Ahhh, spoken like somebody who truly doesn't know what they're talking about.
First of all, Bell owns pretty much all the lines, the "last mile" required for any ADSL connection. That leaves pretty much Roger's as their only major competition, as they are a cable-internet provider (they are not a consumer).
There are many other ISP's that offer ADSL services, but they all use Bell lines, and the big issue currently is that Bell is throttling the traffic of their customers. Many of these companies, such as my own provider - Teksavvy - offer reasonable and good service, and have been quite vocal about how Bell is interfering with their services.
So really, the only choice other than Bell is... well.. Rogers. Unfortunately Roger's has a lack of affordable premium options (static IP's, etc), also throttles, port-blocks, and is in general known for service no better than Bell.
That means that:
viable options for the average consumer = 0
The saddest part is that Bell is still getting a cut from all the companies that are leasing lines to provide ADSL service, while doing almost nothing themselves. I would know, because as I've mentioned before, I'm on an ADSL connection that is craptastically slow due to the fact that Bell has overextended the connection to their CO, rather than adding a local repeater/node.
The only other option I could think of would be the local hydro company's (in Toronto at least) wireless offerings, but unfortunately those only work in certain areas, and mine isn't one of them (I've heard that the service is fairly decent though).
The sad thing about these situations is also thus. If your choice to flee is unavailable, and the only other is to confront your invader (likely leading to physical confrontation), you are actually more likely to get through court proceedings if he/she is dead.
There are enough cases where an invader has broken into a home, and threatened the occupants, but been beaten off, only to threaten them again through the courts. Dead invaders, on the other hand, do not have such an options, and in most cases the justice system does have better things to do than make a case for a dead criminal (unless he/she was obviously killed while not a threat, e.g. shot in the back while on the ground, etc).
Now granted, adding certain features definitely does put a bit of drag on your CPU, but one of the great things about 'nix is that most of such things are *optional*. That being said, by not using things I don't need, Linux has - even on much of my older/slower hardware - become faster over time, from the Desktop right down to the kernel level. That's not to say that I'm sacrificing a lot of functionality either... the GUI itself has definitely getting more featureful and advanced over time.
The re-release of XP is a sign that Linux really is starting to move in on MS's turf, and that it's becoming a real worry to MS in terms of becoming a viable alternative to regular users. I ran into a guy with an Eee in the subway just awhile ago. He's wasn't a coder. He wasn't a hacker. He was just a regular guy who wanted a cheap but useful laptop that he could surf the net and do regular day-to-day stuff on. Now that is what's going to scare Microsoft.
Ultimately, this move also says a lot about Microsoft. Massive consumer requests for the continuance of XP... sorry, none for you. Massive corporate requests for the continuance of XP... sorry, none for you. Hefty vendor requests for the continuance of XP... sorry, none for you.
Oh, wait a moment, a competing product is increasing in popularity... here's a continuance of the XP licensing and support for that!
After all the time stating that they not only wouldn't, but "couldn't" support XP much longer, I wonder if how much this will do to hinder rather than help MS in their PR-mobile, as well as to possibly bring about some accountability for all the bullshit they've been spewing.
Besides, I'd expect that machines such as Eee would perform much better using Linux over windows, because of the adjustable/customizable/scalable nature of 'nix.
I'd have to agree that it's a fairly thin correlation to draw. Mind you, if I were going to blow something up, I suppose I'd want somebody with an engineering background in demolitions as opposed to an art major.
The question is where you'd fine such an engineer. Unless he/she is already a bit of a nutjob, an engineering background should come with decent employment options and intelligence that would somewhat contrast with the somewhat brainwashed or easily overwhelmed variety of terrorist-recruit that tends to be more readily available.
Recruiting engineers to be terrorists, likely not. Training terrorists to be engineers would be more likely.
Chances are the IRS might very well be happy with that. Unless, of course, they investigated to see if you were making more income than just the undisclosed amount.
While the vast majority of HP printers I've used have worked on 'nix, many of the more recent ones (USB printers in particular) have been a huge pain-in-the-ass to get working, requiring that firmware be sent to the printer on bootup/connection, etc.
HP's linux support isn't really all that good. Most of what I've seen has been developed by third-parties.
I haven't really been in the 3d-graphics-API scene for awhile, so I'm wondering what's available for OpenGL raytracing. There are a bunch of plugins etc for 3d-rendering that I remember, such as POVRay, etc, but how about realtime?
Anyone know if there's anything available/in-the-works?
I think that XVID requires a bit more CPU-power to compress/decompress though. Depending on if they could update the firmware of existing decoders, that might mean rolling out new boxes to subscribers, or upgrading the broadcast hardware.
Yeah, but even if they stop throttling, it doesn't change the fact that Bell's "last kilometer" of infrastructure is sometimes more like the "last 6-7 kilometers" (hey, it's a Canadian article, what's with this "mile" stuff).
At that distance, there's a pretty heft attenuation of the DSL signal. Bell feels no obligation to fix or upgrade this, so customers who are subscribing to a 5000/1000 down/up package actually end up with less than half that.
The throttling issue is just one of many related to the leasing of Bell lines, as the actual quality of said lines sucks in many instances, Bell doesn't care (even with their own customers, let alone others), and there aren't really other local alternatives (cable=Rogers, which is worse).
Actually, one thing I remember about ME in comparison to Vista, is that it didn't last all that long (even MS dropped it somewhat like a hot rock), and that the previous options (win98) were still supported, followed not too long after by a somewhat worthy successor (win2k and, eventually, winXP). I know only a few people who had machines come with ME, and when those machines screwed up, 98 still worked.
Vista is different, as there is a lack of choice in the MS realm. If you want to run software that runs on a Microsoft OS, you need to keep your old PC up and going for as long as possible, or switch to Vista. With the limited exception of some business-class machines, a lot of newer machines simply *do not* work properly in XP: There are no drivers, or limited functionality (no cardreader drivers, media buttons don't work), or many other hurdles to using the legacy OS. People are forced to try Vista, and because of that many have the choice of either "love it or hate is." As it is, with a mediocre reception in the business arena, and a less-than-warm reception in the home arena, this has turned a lot of people off the MS brand, moreso than previous issues.
Do they though? That was my point. If China comes out looking bad because of all the other issues that are brought to light during the olympics (as well as issues created by hosting them, such as displaced citizens), who is going to be showering them with "honor and prestige?"
Not so sure about that. I just moved out of BC, Canada recently, but the way things were going the outpouring of $$$ was wayyy beyond budget, and the incoming was going to have a hard time catching up. Similarly, Greece suffered greatly under the cost of hosting the olympics.
May some are going to make money from it: travel agencies, advertisers, etc, but I think the profit is relegated to a limited number of pockets, and I'm not so sure that the gov't pockets (aka the taxpayers) will be one of them, except for those that are going to benefit from a few "greased palms"
What I wonder, is what China (in particular, the Chinese gov't) gains from hosting the Olympics. It costs money. It's hard on the citizens. It pisses off the citizens, and casts the government in a bad light. All the things they're doing to their citizens in preparation are not in a spotlight for the rest of the world, which also casts the government in a bad light.
So my question is, other than saying "we hosted the olympics in 2009", what benefit is it to them to do so? I'd think that they'd get more respect for having the games hosting in another country, and then having a winning Olympic team.
How about if you were told you could hotlink the image, and thus did. Later, the site posts up a notice somewhere saying it is no longer allowed, but as you haven't visited their main page you weren't aware of the policy change.
More like what may be happening here to a bunch of those who use this RBL, I know that I had to check my mail config after seeing the/. story to make sure I wasn't one of them...
A "pirated" disc can sell usually between $1.99-$5, and you can get those in shiny stamped (not burned on some computer's CD-R drive) varieties. That's final point-of-sale, and still making a profit.
Surely the record companies can do better than that.
I live in Canada, and we have a loser-pays system. I recently moved into a house where there were lots of "hidden" issues, that - unfortunately - went beyond your standard home pre-inspection. Among them, a dryer which had a loose vent (and was venting superheated air into a nice pile of dry lint) - that you couldn't see without rearranging half the laundry room, a range-hood that had the exit-vent sealed up, and a fuse-box in which hidden under 4 of 6 fuses were nicely scorched pennies. An inspector will go over obvious things, but he generally won't pull fuses or otherwise rearrange major appliances as it can seriously disrupt the home for the current occupants.
I'm not so much pissed about the cost of repairs as the potential that these had for *killing* me, especially the fuse issue (in having the power turned off and pulling the pennies, several fuses were badly scorched on the inside, the pennies themselves had some nasty and deep burn-marked, and the fuse-box itself wasn't in great shape. It's a condo, so it doesn't even cost to have the box replaced, it's done by the condo corp so this is just pure cheapness/laziness.
I know that I can put at least one of these things against the former owner, as the nice thing about pennies is that they have dates on them (so a 2007 penny couldn't have been used in a fuse-box prior to 2007)... but what exact charges I want, or how much it costs to stick them I don't know. This is not to mention the initial legal fees that I would be burdened with in addition to the repairs I'm currently doing... and the somewhat frightening possibility that Mr do-it-yourself handyman may have other potentially deadly surprises hidden somewhere. With all this, there's still a possibility I could lose (homes are pretty much "buyer-beware" but I'm looking at something more like "negligence" or "endangerment" charges. I'd also like to make sure that Mr. Handyman doesn't kill his wife and two children in the new house by attempting more half-ass patchwork. The potential that bringing up a lawsuit would have me have to pay both my own and the defendant's legal bills is pretty frightening though... and one I'm very jittery about chancing.
I'm a Teksavvy customer, and my biggest frustration thus far has nothing to do with their company at all, but rather that any ADSL provider in the area (North York/Toronto, Ontario) needs to use Bell's lines. This means that Bell gets to tack on an extra charge to my bill, but there doesn't seem to be any requirement from them to provide a decent level of service.
In my case, after the initial (dry-loop) connection is made, *I* have to pay for any future Bell calls. Further to that, I have a straight run to my Bell CO, but apparently that run is quite a bit longer than is feasible for high-speed DSL. The end result is that my 5000k-down/800k-up plan actually comes out at 1500k-down/512k-up. Bell won't fix it, Teksavvy can't do anything with the Bell lines, and the customers get screwed because Bell's still making plenty of money off the reseller without needing to upgrade their infrastructure.
The thing that sucks about competition is the "exclusive titles." Maybe you like a bunch of games on the 360, but one of your favorite series/titles is a PS3 exclusive. Despite the fact that you've got a current-generation fancy console, you're not able to play all the current-gen titles due to vendor exclusivity. I'd bet this applies to many fans of, for example, the Final Fantasy series, of which the next title is supposed to be PS3-exclusive.
Isn't the XBox based somewhat on DirectX? According to the wikipedia article, Direct3d is used both in the Xbox and the 360? That being said, the implied bias of a DirectX programmer towards the PC is not so strong.
Chernobyl was not designed to disperse hazardous material, but chances are that it was a lot bigger and had a lot more radioactive material than somebody might be able to fit into a suitcase or possibly even a car. To compete on scale, I'd imagine that terrorists wouldn't only need a "dirty" bomb, they'd need a rather large one (and possibly very obvious, moreso than the levels of radiation coming from a cat or cancer patient).
Slashdot Mirror
Ahhh, spoken like somebody who truly doesn't know what they're talking about.
First of all, Bell owns pretty much all the lines, the "last mile" required for any ADSL connection. That leaves pretty much Roger's as their only major competition, as they are a cable-internet provider (they are not a consumer).
There are many other ISP's that offer ADSL services, but they all use Bell lines, and the big issue currently is that Bell is throttling the traffic of their customers. Many of these companies, such as my own provider - Teksavvy - offer reasonable and good service, and have been quite vocal about how Bell is interfering with their services.
So really, the only choice other than Bell is... well.. Rogers. Unfortunately Roger's has a lack of affordable premium options (static IP's, etc), also throttles, port-blocks, and is in general known for service no better than Bell.
That means that:
viable options for the average consumer = 0
The saddest part is that Bell is still getting a cut from all the companies that are leasing lines to provide ADSL service, while doing almost nothing themselves. I would know, because as I've mentioned before, I'm on an ADSL connection that is craptastically slow due to the fact that Bell has overextended the connection to their CO, rather than adding a local repeater/node.
The only other option I could think of would be the local hydro company's (in Toronto at least) wireless offerings, but unfortunately those only work in certain areas, and mine isn't one of them (I've heard that the service is fairly decent though).
The sad thing about these situations is also thus. If your choice to flee is unavailable, and the only other is to confront your invader (likely leading to physical confrontation), you are actually more likely to get through court proceedings if he/she is dead.
There are enough cases where an invader has broken into a home, and threatened the occupants, but been beaten off, only to threaten them again through the courts. Dead invaders, on the other hand, do not have such an options, and in most cases the justice system does have better things to do than make a case for a dead criminal (unless he/she was obviously killed while not a threat, e.g. shot in the back while on the ground, etc).
Now granted, adding certain features definitely does put a bit of drag on your CPU, but one of the great things about 'nix is that most of such things are *optional*. That being said, by not using things I don't need, Linux has - even on much of my older/slower hardware - become faster over time, from the Desktop right down to the kernel level. That's not to say that I'm sacrificing a lot of functionality either... the GUI itself has definitely getting more featureful and advanced over time.
The re-release of XP is a sign that Linux really is starting to move in on MS's turf, and that it's becoming a real worry to MS in terms of becoming a viable alternative to regular users. I ran into a guy with an Eee in the subway just awhile ago. He's wasn't a coder. He wasn't a hacker. He was just a regular guy who wanted a cheap but useful laptop that he could surf the net and do regular day-to-day stuff on. Now that is what's going to scare Microsoft.
Ultimately, this move also says a lot about Microsoft. Massive consumer requests for the continuance of XP... sorry, none for you. Massive corporate requests for the continuance of XP... sorry, none for you. Hefty vendor requests for the continuance of XP... sorry, none for you.
Oh, wait a moment, a competing product is increasing in popularity... here's a continuance of the XP licensing and support for that!
After all the time stating that they not only wouldn't, but "couldn't" support XP much longer, I wonder if how much this will do to hinder rather than help MS in their PR-mobile, as well as to possibly bring about some accountability for all the bullshit they've been spewing.
Besides, I'd expect that machines such as Eee would perform much better using Linux over windows, because of the adjustable/customizable/scalable nature of 'nix.
I'd have to agree that it's a fairly thin correlation to draw. Mind you, if I were going to blow something up, I suppose I'd want somebody with an engineering background in demolitions as opposed to an art major.
The question is where you'd fine such an engineer. Unless he/she is already a bit of a nutjob, an engineering background should come with decent employment options and intelligence that would somewhat contrast with the somewhat brainwashed or easily overwhelmed variety of terrorist-recruit that tends to be more readily available.
Recruiting engineers to be terrorists, likely not. Training terrorists to be engineers would be more likely.
$100,000 Other Income: Undisclosed source
Chances are the IRS might very well be happy with that. Unless, of course, they investigated to see if you were making more income than just the undisclosed amount.
While the vast majority of HP printers I've used have worked on 'nix, many of the more recent ones (USB printers in particular) have been a huge pain-in-the-ass to get working, requiring that firmware be sent to the printer on bootup/connection, etc.
HP's linux support isn't really all that good. Most of what I've seen has been developed by third-parties.
Ha, that joke wouldn't work on me. All the editors were already on my foes list.
Oh... wait.
I haven't really been in the 3d-graphics-API scene for awhile, so I'm wondering what's available for OpenGL raytracing. There are a bunch of plugins etc for 3d-rendering that I remember, such as POVRay, etc, but how about realtime?
Anyone know if there's anything available/in-the-works?
I think that XVID requires a bit more CPU-power to compress/decompress though. Depending on if they could update the firmware of existing decoders, that might mean rolling out new boxes to subscribers, or upgrading the broadcast hardware.
Yeah, but even if they stop throttling, it doesn't change the fact that Bell's "last kilometer" of infrastructure is sometimes more like the "last 6-7 kilometers" (hey, it's a Canadian article, what's with this "mile" stuff).
At that distance, there's a pretty heft attenuation of the DSL signal. Bell feels no obligation to fix or upgrade this, so customers who are subscribing to a 5000/1000 down/up package actually end up with less than half that.
The throttling issue is just one of many related to the leasing of Bell lines, as the actual quality of said lines sucks in many instances, Bell doesn't care (even with their own customers, let alone others), and there aren't really other local alternatives (cable=Rogers, which is worse).
Actually, one thing I remember about ME in comparison to Vista, is that it didn't last all that long (even MS dropped it somewhat like a hot rock), and that the previous options (win98) were still supported, followed not too long after by a somewhat worthy successor (win2k and, eventually, winXP). I know only a few people who had machines come with ME, and when those machines screwed up, 98 still worked.
Vista is different, as there is a lack of choice in the MS realm. If you want to run software that runs on a Microsoft OS, you need to keep your old PC up and going for as long as possible, or switch to Vista. With the limited exception of some business-class machines, a lot of newer machines simply *do not* work properly in XP: There are no drivers, or limited functionality (no cardreader drivers, media buttons don't work), or many other hurdles to using the legacy OS. People are forced to try Vista, and because of that many have the choice of either "love it or hate is." As it is, with a mediocre reception in the business arena, and a less-than-warm reception in the home arena, this has turned a lot of people off the MS brand, moreso than previous issues.
Do they though? That was my point. If China comes out looking bad because of all the other issues that are brought to light during the olympics (as well as issues created by hosting them, such as displaced citizens), who is going to be showering them with "honor and prestige?"
Not so sure about that. I just moved out of BC, Canada recently, but the way things were going the outpouring of $$$ was wayyy beyond budget, and the incoming was going to have a hard time catching up. Similarly, Greece suffered greatly under the cost of hosting the olympics.
May some are going to make money from it: travel agencies, advertisers, etc, but I think the profit is relegated to a limited number of pockets, and I'm not so sure that the gov't pockets (aka the taxpayers) will be one of them, except for those that are going to benefit from a few "greased palms"
What I wonder, is what China (in particular, the Chinese gov't) gains from hosting the Olympics. It costs money. It's hard on the citizens. It pisses off the citizens, and casts the government in a bad light. All the things they're doing to their citizens in preparation are not in a spotlight for the rest of the world, which also casts the government in a bad light.
So my question is, other than saying "we hosted the olympics in 2009", what benefit is it to them to do so? I'd think that they'd get more respect for having the games hosting in another country, and then having a winning Olympic team.
How about if you were told you could hotlink the image, and thus did. Later, the site posts up a notice somewhere saying it is no longer allowed, but as you haven't visited their main page you weren't aware of the policy change.
/. story to make sure I wasn't one of them...
More like what may be happening here to a bunch of those who use this RBL, I know that I had to check my mail config after seeing the
I've always thought of it this way:
A "pirated" disc can sell usually between $1.99-$5, and you can get those in shiny stamped (not burned on some computer's CD-R drive) varieties. That's final point-of-sale, and still making a profit.
Surely the record companies can do better than that.
I live in Canada, and we have a loser-pays system. I recently moved into a house where there were lots of "hidden" issues, that - unfortunately - went beyond your standard home pre-inspection. Among them, a dryer which had a loose vent (and was venting superheated air into a nice pile of dry lint) - that you couldn't see without rearranging half the laundry room, a range-hood that had the exit-vent sealed up, and a fuse-box in which hidden under 4 of 6 fuses were nicely scorched pennies. An inspector will go over obvious things, but he generally won't pull fuses or otherwise rearrange major appliances as it can seriously disrupt the home for the current occupants.
I'm not so much pissed about the cost of repairs as the potential that these had for *killing* me, especially the fuse issue (in having the power turned off and pulling the pennies, several fuses were badly scorched on the inside, the pennies themselves had some nasty and deep burn-marked, and the fuse-box itself wasn't in great shape. It's a condo, so it doesn't even cost to have the box replaced, it's done by the condo corp so this is just pure cheapness/laziness.
I know that I can put at least one of these things against the former owner, as the nice thing about pennies is that they have dates on them (so a 2007 penny couldn't have been used in a fuse-box prior to 2007)... but what exact charges I want, or how much it costs to stick them I don't know. This is not to mention the initial legal fees that I would be burdened with in addition to the repairs I'm currently doing... and the somewhat frightening possibility that Mr do-it-yourself handyman may have other potentially deadly surprises hidden somewhere. With all this, there's still a possibility I could lose (homes are pretty much "buyer-beware" but I'm looking at something more like "negligence" or "endangerment" charges. I'd also like to make sure that Mr. Handyman doesn't kill his wife and two children in the new house by attempting more half-ass patchwork. The potential that bringing up a lawsuit would have me have to pay both my own and the defendant's legal bills is pretty frightening though... and one I'm very jittery about chancing.
I'm a Teksavvy customer, and my biggest frustration thus far has nothing to do with their company at all, but rather that any ADSL provider in the area (North York/Toronto, Ontario) needs to use Bell's lines. This means that Bell gets to tack on an extra charge to my bill, but there doesn't seem to be any requirement from them to provide a decent level of service.
In my case, after the initial (dry-loop) connection is made, *I* have to pay for any future Bell calls. Further to that, I have a straight run to my Bell CO, but apparently that run is quite a bit longer than is feasible for high-speed DSL. The end result is that my 5000k-down/800k-up plan actually comes out at 1500k-down/512k-up. Bell won't fix it, Teksavvy can't do anything with the Bell lines, and the customers get screwed because Bell's still making plenty of money off the reseller without needing to upgrade their infrastructure.
The thing that sucks about competition is the "exclusive titles." Maybe you like a bunch of games on the 360, but one of your favorite series/titles is a PS3 exclusive. Despite the fact that you've got a current-generation fancy console, you're not able to play all the current-gen titles due to vendor exclusivity. I'd bet this applies to many fans of, for example, the Final Fantasy series, of which the next title is supposed to be PS3-exclusive.
Isn't the XBox based somewhat on DirectX? According to the wikipedia article, Direct3d is used both in the Xbox and the 360? That being said, the implied bias of a DirectX programmer towards the PC is not so strong.
Chernobyl was not designed to disperse hazardous material, but chances are that it was a lot bigger and had a lot more radioactive material than somebody might be able to fit into a suitcase or possibly even a car. To compete on scale, I'd imagine that terrorists wouldn't only need a "dirty" bomb, they'd need a rather large one (and possibly very obvious, moreso than the levels of radiation coming from a cat or cancer patient).
Most likely answer: somebody with money paid for it to be so.
Now everyone else will end up paying for it...
Thinking about it the hookers credibility is probably a lot better then the ones of those voting machine vendors.
:-)
Yes, because whether she does the job right or not, either way you got screwed
Any links on the random drive data thing. Sounds dirty, and might be a good point for seeing MS lose a case like this.