If they want 15 hour days, and they say you need to go "balls to the wall", then that just means that their balls are right up against the wall. These guys probably have a lot more to lose than you. Apply a little pressure, see what happens. Rally the other engineers together. And don't do the long hours unless there are serious bonuses or prospects of equity (and the equity has the potential to be worth something).
Above all else, remember, you can't do this forever, 15 hour days don't mean twice the productivity.
I heard a story about someone on deck at a big 5 consulting firm. They worked 100+ hour weeks and all to make partner, and eventually worked until a lot of the systems in their body up and quit. Just overstressed for so long, everything started to shut down at once. Went way over the million dollar lifetime healthcare cap (the firm has to pick up all future medical bills.) The guy made partner and recovered but became a medical case study.
The recent FCC decision that ALL TV transmissions must be digital by (2007?) is evidence that mass media corporations and the FCC have realized that most people are turning off the TV to surf, chat, and play games and refusing to pay $9 to see MIB2 now they can get it for free on usenet.
Guess what, the $9 is nothing compared to the opportunity cost of wasting 2 hours of your life watching that crap.
90% of the movies that come out are rehashed and worthless. Its time to stop whining about the movie execs not caring about us -- I stopped caring about Hollywood a long time ago.
Yeah, the DMCA is why I'm not downloading last week's episode of Big Brother and watching it on my 17" CRT. Sure.
I don't reflect so much on democracy being around for a short time, but it is boggling that some of the fascists lasted as long as they did.
Three hundred years may be a short time for democracy, but I've only got another 70 years at best, and I do not plan on wasting any of that short time living under fascism.
Their are certain specification made in many contracts that one party or another can end the contract at any time. You can not have a contract that says, at any time, one party can change any of the terms of this contract. Thats like a self referencing definition.
They can not say "We will provide you cable modem service for $40 a month for 1 year, and we can change any terms of this contract." If they did, as soon as you signed it they could say "well, we are going to change this from $40 to $400 and from a year to 30 years, and we're not going to be your isp, you are going to be our indentured servant."
People always bitch about the service they get from big companies, be it the phone, cable, ISP, whatever. Lets get this straight: There are other ISP's with significantly different sizes and structures than Earthlink / AOL / Roadrunner / SBC. I'll bet if you looked, you'd find at least five or six serving your area wholly owned and staffed by less than 10 people. They are out there but they can't compete when it comes to advertising. Dig a little deeper, you'd probably be very pleasantly surprised with what they can offer.
Just because you run a webserver, you do not have to make it vulnerable to script kiddies. Its pretty easy to make it listen only to 127.0.0.1. Its even easier to block all incoming traffic (except for those that are part of an established state) at the firewall (which it sounds like you're doing). Its a lot easier to restrict access to the web server than it is to keep up with all the patches. Allowing the webserver to only recieve traffic from local (ie, trusted) addresses, such as those on your private network, is still pretty useful.
While it may not be a fact that stem cell research leads to Matrix style human farms, it is in the set of possible outcomes. That outcome is also more likely with the research than without, and in my opinion, that is a slippery slope. As I wrote it in the original post, a slippery slope is not so much a logical tool but a metaphor that explains the situation.
I'm not saying which side I'm on in this arguement. But for the sake of all the people reading this, would you please list all of the medical procedures available now that have been developed with said research. People still have the right to vote with their voice and their ballot, but as a last resort, voting with your wallet is always decisive.
So? Pretty much everyone already believes that, most are just too scared to admit it. If you can honestly say you have no prejudices (without lying to yourself), then you're a member of a damn small minority.
It is my understanding that prejudices are an heuristic humans have developed to help them make judgements. Everyone has them, everyone is affected by them. I would even say that the minority of which you speak is non-existant. Intelligent people realize this and take steps to keep their decisions as rational and objective as possible. In other words, you might think you are better than everyone else, but you are not.
If you really believe that, you should stop jerking off, because it kills thousands of human beings.
Here is one difference between sperm and eggs and stem cells. The stem cell has a complete human genome, the sperm does not, the egg does not. So it is a very difficult line to draw, where does human life begin. The fact that no one has been able to draw it conclusively is reason enough, in my opinion, to hold off on public policy decisions that rely on this line.
Not that having a zero life expectancy is especially "un-costly". As to the bum, well that's an ethical argument. Personally, I guess he'd have a much more fulfilling existence as a well-fed and kept-clean spare parts collection.
And so, the true colors come out. Doing any cross burnings tonight, brother?
Contrary to popular belief, the main arguement against stem cell research and human cloning is not a religious one but an ethical one. (There is a difference). Once you start creating humans for the sake of bettering other humans, you have made the judgement that certain humans are worth more than others. It does not matter that you never intend them to develop fully. Stem cells should be treated with the same respect as anything else human, because they could be part of a human.
Once you start developing human tissues for specific and commercial or medical use, it is only a matter of time before you jump to the logical conclusion that it would be easier to use an entire human. Maybe its a bum, maybe its an infant with a near zero chance of survival, but you are making your way down a slippery slope.
It might be beneficial to the vast majority of society, but for that minority, it is extremely costly. Here's a computer related example. You create a national ID system with a centralized database of all citizen's activity. Crime goes way down. So does privacy. So does freedom. It might look good at first, but you have to examine all the possible end scenarios, and you have to take the greatest care that the worst of those scenarios stays hypothetical.
Questions -- Have there been other sets of cases that have had the same law interpreted in two different directions? What was the outcome? Are such laws considered ambiguous and thus in need of clarification? Who makes taht decision?
This is generally one of the situations in which the Supreme Court will step in, that is, if two states rule differently on a federal law, it is up to no one but the Supreme Court to sort it out.
The Supreme Court only accepts a small percentage of the cases they are asked to hear, but then again generally the states follow each other's precident.
Check out http://www.3rc.org/index.html, the homepage of 3 Rivers Connect, the organization that set all this up. When you look at their board members their are a lot of upper level university players and brass. 3RC has a pretty good list of projects in progress, and they have actually gotten some things done. That gives them a bit of political clout, not just in the city (the city would let a group like this do whatever it wants). The real key is having the connections in Harrisburg, not Pittsburgh. The money is coming from the state.
In MS Money 2002, under Tools / Options, there is a checkbox in the "Display" set of options on the default options page called "Turn off sponsorship and shopping links." If you do go onto some of the MSN services, such as the home finder, you will see some ads, but if you wait 5 seconds, they go away. Checking "Turn off sponsorship and shopping links" removes all ads and special offers from the core program, as far as I can tell.
Re:Reviewer was right on, if late
on
Review: U-571
·
· Score: 2
Great answer. If you want to learn something, it is necessary to either: a) Go to a city where they have a diesel sub. b) Read a scholarly work on history in its entirety.
My point is, watching a film like Das Boot has some redeeming value, because the film is relatively accurate in an historic sense. You may not learn as much as you would from actually going on a sub or reading World War II by John Keegan. On the other hand, it is considerably easier for a lot of people to see the movie then to go to a submarine. I would guess that 75% of the people in the US would spend more time driving to a submarine than they would actually watching Das Boot (and its a long movie).
If you want to learn, it is better to look through diverse sources. Go rent Das Boot, then walk around on a diesel sub, and then read some Keegan. You might learn the least from Das Boot, but it is a new perspective.
Reviewer was right on, if late
on
Review: U-571
·
· Score: 3
I can not explain why this review came when it did, and it is unfortunate that it is so late because anyone who would have seen it has probably already seen it.
I wish I had read this review about two months ago, so that I would not have rented this movie. I could make a better movie about submarines filming turds in the toilet. Really.
Keep in mind that every time the protagonists sink a ship, it "blowed up real good". So based on this movie, you would think that when a submarine or other ship dies, it goes out with a bang. But later on in the movie, the protagonists fool the destroyer that is hunting them into thinking they are dead by jettisoning the bilge and a dead body.
I saw this movie, and I have seen Das Boot, and if you are interested at all in what a u-boat was like, or if you want to see a good movie, see Das Boot. If you are a serious masochist, see U-571.
We live in a capitalist democracy. Vote with your wallet. The parent post is so on point that it is scary. There is nothing else worth saying on this issue, really. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Some people are apathetic, and say "well, hollywood movies make billions of dollars a year, what does my $7.50 matter". If everyone who shared the view that the DMCA was a front put on by evil corporations boycotted said corps, they would notice.
On top of all that, have some self respect. Are you going to pay the price of a movie ticket every time the next "blockbuster" comes out? Do you really want to pay for recycled canned music? Of course you don't. But how many people do?
You do know that they have about $40 billion in cash, they have been able to consistently earn about 10% APR on that cash. That is, their CFO invests that cash with their internal money management system. (ie, enter Microsoft Money, type IDKFA). Often, sitting on a ton of cash actually hurts a company -- by keeping it liquid they get a lower rate of return. MS has managed to get around that very well. I believe they have more cash than any other private organization, though I'm not sure.
So my point, as it ties back to your original post, is that MS has enough in that cash reserve alone to go on at 0 revenue for another five years. Think about that, if they do not make another dime, their balance won't be red for another five years. They are in a totally unique situation, in that sense. On top of that, they are a new enough company, came about at the right time, and have the right people in place that their organizational structure is top notch.
Microsoft is not as big as Walmart, GE, Exxon, IBM, and a few others. They are still pretty damn large. They aren't going away any time soon, either.
This is the post I agree with. I am slightly different: Ride my bike to work, shower at the office. Get there at least an hour before my boss. Its also crucial to do the ride before traffic gets too heavy. I just try to brew one really good pot of coffee. I have the coffee grinder, I have the gourmet beans, etc.
Aerobic exercise is key. Relieves the nervous energy, clears the mind, and is fun.
If you go in with a bunch of preconcieved notions about what these people know and don't know about Unix, you won't reach them. The certification they are going for looks like its for developers. There are certifications for Office, and there are probably idiots in there. The people going for this certification are programmers / developers / engineers, and you should treat them with professional respect. That means not going in like a Linux Hare Krishna looking for conversions. See if they have used Unix / Linux before. See what they know how to do, etc. Show them how to use Emacs or maybe vi. Your job is to teach them as much as you can in two days about a system with a steep learning curve.
Every comment here says that you should be pushing linux, how simple it is, etc. The beauty of CLI, the elegance of | . If you want to go that route just write on the board "I am LETE I OWNZ YOU". But I think you should give these people credit. They are learning VB or C#, and most people might think that makes you a loser, but give them credit for trying and withhold your judgement.
What exactly do you have against the Ronco Grille? My parents have one, it works really well. Its the economy that drives television. Unless you can think of a better way to generate money via broadcasting, just turn off your tv. Its either that or state run stations (yeah, PBS is fine). If somebody can make a buck doing it, more power to them.
If you want to moan and groan about the state of tv news, buy a Wall Street Journal. If you expect the network news (cable or broadcast) to be some measure of journalism, then you are the retard.
Your not as smart as Europe, not as cheap or industrious as the far east, not as devout as the middle east.
Well, we are working on pulling up our collective IQ scores so we can compete with Europe on such gameshows as jeopardy. We are working on cutting out those trips to the snack machine, so we can be cheap and industrious like the Far East. As far the devoutness of the Middle East, we are planning on praying for the world's biggest oil field to be found in Iowa or Montana. Those states never pitch in on the rent or do the dishes anyway.
Put very simply what the US is doing is protectionism. There is no way you are going to compete with Korea on bulk steel production - the economics just aren't there. Its a commodity market and your cost base is too high for you to stand an chance.
Maybe you did not read my post, or you don't know the facts. The reason we get foreign steel so cheap is because it is subsidized and ours isn't. Those are the facts. Go to steel.org/policy/trade/msa.asp and look at it for yourself.
Say what you will about Boeiing, but Airbus would not stand a chance if it wasn't subsidized by the EU. Same situation with steel.
Economics is a complicated subject. Politics is a complicated subject. The union of the two is vast enough that slashdot alone could not contain an answer to your question. And yet I answer. Basically, the US Government does not directly subsidize the US steel industry. That is illegal in the US. In Europe and Japan, the government subsidizes industries that compete with the US. For example, Japanese steel is so subsidized by the Japanese government that the US can buy it for less than it costs to produce. Same thing with Airbus. They are essentially being sold at a loss to the US. The goal is not to kiss up to the US, but to drive the US industries out of business (US industries can't compete on the prices because they are not subsidized by the government). The long term goal of the subsidies by European governments and Japan is to gain a monopoly and then raise prices. Economically, the only thing the US can do is raise tariffs to protect its industry or subsidize the industry itself. The subsidies are a lot harder to get through than tariffs.
then cut the phone company out of the loop as much as possible. Granted, its still their copper, but there is no way around that until its their fiber, or however it turns out.
My point is this: The phone company is pretty good at phones, not so good at being an ISP. I am in a Mid-Atlantic city, and there are a few choices for DSL. Basically, figure out who the trunc provider is for the ISPs, shop around. If you need business class DSL, do not try to limp by on residential. If you go to the right ISP, you might be able to negotiate your own terms of service.
You won't negotiate with the phone company, it really does not make sense for either party involved. Find yourself an ISP that offers SDSL for residential. Ask them for references to current customers. Check up on things. If its worth it to you, upgrade to business class. Its going to be more expensive per bandwidth, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.
There are a lot of ISP's that can't afford James Earl Jones advertisements, can't afford to spam you with free cd's. There are a lot of them that consist of one or two people. If that one person is good, you're set. So do your homework, shop around, and leave phone service to the phone company.
That is, allowing the media to be heard in court is asking for trouble. That is not their realm. IMHO, courts are a formal setting, and it is important that any biases that enter the court be identified. Plaintiffs and defendents can sort each other out. Who sorts out and identifies all the biases the media have? They want news to report on, and this gives them to much influence to create news where there needn't be any more.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she would allow the media to file court briefs in response to Microsoft's request.
Now this is kind of scary, as the media have the media's best interest, not society's or either of the party's involved. Oh wait, one of the plaintiff's is AOL Time Warner?
I do not like to be the one with the extreme Orwellian predictions, but allowing the media to be heard is just asking for trouble. Imagine a case involving a popular figure... "And now the court will hear from the National Enquirer."
Slashdot Mirror
If they want 15 hour days, and they say you need to go "balls to the wall", then that just means that their balls are right up against the wall. These guys probably have a lot more to lose than you. Apply a little pressure, see what happens. Rally the other engineers together. And don't do the long hours unless there are serious bonuses or prospects of equity (and the equity has the potential to be worth something).
Above all else, remember, you can't do this forever, 15 hour days don't mean twice the productivity.
I heard a story about someone on deck at a big 5 consulting firm. They worked 100+ hour weeks and all to make partner, and eventually worked until a lot of the systems in their body up and quit. Just overstressed for so long, everything started to shut down at once. Went way over the million dollar lifetime healthcare cap (the firm has to pick up all future medical bills.) The guy made partner and recovered but became a medical case study.
Guess what, the $9 is nothing compared to the opportunity cost of wasting 2 hours of your life watching that crap.
90% of the movies that come out are rehashed and worthless. Its time to stop whining about the movie execs not caring about us -- I stopped caring about Hollywood a long time ago.
Yeah, the DMCA is why I'm not downloading last week's episode of Big Brother and watching it on my 17" CRT. Sure.
Forget all that stuff, it rots your brain.
I don't reflect so much on democracy being around for a short time, but it is boggling that some of the fascists lasted as long as they did.
Three hundred years may be a short time for democracy, but I've only got another 70 years at best, and I do not plan on wasting any of that short time living under fascism.
Their are certain specification made in many contracts that one party or another can end the contract at any time. You can not have a contract that says, at any time, one party can change any of the terms of this contract. Thats like a self referencing definition.
They can not say "We will provide you cable modem service for $40 a month for 1 year, and we can change any terms of this contract." If they did, as soon as you signed it they could say "well, we are going to change this from $40 to $400 and from a year to 30 years, and we're not going to be your isp, you are going to be our indentured servant."
People always bitch about the service they get from big companies, be it the phone, cable, ISP, whatever. Lets get this straight: There are other ISP's with significantly different sizes and structures than Earthlink / AOL / Roadrunner / SBC. I'll bet if you looked, you'd find at least five or six serving your area wholly owned and staffed by less than 10 people. They are out there but they can't compete when it comes to advertising. Dig a little deeper, you'd probably be very pleasantly surprised with what they can offer.
Just because you run a webserver, you do not have to make it vulnerable to script kiddies. Its pretty easy to make it listen only to 127.0.0.1. Its even easier to block all incoming traffic (except for those that are part of an established state) at the firewall (which it sounds like you're doing). Its a lot easier to restrict access to the web server than it is to keep up with all the patches. Allowing the webserver to only recieve traffic from local (ie, trusted) addresses, such as those on your private network, is still pretty useful.
While it may not be a fact that stem cell research leads to Matrix style human farms, it is in the set of possible outcomes. That outcome is also more likely with the research than without, and in my opinion, that is a slippery slope. As I wrote it in the original post, a slippery slope is not so much a logical tool but a metaphor that explains the situation.
I'm not saying which side I'm on in this arguement. But for the sake of all the people reading this, would you please list all of the medical procedures available now that have been developed with said research. People still have the right to vote with their voice and their ballot, but as a last resort, voting with your wallet is always decisive.
It is my understanding that prejudices are an heuristic humans have developed to help them make judgements. Everyone has them, everyone is affected by them. I would even say that the minority of which you speak is non-existant. Intelligent people realize this and take steps to keep their decisions as rational and objective as possible. In other words, you might think you are better than everyone else, but you are not.
Here is one difference between sperm and eggs and stem cells. The stem cell has a complete human genome, the sperm does not, the egg does not. So it is a very difficult line to draw, where does human life begin. The fact that no one has been able to draw it conclusively is reason enough, in my opinion, to hold off on public policy decisions that rely on this line.
Not that having a zero life expectancy is especially "un-costly". As to the bum, well that's an ethical argument. Personally, I guess he'd have a much more fulfilling existence as a well-fed and kept-clean spare parts collection.
And so, the true colors come out. Doing any cross burnings tonight, brother?
Contrary to popular belief, the main arguement against stem cell research and human cloning is not a religious one but an ethical one. (There is a difference). Once you start creating humans for the sake of bettering other humans, you have made the judgement that certain humans are worth more than others. It does not matter that you never intend them to develop fully. Stem cells should be treated with the same respect as anything else human, because they could be part of a human.
Once you start developing human tissues for specific and commercial or medical use, it is only a matter of time before you jump to the logical conclusion that it would be easier to use an entire human. Maybe its a bum, maybe its an infant with a near zero chance of survival, but you are making your way down a slippery slope.
It might be beneficial to the vast majority of society, but for that minority, it is extremely costly. Here's a computer related example. You create a national ID system with a centralized database of all citizen's activity. Crime goes way down. So does privacy. So does freedom. It might look good at first, but you have to examine all the possible end scenarios, and you have to take the greatest care that the worst of those scenarios stays hypothetical.
This is generally one of the situations in which the Supreme Court will step in, that is, if two states rule differently on a federal law, it is up to no one but the Supreme Court to sort it out.
The Supreme Court only accepts a small percentage of the cases they are asked to hear, but then again generally the states follow each other's precident.
Check out http://www.3rc.org/index.html, the homepage of 3 Rivers Connect, the organization that set all this up. When you look at their board members their are a lot of upper level university players and brass. 3RC has a pretty good list of projects in progress, and they have actually gotten some things done. That gives them a bit of political clout, not just in the city (the city would let a group like this do whatever it wants). The real key is having the connections in Harrisburg, not Pittsburgh. The money is coming from the state.
In MS Money 2002, under Tools / Options, there is a checkbox in the "Display" set of options on the default options page called "Turn off sponsorship and shopping links." If you do go onto some of the MSN services, such as the home finder, you will see some ads, but if you wait 5 seconds, they go away. Checking "Turn off sponsorship and shopping links" removes all ads and special offers from the core program, as far as I can tell.
Great answer. If you want to learn something, it is necessary to either:
a) Go to a city where they have a diesel sub.
b) Read a scholarly work on history in its entirety.
My point is, watching a film like Das Boot has some redeeming value, because the film is relatively accurate in an historic sense. You may not learn as much as you would from actually going on a sub or reading World War II by John Keegan. On the other hand, it is considerably easier for a lot of people to see the movie then to go to a submarine. I would guess that 75% of the people in the US would spend more time driving to a submarine than they would actually watching Das Boot (and its a long movie).
If you want to learn, it is better to look through diverse sources. Go rent Das Boot, then walk around on a diesel sub, and then read some Keegan. You might learn the least from Das Boot, but it is a new perspective.
I can not explain why this review came when it did, and it is unfortunate that it is so late because anyone who would have seen it has probably already seen it.
I wish I had read this review about two months ago, so that I would not have rented this movie. I could make a better movie about submarines filming turds in the toilet. Really.
Keep in mind that every time the protagonists sink a ship, it "blowed up real good". So based on this movie, you would think that when a submarine or other ship dies, it goes out with a bang. But later on in the movie, the protagonists fool the destroyer that is hunting them into thinking they are dead by jettisoning the bilge and a dead body.
I saw this movie, and I have seen Das Boot, and if you are interested at all in what a u-boat was like, or if you want to see a good movie, see Das Boot. If you are a serious masochist, see U-571.
We live in a capitalist democracy. Vote with your wallet. The parent post is so on point that it is scary. There is nothing else worth saying on this issue, really. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Some people are apathetic, and say "well, hollywood movies make billions of dollars a year, what does my $7.50 matter". If everyone who shared the view that the DMCA was a front put on by evil corporations boycotted said corps, they would notice.
On top of all that, have some self respect. Are you going to pay the price of a movie ticket every time the next "blockbuster" comes out? Do you really want to pay for recycled canned music? Of course you don't. But how many people do?
Want to see a real sham: www.starwarstwo.com
You do know that they have about $40 billion in cash, they have been able to consistently earn about 10% APR on that cash. That is, their CFO invests that cash with their internal money management system. (ie, enter Microsoft Money, type IDKFA). Often, sitting on a ton of cash actually hurts a company -- by keeping it liquid they get a lower rate of return. MS has managed to get around that very well. I believe they have more cash than any other private organization, though I'm not sure.
So my point, as it ties back to your original post, is that MS has enough in that cash reserve alone to go on at 0 revenue for another five years. Think about that, if they do not make another dime, their balance won't be red for another five years. They are in a totally unique situation, in that sense. On top of that, they are a new enough company, came about at the right time, and have the right people in place that their organizational structure is top notch.
Microsoft is not as big as Walmart, GE, Exxon, IBM, and a few others. They are still pretty damn large. They aren't going away any time soon, either.
This is the post I agree with. I am slightly different:
Ride my bike to work, shower at the office. Get there at least an hour before my boss. Its also crucial to do the ride before traffic gets too heavy. I just try to brew one really good pot of coffee. I have the coffee grinder, I have the gourmet beans, etc.
Aerobic exercise is key. Relieves the nervous energy, clears the mind, and is fun.
If you go in with a bunch of preconcieved notions about what these people know and don't know about Unix, you won't reach them. The certification they are going for looks like its for developers. There are certifications for Office, and there are probably idiots in there. The people going for this certification are programmers / developers / engineers, and you should treat them with professional respect. That means not going in like a Linux Hare Krishna looking for conversions. See if they have used Unix / Linux before. See what they know how to do, etc. Show them how to use Emacs or maybe vi. Your job is to teach them as much as you can in two days about a system with a steep learning curve.
Every comment here says that you should be pushing linux, how simple it is, etc. The beauty of CLI, the elegance of | . If you want to go that route just write on the board "I am LETE I OWNZ YOU". But I think you should give these people credit. They are learning VB or C#, and most people might think that makes you a loser, but give them credit for trying and withhold your judgement.
What exactly do you have against the Ronco Grille? My parents have one, it works really well. Its the economy that drives television. Unless you can think of a better way to generate money via broadcasting, just turn off your tv. Its either that or state run stations (yeah, PBS is fine). If somebody can make a buck doing it, more power to them.
If you want to moan and groan about the state of tv news, buy a Wall Street Journal. If you expect the network news (cable or broadcast) to be some measure of journalism, then you are the retard.
Well, we are working on pulling up our collective IQ scores so we can compete with Europe on such gameshows as jeopardy. We are working on cutting out those trips to the snack machine, so we can be cheap and industrious like the Far East. As far the devoutness of the Middle East, we are planning on praying for the world's biggest oil field to be found in Iowa or Montana. Those states never pitch in on the rent or do the dishes anyway.
Maybe you did not read my post, or you don't know the facts. The reason we get foreign steel so cheap is because it is subsidized and ours isn't. Those are the facts. Go to steel.org/policy/trade/msa.asp and look at it for yourself.
Say what you will about Boeiing, but Airbus would not stand a chance if it wasn't subsidized by the EU. Same situation with steel.
Biotch.
Economics is a complicated subject. Politics is a complicated subject. The union of the two is vast enough that slashdot alone could not contain an answer to your question.
And yet I answer.
Basically, the US Government does not directly subsidize the US steel industry. That is illegal in the US. In Europe and Japan, the government subsidizes industries that compete with the US. For example, Japanese steel is so subsidized by the Japanese government that the US can buy it for less than it costs to produce. Same thing with Airbus. They are essentially being sold at a loss to the US. The goal is not to kiss up to the US, but to drive the US industries out of business (US industries can't compete on the prices because they are not subsidized by the government). The long term goal of the subsidies by European governments and Japan is to gain a monopoly and then raise prices. Economically, the only thing the US can do is raise tariffs to protect its industry or subsidize the industry itself. The subsidies are a lot harder to get through than tariffs.
then cut the phone company out of the loop as much as possible. Granted, its still their copper, but there is no way around that until its their fiber, or however it turns out.
My point is this: The phone company is pretty good at phones, not so good at being an ISP. I am in a Mid-Atlantic city, and there are a few choices for DSL. Basically, figure out who the trunc provider is for the ISPs, shop around. If you need business class DSL, do not try to limp by on residential. If you go to the right ISP, you might be able to negotiate your own terms of service.
You won't negotiate with the phone company, it really does not make sense for either party involved. Find yourself an ISP that offers SDSL for residential. Ask them for references to current customers. Check up on things. If its worth it to you, upgrade to business class. Its going to be more expensive per bandwidth, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.
There are a lot of ISP's that can't afford James Earl Jones advertisements, can't afford to spam you with free cd's. There are a lot of them that consist of one or two people. If that one person is good, you're set. So do your homework, shop around, and leave phone service to the phone company.
That is, allowing the media to be heard in court is asking for trouble. That is not their realm. IMHO, courts are a formal setting, and it is important that any biases that enter the court be identified. Plaintiffs and defendents can sort each other out. Who sorts out and identifies all the biases the media have? They want news to report on, and this gives them to much influence to create news where there needn't be any more.
Well, my bad. I think they might be even still might be heard.
Now this is kind of scary, as the media have the media's best interest, not society's or either of the party's involved. Oh wait, one of the plaintiff's is AOL Time Warner?
I do not like to be the one with the extreme Orwellian predictions, but allowing the media to be heard is just asking for trouble. Imagine a case involving a popular figure... "And now the court will hear from the National Enquirer."