/no corrosion. After reading about this a bit more since my original post, I'm wondering why it isn't so feasible. I know that mixing copper and aluminum wiring is bad bad bad, and that aluminum will oxidize when exposed to air, but there are probably other factors as well...
You honestly think there's enough silicon on the planet for every home to have a PV array with enough capacity? There is already a huge shortage in silicon, due primarily to the fact that it takes a tremendous amount of energy to process it into usable form.
Slashdot Mirror
No. Go read the terms. Newegg is the one reserving the right to ship things ground.
I don't fault them for trying to lower costs. I fault them for wanting to take more money out of my pocket and then not providing anything additional for it, except maybe a fatter paycheck to the execs.
Except that the outside shipping box was perfectly dry... The plastic bag with the wet switch was INSIDE the outer, dry shipping box.
Read my comment about Newegg getting rid of UPS Ground and instead charging you for 3-day select. They will still ship it to you via ground if you are close enough to make it in 3 days or less, but they'll charge you for 3-day select and pocket the difference.
I am outraged, and so should you be.
I received a 24-port managed switch inside a plastic bag full of water from Newegg in the fall. I don't know how it happened, but your comment may shed some light on it. The switch was fine, but the box was waterlogged.
Be sure to read my comment about Newegg.com triping their shipping charges. I am outraged about it and I want to get as many people pissed off about it as I can so they'll bring back UPS Ground as a shipping option.
Having frequently purchased things from Newegg.com and been relatively satisfied with being close enough to one of their warehouses to get overnight ground shipping on the cheap, I was recently horrified to discover that they have quietly changed the way they offer shipping in order to pad their own pockets. In case you haven't noticed, Newegg.com no longer offers UPS Ground as a shipping option. They have instead created a new service called "UPS 3-day Guaranteed," which, if you read the terms, basically says that you have to pay for UPS 3-Day Select, but will still get ground shipping if you are close enough to receive your order in 3 days or less. For people like me, that equates to a tripling of shipping charges and nothing else. Newegg.com could not be reached for comment as of the writing of this story. Am I the only one who is outraged?
In 1978 or so (not sure exactly), my dad picked up a TRS-80 model I with the upgrade to 16K of ram and the external cassette player. We had all kinds of games. Eliza. Pinball. Some game where you try to drop bombs on a city of buildings. Another game that I can only remember there being shapes like a pound sign and a square, and something about moving them around. Boy, those were some memories. The last time I used that computer was around 1990. It finally bit the dust and was laid to rest at a local computer recycling company. My old CoCo-2, Tandy 1000A, and Tandy 1000TX ultimately met the same fate.
Google has saved all search queries, timestamped and IP-logged, since the dawn of time. Google has also demonstrated a complete willingness to furnish access to this database to the government at any time the DoJ wishes.
So, the short answer is, no, we cannot trust a company that will harvest our private information and turn it over to the current fascist administration on a whim.
"People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance,"
On it's face, this statement is incompatible with:
"In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time."
It's no better than chance. It is better than Chance.
Nice going..
No, the problem is that I have GOOD speakers, and a GOOD stereo. The artifacts in 128kbit stereo are absolutely glaring on a decent system. Portable devices and computer speakers all use class-C amplifiers that have such poor dynamic range that many artifacts are lost (along with the "good" information), and the output tank circuits in class-C amplifiers, while also masking artifacts, also distort the output wildly. If you play a 128kbit MP3 through a device that has significantly good dynamic range and a class-A or B amplifier, you'll be astonished at the crap that comes out of your speakers.
iTunes, XM, Sirius, Live365... it's all low-bitrate, over-compressed garbage that is difficult in the extreme to listen to. All are nifty ideas, but are held hostage by the general refusal of ISPs to roll out higher bandwidth and a resonable price. When Vz starts charging content providers on top of their regular access charges, internet radio will disappear.
It has come to my attention that, pursuant to the Telecom Act of 1996 (the "Act"), that you have been receiving tax-free, interest free government loans to improve residential and commercial Internet infrastructure. These loans are funded with taxpayer money, and as such, as a taxpayer, I believe I am entitled to a share of the profits derived from such loans. Verizon has been receiving a "free lunch" at the expense of my hard-earned tax dollars, and it must be put to an end. Using "Verizon Logic," it is easy to come to this conclusion.
Since I do not know how much of my tax dollars have been used to subsidize your profits over the last 10 years, I will simply be suing you for all of my taxes for that period of time. I will give you this one-time opportunity to settle out of court. The terms of this settlement are that you must provide Internet access infrastructure that DOESN'T SUCK. I know this seems like an impossible goal to meet, so in lieu of having to provide Internet access that DOESN'T SUCK, you may pay me a one-time sum of (pinky to face) one hundred billion dollars.
Thank you for your time
You're asking slashdot?
Yes, I have an idea. A long time ago, the FCC cared a great deal about electromagnetic compliance of digital devices. It used to require that any PC sold be compliance tested for both radiation and succeptibility to RF interference. It used to be that a machine had to be tested complete, with all components installed. Well, that became impractical with the advent of do-it-yourself computers. There was no law preventing people from building their own computers. So, then the FCC backed off to simply requiring the "barebone" to be compliance tested in order to be sold. This would be a case/motherboard combination. Again, this hurt small businesses as it cost an arm and a leg to do anything dealing with the government. I can speak from first-hand experience that it could cost up to $100K to have a PC type-accepted in the early 90's. The process involved a consulting firm, lawyers, lobbyists, and all kinds of government corruption. Your consulting firm would do the tests, and hire their lawyers to petition the FCC. It would take some discrete intervention on the part of the lobbyist to "encourage" the officer at the FCC to approve the application.
Finally, they did away with government-regulated type acceptance all together and switched to the honor system. Now, it's a free for all with a catch. PCs still have to be tested to comply with FCC standards, but there is no direct oversight. However, if you build and sell a PC and it ends up interfering, and you cannot demonstrate that you had that configuration tested, you are quite literally up the creek as the FCC will descend upon you like locusts and take every penny you have and will ever make.
In any case, this thing is probably an RF nightmare. Glass is nearly transparent to RF, so the bottle will let anything in or out. There is a switching power supply used in this thing, several actually, and they tend to be the "gatling gun" of radiated interference.
It's too bad for the defendants that they were sued in federal court and not state court...
"Linux is packaged together with the custom software. Does this mean that the software must be made available to anyone who will ask for it?"
Not at all... packaging software with linux is not the same as making a change in the source code and then offering it for sale. You can package any s/w you want with a linux distribution and you are under no requirement to release the source.
Similarly, you can make any code changes you want to the kernel, or any open source software, and you are under no requirement to release that source code just because you made changes.
" Stop treating IT like a cost center, and treat them as a money maker. "
Why should we treat a cost center like a money maker? IT is not a money-maker, it is a cost center. IT costs money and does not produce revenue. If a computer breaks, the cost of repairing it is not an "enabler" as your logic proposes. Computers are a required cost of doing business, and that's all there is to it. We have to buy them to get things done, just like we have to buy office furnituer, phones, stationary, cars, and whatever else. These are not money-makers, either. Computers are no different, nor are the services required to maintain them.
I have one in my car.... does that count?
There is absolutely nothing non-obvious or novel involved in neither claim 6 nor claim 9 in this patent, or any of the other claims for that matter. The stated claims in this patent are standard practice for terrestrial wireless lan deployment, just applied to a mobile platform, which for all intents and purposes is a fixed deployment because the network and the users move congruently. So, relativistically speaking, this is not a mobile network because the users move with it and are stationary relative to the network.
This patent was granted in error, as have been thousands of others.
I asked the very same question. The response was that since I have a laptop and not a desktop, I am not guaranteed to be on our network at night, so the backup must be done during the day.
" The facts are not copyrighted, it's the presentation of the facts that are under copyright."
No shit... that is exactly what I said...
Maps are representation of Fact. Dictionaries are representation of fact. Almanacs... encyclopedias... owner's manuals... All are publishings of fact, yet all are copyrighted...
I wonder how long it will be before we're talking about AMD as the giant microprocessor monopolist that makes inferior chips...
I am at work from 5AM until 4PM usually, and out of those 11 hours, my computer is only usable for about 4 of them.
5AM-6AM: Usable
6AM-10AM: Unusable because IT folks force a full virus scan at top CPU priority and I can't change it.
10AM-11:30AM: Usable
11:30AM-12PM: Unusable, some process called RPG.exe runs at highest CPU priority during this time. I don't know what it does, but a quick google says it's for some kind of backup and restore function.
12PM-2PM: Unusable: mandatory daily over-the-network "full" backup of local drives, even though work product is not stored locally and the local disk doesn't change much. I suspect this is actually just to see if I am putting "unapproved" software on my PC. I have had shareware apps simply disappear in the past, including FireFox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice (we have a contract with M$)
2PM-4PM: usable, except when pushing M$ patches, when my PC reboots w/o warning and at random, not allowing me to save my work.
I've complained all the way up to the VP of engineering, and the attitude I get is "tough ****, deal with it, we will not compromise data security for your convenience."
So yeah, valid topic, good article.
Well, there are a lot of aluminum power transmission lines, just not in houses. If you have, for example, a run of miles and miles and miles, and can properly have access to the interconnects at the ends, you can maintain them just fine.
Just in houses, it is not possible to open up the walls and check for corrosion or mitigate it, so that is why it is against code.
In fact, most service cables to homes still are aluminum, but are terminated at special aluminum connectors that lead to less/no corrosion. After reading about this a bit more since my original post, I'm wondering why it isn't so feasible. I know that mixing copper and aluminum wiring is bad bad bad, and that aluminum will oxidize when exposed to air, but there are probably other factors as well...
You honestly think there's enough silicon on the planet for every home to have a PV array with enough capacity? There is already a huge shortage in silicon, due primarily to the fact that it takes a tremendous amount of energy to process it into usable form.