I had a wide variety of problems which included one side of the conversation (depending on was the caller and the callee) just going null. It would sometimes just drop the call altogether. Support 100% of the time wanted to blame my ISP (comcast cable) but I never had any problems with anything else working on my cable, even voice chat like Ventrilio. Ah well, like you said. Glad to hear it works good for you though.
Its no suprise it was pretty bad, they are pretty bad. I had them for a little while (was unsatisfied with AT&Ts VOIP offering after a year so tried Vonage). Was with them less than a month and the service and support was so bad I had to cancel, it was basically unusable and the support was WORSE than the service:). Switched to Comcast VOIP and haven't had a single problem in 2 months, its as good as a land line (at least). Basically, I would say Vonage was the worst mistake I have made in a long time, except the fact that they did give me a full refund (cancel in under 30 days), so have to give them props for that at least.
"No, it isn't too late, because no, I am not a part of it. "
Unless you're someone who isn't affected by American politics, yes, you are.
It seems we have very different definitions for "being a part of it". It appears your definition includes the victims as well as the players. I only include the players. Thus, our disagreement.
I recognize your righteous indication. But, I disagree with your point. No, it isn't too late, because no, I am not a part of it. You say I should oppose their election, but you see, I am not a big fan of wasting my time. I could vote independant, but... well, reference my post to a sibling of yours regarding Lake Michigan. You are welcome to fight the good fight if you are inclined to do so (assuming you aren't a tried and true party member:). Fighting a hopeless battle with only my ideals to keep me company in my foxhole isn't my cup of tea. Since there is quite literally nothing I can do, why bother? You think they care whether I vote indie or dont vote at all? In fact, I feel I AM doing my part by not voting. They like to moan about low voter turnout these days. Hey, you know what? Give us something worth voting for and not the same old sack of trash and we just might make it to the polls.
I understand your point, but it is just like trying to empty lake Michigan with a teaspoon. If enough people get out their teaspoons it could be done, but no way in hell are you going to get enough people to waste their time to make progress.
Uh that was supposed to be "Frankly" not "Franklin". Thats what I get for rubbing one off in the heat of the moment. It started out as a quick comment and quickly turned into a mini-rant.
Yeah, so what? Looks like the vast majority of the people is either in favour or doesn't give a damn. Tough luck, you'll have to get used to your "worst-case scenarios". There's nothing you can do about it.
Well, I wouldn't use that as evidence that it is right or acceptable. Franklin, the vast majority of people are dumbasses. Sheep that will believe anything if it is fed to them enough. Not that I particularly disagree with your last statement, the days of actually being able to do something about it are long gone and probably never to return. A two party system, especially a pair as corrupt as the pair we have here in the U.S. makes for little or no choice. I vote the latter.
Speaking of voting, I don't do it. You may or may not believe the shit I get over that, I even discarded a bunch of so called friends back in 2000 during the Bush vs Gore race. They got absolutely fried at me saying that it was my DUTY to vote. My duty? I thought it was my RIGHT, to exercise, or not, as I see fit. Given this system, I frankly couldn't give two shits which of the politicians that are running wins, they are all the same. A good point here, reversed wholesale by a mess of bad ones there. The result is an utter mess that I, personally, will have no part in. You show me an honest politician, and I will show you an actor that will NEVER get close to the race for president in these here United States.
That said, I still love my country and as corrupt and nasty as the politics is, there is no other country I would rather live in. Although, this mess with Bush really puts a strain on our marriage, but I still love the old gal.
Well, I don't know your parents, but it isn't a good idea to mistake ignorance for stupidity. People use this argument a lot when talking about the malware issue. It isn't that everyone is stupid (granted, a very large section of them are) it is that most of them just don't know any better. The fact that MOST, and by most I mean the VAST majority of home users, are not computer geeks and they don't want to be computer geeks. Most of them probably lack the time to learn enough to be considered a computer geek if they wanted to, with the general business of life and career. So, since these people will be using PCs, and most of them will have Windows, a certain amount of responsibility falls on Microsoft to make their OS secure enough by default to be somewhat resistant to malware. Then it is up to the user to understand that they need good and updates protection on their box.
All this to say, it is possible your parents aren't stupid, just that they don't want to be computer geeks.
In all that, the only thing that stood out was the fact that you really and truely did use the terms "give me the same feeling of control" and Mac OS in the same sentence. How odd.
But there is an important point you are either ignoring or missing. The "American Consumer" will have NO choice in the matter. The "Free Market" will have no affect on this. The reason is, for most people, there is no real choice. Its either broadband or dialup, not a variety of broadband options. Even for those with choice, its usually only 2 options, maybe 3 for very lucky folks. I guarantee you, if this thing goes through they will ALL do it. They ALL want to do it, and are salivating at the thought. It will not, I repeat NOT, affect the price of internet for the consumer. They want to do this because they want to make more money, not shift the source of income. There is nothing good in this plan for the consumer what-so-ever. I am not normally a proponent of goverment nosing into market affairs, but sometimes it is a necessary evil. Sometimes they are the only one that can do something that will benefit the consumer. Those times when there is no choice to allow the market to shake it out by itself. This is one of those times.
They want to monetize EVERYTHING that has to do with music. Before long, they will write laws that require us to have implants that charge us every time we even THINK of a song. What, you mean you didn't know that the corporations write the laws in this country now?
Well, no, you THINK genetic engineering will be the end of things. I, however, have the opposite view. The technology is in it's infancy right now, but I feel that it will be the future. I believe the next step in human evolution is technology, and our ability to use it to effect change upon ourselves. But, I could be wrong. It could be the end of the world. Only time will tell.
Hope you have a little money, that way when you actually slap someone in the head for talking on their cell phone, they can sue your ridiculous ass and take it.
Not sure about him, but I still think the iPod is lame. Granted, the major reason is it is so trendy, but nevermind. Of course having to use itunes to deal with it is big reason #2. I recently (I guess a couple of months ago now)bought a Creative Zen Vision:M instead, and have never looked back. Love my Zen.
Don't take what I said to mean I like war, I dont. I like competition. I am in love with it. We, as a species will progress towards a point where one of 3 things will happen. We will destroy ourselves, we will lose our competitive nature, or we will learn how to use our competitive nature in a constructive rather than destructive manner. The first and second scenarios are both equally horrible in my mind, they both spell our destruction. The last one, in my opinion of course, will be our success.
Keep in mind, I am not some kind of social scientist or anything. I am just an ignorant American. High school dropout, GED, no college degree. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt, because, I r dum.
Because, much like pure socialism, pure democracy can NOT work. And here is why: Anything that involves people becomes corrupted. I say this not so much as a bad thing as reality. Frankly, I am glad we are the way we are. If not for all the wars and such in the past, we would not be able to appreciate the level of civilization we have today, in fact I highly doubt we would be anywhere near as technologically advanced. Really, think about it. Nothing drives pure research like competition. NOTHING. War is basically just our competitive nature expressed at a very high, nationalistic, level.
This is why communism doesn't work. If you are going to try to debate that point, don't. Just walk away. Lack of competition equals stagnation. Here comes a shocking theory. Could we, as a species, survive without war? Would we stagnate and just waste away? I don't necessarilly believe this, but I also am not going to discount it off hand.
I know I will be flamed for this, but i'm ok with that. I find it helpful for folks with poor spelling and grammar to be very, very brief in what they write. It doesn't take long for my focus to stray from the content of your writing to a game of "hunt the next error". Especially when you make the same gross misspelling twice in a row, thereby making it all the more obvious.
Here's a friendly little piece of advice, you can take it or leave it, my feelings really wont be hurt. There are a lot of free spell checkers out there. For instance: http://www.iespell.com/. If you want people to read your posts, it really isn't hard to learn a few basic grammatical rules and put a decent spell checker to work. If you don't care, please pretend this response never happened.
You know, your post was good until you ruined it at the end. I have always wondered, but never bothered to ask until now (irritation level reached its limit?)... What the HELL is the obsession with "first post"? Does it make your dick grow longer if you get it or something? A real, tangible benefit?
You know, there is actually a small part of me that hopes this retarded shit gets legislated into all televisions. I watch way too much of this stuff anyway, and that would absolutely end my television watching. There are a lot of things I could be doing with my time.
Whoa, I can't believe you had the nerve to say that stuff. Didn't you know its currently the height of fashion to hate the USA? Guaranteed to get you modded down.
While I don't necessarily agree with the original poster's numbers (even verification can be troublesome, since the amount of arable land needed for every person is a an average and an assumption) I do agree with the result. People are insane with the number of anklebiters they are producing. Back in the day, you needed a huge family to run that farm you needed to feed yourselves. These days, all you are doing with 8 kids is putting a burden on the tax payers that don't have kids or only have 1 or 2. Enough is enough people, you dont NEED 8 kids!
As for liberties and freedoms, ever heard of the bad apple saying? Well, my cousin is a prime example. She can't work (as in has too many kids and daycare would cost more than she is capable of earning) and her boyfriend (I.E. father of the horde) is a shmuck who has the earning potential of a hampster. They just produced their 5th tax black hole. There is NO way in hell they can afford 2 of them, much less the others. So, because their feedoms and liberties are in jeapardy, and we certainly aren't going to let the KIDS starve (it isn't their fault their parents are absolute morons, is it?) we are going to go on and let them reproduce like some rabbits on viagra. What choice do we have? Let them starve or forced sterilization? Neither option is viable, so we just let them go like energizer bunnies. See Spot copulate, copulate Spot, copulate!
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Certainly not me :/
I had a wide variety of problems which included one side of the conversation (depending on was the caller and the callee) just going null. It would sometimes just drop the call altogether. Support 100% of the time wanted to blame my ISP (comcast cable) but I never had any problems with anything else working on my cable, even voice chat like Ventrilio. Ah well, like you said. Glad to hear it works good for you though.
Its no suprise it was pretty bad, they are pretty bad. I had them for a little while (was unsatisfied with AT&Ts VOIP offering after a year so tried Vonage). Was with them less than a month and the service and support was so bad I had to cancel, it was basically unusable and the support was WORSE than the service :). Switched to Comcast VOIP and haven't had a single problem in 2 months, its as good as a land line (at least). Basically, I would say Vonage was the worst mistake I have made in a long time, except the fact that they did give me a full refund (cancel in under 30 days), so have to give them props for that at least.
Yea. Thats right, I have two jobs but I am too lazy to take an hour or so to go vote on election day. Do you realize how ridiculous you sound?
It seems we have very different definitions for "being a part of it". It appears your definition includes the victims as well as the players. I only include the players. Thus, our disagreement.
Don't mistake my disgust with the game for not understanding the rules.
I recognize your righteous indication. But, I disagree with your point. No, it isn't too late, because no, I am not a part of it. You say I should oppose their election, but you see, I am not a big fan of wasting my time. I could vote independant, but... well, reference my post to a sibling of yours regarding Lake Michigan. You are welcome to fight the good fight if you are inclined to do so (assuming you aren't a tried and true party member :). Fighting a hopeless battle with only my ideals to keep me company in my foxhole isn't my cup of tea. Since there is quite literally nothing I can do, why bother? You think they care whether I vote indie or dont vote at all? In fact, I feel I AM doing my part by not voting. They like to moan about low voter turnout these days. Hey, you know what? Give us something worth voting for and not the same old sack of trash and we just might make it to the polls.
I understand your point, but it is just like trying to empty lake Michigan with a teaspoon. If enough people get out their teaspoons it could be done, but no way in hell are you going to get enough people to waste their time to make progress.
Uh that was supposed to be "Frankly" not "Franklin". Thats what I get for rubbing one off in the heat of the moment. It started out as a quick comment and quickly turned into a mini-rant.
Well, I wouldn't use that as evidence that it is right or acceptable. Franklin, the vast majority of people are dumbasses. Sheep that will believe anything if it is fed to them enough. Not that I particularly disagree with your last statement, the days of actually being able to do something about it are long gone and probably never to return. A two party system, especially a pair as corrupt as the pair we have here in the U.S. makes for little or no choice. I vote the latter.
Speaking of voting, I don't do it. You may or may not believe the shit I get over that, I even discarded a bunch of so called friends back in 2000 during the Bush vs Gore race. They got absolutely fried at me saying that it was my DUTY to vote. My duty? I thought it was my RIGHT, to exercise, or not, as I see fit. Given this system, I frankly couldn't give two shits which of the politicians that are running wins, they are all the same. A good point here, reversed wholesale by a mess of bad ones there. The result is an utter mess that I, personally, will have no part in. You show me an honest politician, and I will show you an actor that will NEVER get close to the race for president in these here United States.
That said, I still love my country and as corrupt and nasty as the politics is, there is no other country I would rather live in. Although, this mess with Bush really puts a strain on our marriage, but I still love the old gal.
Well, I don't know your parents, but it isn't a good idea to mistake ignorance for stupidity. People use this argument a lot when talking about the malware issue. It isn't that everyone is stupid (granted, a very large section of them are) it is that most of them just don't know any better. The fact that MOST, and by most I mean the VAST majority of home users, are not computer geeks and they don't want to be computer geeks. Most of them probably lack the time to learn enough to be considered a computer geek if they wanted to, with the general business of life and career. So, since these people will be using PCs, and most of them will have Windows, a certain amount of responsibility falls on Microsoft to make their OS secure enough by default to be somewhat resistant to malware. Then it is up to the user to understand that they need good and updates protection on their box.
All this to say, it is possible your parents aren't stupid, just that they don't want to be computer geeks.
In all that, the only thing that stood out was the fact that you really and truely did use the terms "give me the same feeling of control" and Mac OS in the same sentence. How odd.
But there is an important point you are either ignoring or missing. The "American Consumer" will have NO choice in the matter. The "Free Market" will have no affect on this. The reason is, for most people, there is no real choice. Its either broadband or dialup, not a variety of broadband options. Even for those with choice, its usually only 2 options, maybe 3 for very lucky folks. I guarantee you, if this thing goes through they will ALL do it. They ALL want to do it, and are salivating at the thought. It will not, I repeat NOT, affect the price of internet for the consumer. They want to do this because they want to make more money, not shift the source of income. There is nothing good in this plan for the consumer what-so-ever. I am not normally a proponent of goverment nosing into market affairs, but sometimes it is a necessary evil. Sometimes they are the only one that can do something that will benefit the consumer. Those times when there is no choice to allow the market to shake it out by itself. This is one of those times.
They want to monetize EVERYTHING that has to do with music. Before long, they will write laws that require us to have implants that charge us every time we even THINK of a song. What, you mean you didn't know that the corporations write the laws in this country now?
Well, no, you THINK genetic engineering will be the end of things. I, however, have the opposite view. The technology is in it's infancy right now, but I feel that it will be the future. I believe the next step in human evolution is technology, and our ability to use it to effect change upon ourselves. But, I could be wrong. It could be the end of the world. Only time will tell.
Hope you have a little money, that way when you actually slap someone in the head for talking on their cell phone, they can sue your ridiculous ass and take it.
Not sure about him, but I still think the iPod is lame. Granted, the major reason is it is so trendy, but nevermind. Of course having to use itunes to deal with it is big reason #2. I recently (I guess a couple of months ago now)bought a Creative Zen Vision:M instead, and have never looked back. Love my Zen.
Oh, I feel I need to add something to my post.
Don't take what I said to mean I like war, I dont. I like competition. I am in love with it. We, as a species will progress towards a point where one of 3 things will happen. We will destroy ourselves, we will lose our competitive nature, or we will learn how to use our competitive nature in a constructive rather than destructive manner. The first and second scenarios are both equally horrible in my mind, they both spell our destruction. The last one, in my opinion of course, will be our success.
Keep in mind, I am not some kind of social scientist or anything. I am just an ignorant American. High school dropout, GED, no college degree. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt, because, I r dum.
Because, much like pure socialism, pure democracy can NOT work. And here is why: Anything that involves people becomes corrupted. I say this not so much as a bad thing as reality. Frankly, I am glad we are the way we are. If not for all the wars and such in the past, we would not be able to appreciate the level of civilization we have today, in fact I highly doubt we would be anywhere near as technologically advanced. Really, think about it. Nothing drives pure research like competition. NOTHING. War is basically just our competitive nature expressed at a very high, nationalistic, level.
This is why communism doesn't work. If you are going to try to debate that point, don't. Just walk away. Lack of competition equals stagnation. Here comes a shocking theory. Could we, as a species, survive without war? Would we stagnate and just waste away? I don't necessarilly believe this, but I also am not going to discount it off hand.
I know I will be flamed for this, but i'm ok with that. I find it helpful for folks with poor spelling and grammar to be very, very brief in what they write. It doesn't take long for my focus to stray from the content of your writing to a game of "hunt the next error". Especially when you make the same gross misspelling twice in a row, thereby making it all the more obvious.
Here's a friendly little piece of advice, you can take it or leave it, my feelings really wont be hurt. There are a lot of free spell checkers out there. For instance: http://www.iespell.com/. If you want people to read your posts, it really isn't hard to learn a few basic grammatical rules and put a decent spell checker to work. If you don't care, please pretend this response never happened.
Off topic, but had to be asked.
You know, your post was good until you ruined it at the end. I have always wondered, but never bothered to ask until now (irritation level reached its limit?)... What the HELL is the obsession with "first post"? Does it make your dick grow longer if you get it or something? A real, tangible benefit?
You know, there is actually a small part of me that hopes this retarded shit gets legislated into all televisions. I watch way too much of this stuff anyway, and that would absolutely end my television watching. There are a lot of things I could be doing with my time.
Well, yea. If you had a dick that big, you would wave it too.
Whoa, I can't believe you had the nerve to say that stuff. Didn't you know its currently the height of fashion to hate the USA? Guaranteed to get you modded down.
While I don't necessarily agree with the original poster's numbers (even verification can be troublesome, since the amount of arable land needed for every person is a an average and an assumption) I do agree with the result. People are insane with the number of anklebiters they are producing. Back in the day, you needed a huge family to run that farm you needed to feed yourselves. These days, all you are doing with 8 kids is putting a burden on the tax payers that don't have kids or only have 1 or 2. Enough is enough people, you dont NEED 8 kids!
As for liberties and freedoms, ever heard of the bad apple saying? Well, my cousin is a prime example. She can't work (as in has too many kids and daycare would cost more than she is capable of earning) and her boyfriend (I.E. father of the horde) is a shmuck who has the earning potential of a hampster. They just produced their 5th tax black hole. There is NO way in hell they can afford 2 of them, much less the others. So, because their feedoms and liberties are in jeapardy, and we certainly aren't going to let the KIDS starve (it isn't their fault their parents are absolute morons, is it?) we are going to go on and let them reproduce like some rabbits on viagra. What choice do we have? Let them starve or forced sterilization? Neither option is viable, so we just let them go like energizer bunnies. See Spot copulate, copulate Spot, copulate!
Makes me sick.