Why do we maintain an expensive military if we won't use it to acquire things our country needs? Oil, women, and broadband. Soldiers, go get them and bring them to us.
Well... we are in two wars over oil so which should we go after next? Women or broadband?;-)
I don't think that's going to stand up. Undercover cops buy drugs and the state doesn't have to prosecute them for buying them. Why couldn't investigators "illegally" download copyrighted material and still have it considered infringing on the part of the defendant, but not be prosecuted?
As I understand it, MediaSentry (the investigators) don't have a license to perform that sort of work in any state. Cops on the other hand are licensed and trained in that sort of work.
One thing I've learned since I recently joined Information Security is that you have a very precise process that must be follow so evidence isn't damaged in any way. If evidence is modified or perceived to be modified, you lose your case.
BTW....is the internet a right or a privilege? Think about it...
According to Concast you can be terminated for using the Internet too much. And they don't have to tell you how much you actually purchased. Once they determine you use too much, you are gone for 12 months and there is nothing you can do about it.
What's amusing is they say it's only a small portion that are terminated. Under.001%. If that's true, what are the odds of two people on the same block getting terminated for using it too much? How about three?
Yeah, that really happened last year. Within a few months I learned that other's in my block and neighborhood were terminated for the same reason. I'd love to take those odds to Vegas...
Since then we've been working hard on pushing competition to our area. Writing letters along with our grassroots group to politicians who say the same crap. But some are starting to get the idea.
It's only a matter of time before they finally 'get it'.
Yeah, except for the part where the motherboard claims to be ACPI compliant when it really isn't. That's sort of false advertising.
sort of?
last year I purchased a print server where it stated clearly on the box and the advertisement that it supported usb 1.1 and 2.0. Connected it to my usb 2.0 printer and it didn't work. Couldn't print to the darn thing. Connected a 1.1 and printed just fine.
Eventually the manufacturer admitted they had 'some problems' with 2.0 printers and were kind enough to refund my purchase.
Foxconn should have cut their losses and just said 'oops sorry, my bad' and be done with it.
I guess they can't admit they screwed up and were wrong. Pride will do that.
Exactly. Vote for Linux support with your money. The problem is, there aren't nearly enough Linux users to make a dent they will notice. If it makes you feel any better, I bought a (crappy) Foxconn board once and won't be buying one again.
Exactly.
I won't be purchasing a Foxconn board anytime soon now. Pity. I was looking at them along with gigabyte motherboards and a-bit boards. Might go with Asus but Foxconn? hell no.
Speaking of which... Has anyone had any problems with gigabyte boards? I've googled around and they seem to be a decent board. I'm curious what people think about them.
Increasingly, ISPs are getting weasely with their terms of service. "Unlimited access" that's not unlimited, shafting entire protocols, etc. How about changing fair advertising laws and such to make it so that you cannot hide behind the fine print, but that you must give your customer either a print out or a web page the describes, bluntly, in itemized terms, what all of that legal gobbledeegook really means?
At times the company will also terminate your internet because you used too much bandwidth without telling you how much is acceptable and how much is not.
They say only.001% of their customers are cut off.... so what are the odds of two people on the same block being terminated? how about three?
Within 4 months of my family's account being terminated there were other's on our street also terminated. I'd like to take those odds to Vegas personally:-)
Oh and all of us had signed up at the same time 5 years ago when it was advertised "Unlimited use for a flat monthly fee" not "Unlimited Access" which isn't the same thing.
I'm pretty sure that most computers from that era boots alot faster than modern computers. In a related note, windows boot time is pretty fast (especially xp boot time).
But then again if you trully beleive your 1987 machine to be faster than your 2007 machine why aren't you using it? Oh that's right, becouse it isn't.
That's not the right question. "What are the odds that Windows 7 won't be even more fucked up than Vista with whatever service pack they're up to by then?"
Hear, hear. Copy protection is the reason why I can't play The Battle for Middle-Earth II on my Vista pc, the damn game can't see the legitimate CD through the WinXP compatibility mode.
Even my kids have noticed their games run better under Ubuntu Linux with WINE. Several have asked why games run better than under Windows. My younger son (10 yrs old) had the answer.
Unfortunately, fiber could take another decade ago. I was promised FiOS in my area two years ago and still nothing. I will believe it when I see it.:(
Agreed. Without a major outcry it will take some time before it happens.
If enough people are educated about how far in the stone age America's Internet is compared to the rest of the developed world then we will be pushing it as well.
Why did Comcast terminate your broadband connection? And do you have an alternative?
We were terminated because they said we were using it too much. They gave us two numbers of how much we used (my wife and I called separately and received different numbers from their security department).
They wouldn't let us speak with a manager, we were bumped up eventually (after two weeks of calling them) and found their escalation department. But it wasn't until 3 months later that Qwest DSL finally arrived.
It's not the same service speeds but I'm hoping the FTTH will come soon. Both Utopianet and Qwest are doing this. Qwest just started in the Salt Lake Valley as of last autumn.
It would have been nice had Concast provided us some minimal customer service in resolving this issue.
Personally I don't believe they know what they are talking about. I've been watching our network usage for the last 18 months and we haven't used more than 70 Gigs in a single month in all that time.
So when Concast said we used 300 Gigs a month on average I personally believe they added a 0 or are simply incompetent with their measurement tools.
I mean think about it. 300 Gigs a month? Where the hell would I put all that??? I have two 200 Gigs hard drives on my computer.
Anyway, sooner or later fiber to the home will be as normal in the US as it is in the rest of the world. When that happens, there will be either a change in the company or they will go away.
It is NOT "their traffic" at all. This is bandwidth that's been SOLD to the customers. It's not like using, say, a school or corporate network where the owner who pays the cost can shape and set policies of use at will.
A paying customer has an absolute right to use what they paid for. Dropping packets, snooping on the flows, overselling their capacity, et cetera are all inexcusable.
Really, with Comcast and Time-Warner, all we need to look at is what these company's core business is. They are content providers whose business model is threatened by the Internet.
Really, they seem to be trying to recreate the "old days" of closed and propreitary services like
I agree. Since Concast terminated my families internet in 2007 we've been pushing for public fiber to the home. An infrastructure like that would mean if another ISP had 'issues' we would be able to fire them and go with someone better able to meet our needs. This means the screwy company either changes OR goes bankrupt.
Lucky you. You have two decent priced options for fast speeds. It is either 3KB/sec dial-up or 5 Mb/sec download with 384 Kb/sec upload (not always 5/384 either) cable speed. DSL is 20K ft. from CO. Forget ISDN, satellite, etc. (expensive and slow).:(
I'm hoping with some additional effort we can have a national infrastructure in place in the next few years. I've been bugging our politicians (local and fed) about this since Concast terminated my families internet in 2007. With an infrastructure in place we could have switched providers and told Concast to screw off.
Now that other's have brought DSL to our area AND now that Concast is bugging us to come back (since the 12 months termination is over), we've been using the alternative providers and it's pretty nice. But of course with FTTH it could be much better:D
So tell me why MediaDefender gets away with inserting fake data labeled as copyright-violating material into someone else's server and then going all vigilante on them. If you own the copyright you might be able to get away with it as its no longer in violation of copyrights since its yours, but since MediaDefender doesn't own them directly..
Perhaps this is why more and more Judges are asking if MediaDefender has a license to practice.
Then they wouldn't do stupid things anymore and be liable right?
Oh wait... ignorance isn't a defense right?
Am I beginning to think like a lawyer yet? Might be why I need an aspirin now.
Most consumer level service comes with an Acceptable Usage Policy. Mine says that (this is paraphrased) "At the sole discretion of big cable company (not comcast), users may be terminated for abuse or excessive usage".
So, we'll move from throttling to arbitrary caps. Maybe after XXGB your speeds are cut to 1/10th. Or maybe (like my cable company), they can just say "Well, we don't want you as a customer any more".
Explicit caps? We can complain or not subscribe if they're low- I'm for that if somebody is downloading 300GB+ per month, using my node. But the idea of "Well, you downloaded 'too much'" is just as bad as lying about throttling.
This happens much more often than I believe Concast is willing to state. Otherwise there would be a mass class action lawsuit against them.
They say it's only.001% of their customers that will be terminated. So if that's the case, what are the odds of two on the same block being terminated? How about the odds of three? Yeah I'm serious. Three people on my block were terminated within a couple months of my family being terminated. So.001%? I don't believe it.
No problem. After Abu Ghraib, the US has lost what little credibility it had left anyway.
You are aware there are American's who disagree with the Bush war right? And Abu Ghraib is one of many problems we're fighting to clean up. I'm sure we will find many more out there before this fiasco is done and over with.
Personally I think Bush screwed up. He wanted an excuse to fight a war against Iraq so badly that he's tying 9/11 into it to get what he wants. Just like his Grandfather Prescott Bush, makes you wonder what's wrong with that family IMO.
Anyway, I'm Republican and there is no way in hell I'll vote for for them this next year. I'm hoping it Obama personally but this is all off topic anyway. Nothing to do with XP refunds dudes.
And yes, I'm typing this from my Ubuntu 7.10 desktop.
Why would I use Wintendo especially after hearing Vista turned off recording for Medium and Gladiators (people record Gladiators???).
I'm paying for bandwidth, I should be able to use 100% of what I paid for. If their infrastructure can't handle it - maybe they should go back to selling tv.
I hear you. Many people in my neighborhood including myself were terminated by Concast for using the Internet too much. When we signed up it said "Unlimited use for a flat monthly fee". So how can unlimited use have a limit?
People say we're bandwidth hogs. How cute. It's Concast's own damn fault for providing a full multimedia experience. Them and every other web site on the Internet.
I've got news for Concast. Multimedia IS what drives the Internet in a big way today.
We've been advocating for public fiber like other public infrastructure. It should be interesting to see how that works out but so far we're winning. Utopianet fiber and now Qwest sent me a note they are rolling out fiber to the home in the Salt Lake Valley.
So for Concast, they are history. And we will never go back to that lousy company.
Dude. That game has been available for several years and works great with the latest version of Perl. Unfortunately it's only been tested with Windows but since it's Perl we should be able to port it easily to Linux.
You picked up a lot of former AOL people and you wonder why your company sucks. AOL sucks. AOL has always sucked. It sucked when it was pretty much the only ISP a lot of people could get. It sucked when you tried to cancel and ended up cancelling your credit card instead because no matter what you did they wouldn't stop billing you. It sucked when you tried to make them refund you for the months where you should have been cancelled but they just kept on billing. It sucked when you finally gave up and disputed the charge with your credit card company.
that explains a lot there actually. I did some work for AOL MANY years ago before they switched from Quantum Link to AOL. They pulled a few fast ones and I left. I figured they weren't worth my time. Now I see the connection and WHY they acted so weird when they terminated the family's internet. It's the same mentality and work ethic.
In our case the company terminated our account because we used it too much. Seems they didn't like us pulling content from their competition instead of purchasing content from them. A conflict of interest I'd say.
Now that the year termination is over we're starting to receive flyers to resubscribe to them.
My kids had fun doing this. I helped put it together but it's from their minds. I guess Concast doesn't worry about pissing off the next generation of consumer. That's ok.
Wouldn't a literal photon torpedo simply be a nuclear weapon designed to emit extremely high amounts of light and heat, i.e. photons? If being sunburned to death is your idea of a humane weapon then go for it:)
Oh you wanted a humane weapon? Well why didn't you guys say so;-)
Time for all of us to let our laptops boot up into obscure korean, sami or other languages when they are going to inspect them. Maybe a power supply requiring a 400VAC feed too - and no battery:-)
Odd operating systems like AROS or text only interfaces may also do well. You just can't fail the nerdity test then!,
I'm running Ubuntu Linux and I have the LVM encrypted using the alt install disk:D
So sure, have fun checking out the laptop. Let me know how it goes;D
Slashdot Mirror
Why do we maintain an expensive military if we won't use it to acquire things our country needs? Oil, women, and broadband. Soldiers, go get them and bring them to us.
Well... we are in two wars over oil so which should we go after next? Women or broadband? ;-)
I don't think that's going to stand up. Undercover cops buy drugs and the state doesn't have to prosecute them for buying them. Why couldn't investigators "illegally" download copyrighted material and still have it considered infringing on the part of the defendant, but not be prosecuted?
As I understand it, MediaSentry (the investigators) don't have a license to perform that sort of work in any state. Cops on the other hand are licensed and trained in that sort of work.
One thing I've learned since I recently joined Information Security is that you have a very precise process that must be follow so evidence isn't damaged in any way. If evidence is modified or perceived to be modified, you lose your case.
BTW....is the internet a right or a privilege? Think about it...
According to Concast you can be terminated for using the Internet too much. And they don't have to tell you how much you actually purchased. Once they determine you use too much, you are gone for 12 months and there is nothing you can do about it.
What's amusing is they say it's only a small portion that are terminated. Under .001%. If that's true, what are the odds of two people on the same block getting terminated for using it too much? How about three?
Yeah, that really happened last year. Within a few months I learned that other's in my block and neighborhood were terminated for the same reason. I'd love to take those odds to Vegas...
Since then we've been working hard on pushing competition to our area. Writing letters along with our grassroots group to politicians who say the same crap. But some are starting to get the idea.
It's only a matter of time before they finally 'get it'.
Yeah, except for the part where the motherboard claims to be ACPI compliant when it really isn't. That's sort of false advertising.
sort of?
last year I purchased a print server where it stated clearly on the box and the advertisement that it supported usb 1.1 and 2.0. Connected it to my usb 2.0 printer and it didn't work. Couldn't print to the darn thing. Connected a 1.1 and printed just fine.
Eventually the manufacturer admitted they had 'some problems' with 2.0 printers and were kind enough to refund my purchase.
Foxconn should have cut their losses and just said 'oops sorry, my bad' and be done with it.
I guess they can't admit they screwed up and were wrong. Pride will do that.
Exactly. Vote for Linux support with your money. The problem is, there aren't nearly enough Linux users to make a dent they will notice. If it makes you feel any better, I bought a (crappy) Foxconn board once and won't be buying one again.
Exactly.
I won't be purchasing a Foxconn board anytime soon now. Pity. I was looking at them along with gigabyte motherboards and a-bit boards. Might go with Asus but Foxconn? hell no.
Speaking of which... Has anyone had any problems with gigabyte boards? I've googled around and they seem to be a decent board. I'm curious what people think about them.
Thanks :D
Increasingly, ISPs are getting weasely with their terms of service. "Unlimited access" that's not unlimited, shafting entire protocols, etc. How about changing fair advertising laws and such to make it so that you cannot hide behind the fine print, but that you must give your customer either a print out or a web page the describes, bluntly, in itemized terms, what all of that legal gobbledeegook really means?
At times the company will also terminate your internet because you used too much bandwidth without telling you how much is acceptable and how much is not.
They say only .001% of their customers are cut off.... so what are the odds of two people on the same block being terminated? how about three?
Within 4 months of my family's account being terminated there were other's on our street also terminated. I'd like to take those odds to Vegas personally :-)
Oh and all of us had signed up at the same time 5 years ago when it was advertised "Unlimited use for a flat monthly fee" not "Unlimited Access" which isn't the same thing.
I'm pretty sure that most computers from that era boots alot faster than modern computers. In a related note, windows boot time is pretty fast (especially xp boot time).
But then again if you trully beleive your 1987 machine to be faster than your 2007 machine why aren't you using it? Oh that's right, becouse it isn't.
Boot time != Faster computer.
That's not the right question. "What are the odds that Windows 7 won't be even more fucked up than Vista with whatever service pack they're up to by then?"
(Obligatory Quote from Crocodile Dundee).
Better than Average...
With Liunx getting in to there market (with moblie PC, sub note books) this can only help.
:D
I've already moved over most of my home business to Ubuntu and any Windows apps needed run fine under WINE.
Heck, even CounterStrike Source and Team Fortress 2 work pretty good under Ubuntu and WINE.
Go figure
Hear, hear. Copy protection is the reason why I can't play The Battle for Middle-Earth II on my Vista pc, the damn game can't see the legitimate CD through the WinXP compatibility mode.
;-)
Even my kids have noticed their games run better under Ubuntu Linux with WINE. Several have asked why games run better than under Windows. My younger son (10 yrs old) had the answer.
He said "Windows just sucks".
Ahh Wisdom from the mouth of babes
Unfortunately, fiber could take another decade ago. I was promised FiOS in my area two years ago and still nothing. I will believe it when I see it. :(
Agreed. Without a major outcry it will take some time before it happens.
If enough people are educated about how far in the stone age America's Internet is compared to the rest of the developed world then we will be pushing it as well.
Why did Comcast terminate your broadband connection? And do you have an alternative?
:D
We were terminated because they said we were using it too much. They gave us two numbers of how much we used (my wife and I called separately and received different numbers from their security department).
They wouldn't let us speak with a manager, we were bumped up eventually (after two weeks of calling them) and found their escalation department. But it wasn't until 3 months later that Qwest DSL finally arrived.
It's not the same service speeds but I'm hoping the FTTH will come soon. Both Utopianet and Qwest are doing this. Qwest just started in the Salt Lake Valley as of last autumn.
It would have been nice had Concast provided us some minimal customer service in resolving this issue.
Personally I don't believe they know what they are talking about. I've been watching our network usage for the last 18 months and we haven't used more than 70 Gigs in a single month in all that time.
So when Concast said we used 300 Gigs a month on average I personally believe they added a 0 or are simply incompetent with their measurement tools.
I mean think about it. 300 Gigs a month? Where the hell would I put all that??? I have two 200 Gigs hard drives on my computer.
Anyway, sooner or later fiber to the home will be as normal in the US as it is in the rest of the world. When that happens, there will be either a change in the company or they will go away.
Either way works for me
It is NOT "their traffic" at all. This is bandwidth that's been SOLD to the customers. It's not like using, say, a school or corporate network where the owner who pays the cost can shape and set policies of use at will.
:D
A paying customer has an absolute right to use what they paid for. Dropping packets, snooping on the flows, overselling their capacity, et cetera are all inexcusable.
Really, with Comcast and Time-Warner, all we need to look at is what these company's core business is. They are content providers whose business model is threatened by the Internet.
Really, they seem to be trying to recreate the "old days" of closed and propreitary services like
I agree. Since Concast terminated my families internet in 2007 we've been pushing for public fiber to the home. An infrastructure like that would mean if another ISP had 'issues' we would be able to fire them and go with someone better able to meet our needs. This means the screwy company either changes OR goes bankrupt.
Works for me
Lucky you. You have two decent priced options for fast speeds. It is either 3KB/sec dial-up or 5 Mb/sec download with 384 Kb/sec upload (not always 5/384 either) cable speed. DSL is 20K ft. from CO. Forget ISDN, satellite, etc. (expensive and slow). :(
:D
I'm hoping with some additional effort we can have a national infrastructure in place in the next few years. I've been bugging our politicians (local and fed) about this since Concast terminated my families internet in 2007. With an infrastructure in place we could have switched providers and told Concast to screw off.
Now that other's have brought DSL to our area AND now that Concast is bugging us to come back (since the 12 months termination is over), we've been using the alternative providers and it's pretty nice. But of course with FTTH it could be much better
So tell me why MediaDefender gets away with inserting fake data labeled as copyright-violating material into someone else's server and then going all vigilante on them. If you own the copyright you might be able to get away with it as its no longer in violation of copyrights since its yours, but since MediaDefender doesn't own them directly..
Perhaps this is why more and more Judges are asking if MediaDefender has a license to practice.
Then they wouldn't do stupid things anymore and be liable right?
Oh wait... ignorance isn't a defense right?
Am I beginning to think like a lawyer yet? Might be why I need an aspirin now.
Of the tens of thousands of lawsuits the RIAA has filed, the vast majority have settled because the defendants were guilty.
Reference please?
So if these guys are guilty, I'm wondering where is the proof and was it validated? Or do we simply take the **IA's word on this?
Most consumer level service comes with an Acceptable Usage Policy. Mine says that (this is paraphrased) "At the sole discretion of big cable company (not comcast), users may be terminated for abuse or excessive usage".
.001% of their customers that will be terminated. So if that's the case, what are the odds of two on the same block being terminated? How about the odds of three? Yeah I'm serious. Three people on my block were terminated within a couple months of my family being terminated. So .001%? I don't believe it.
So, we'll move from throttling to arbitrary caps. Maybe after XXGB your speeds are cut to 1/10th. Or maybe (like my cable company), they can just say "Well, we don't want you as a customer any more".
Explicit caps? We can complain or not subscribe if they're low- I'm for that if somebody is downloading 300GB+ per month, using my node. But the idea of "Well, you downloaded 'too much'" is just as bad as lying about throttling.
This happens much more often than I believe Concast is willing to state. Otherwise there would be a mass class action lawsuit against them.
They say it's only
Jeepers, no more bandwidth throttling? Thanks Comcast!
;D
How much extra will you be charging us for that?
they won't charge more. They will simply terminate your Internet because you must be using more than you paid for right?
Unlimited Use for a flat monthly fee means something else... really... we're not kidding.... honest
No problem. After Abu Ghraib, the US has lost what little credibility it had left anyway.
You are aware there are American's who disagree with the Bush war right? And Abu Ghraib is one of many problems we're fighting to clean up. I'm sure we will find many more out there before this fiasco is done and over with.
Personally I think Bush screwed up. He wanted an excuse to fight a war against Iraq so badly that he's tying 9/11 into it to get what he wants. Just like his Grandfather Prescott Bush, makes you wonder what's wrong with that family IMO.
Anyway, I'm Republican and there is no way in hell I'll vote for for them this next year. I'm hoping it Obama personally but this is all off topic anyway. Nothing to do with XP refunds dudes.
And yes, I'm typing this from my Ubuntu 7.10 desktop.
Why would I use Wintendo especially after hearing Vista turned off recording for Medium and Gladiators (people record Gladiators???).
I'm paying for bandwidth, I should be able to use 100% of what I paid for. If their infrastructure can't handle it - maybe they should go back to selling tv.
I hear you. Many people in my neighborhood including myself were terminated by Concast for using the Internet too much. When we signed up it said "Unlimited use for a flat monthly fee". So how can unlimited use have a limit?
People say we're bandwidth hogs. How cute. It's Concast's own damn fault for providing a full multimedia experience. Them and every other web site on the Internet.
I've got news for Concast. Multimedia IS what drives the Internet in a big way today.
We've been advocating for public fiber like other public infrastructure. It should be interesting to see how that works out but so far we're winning. Utopianet fiber and now Qwest sent me a note they are rolling out fiber to the home in the Salt Lake Valley.
So for Concast, they are history. And we will never go back to that lousy company.
Maybe Duke Nukem Forever will also be included.
;-)
Dude. That game has been available for several years and works great with the latest version of Perl. Unfortunately it's only been tested with Windows but since it's Perl we should be able to port it easily to Linux.
Where have you been man
You picked up a lot of former AOL people and you wonder why your company sucks. AOL sucks. AOL has always sucked. It sucked when it was pretty much the only ISP a lot of people could get. It sucked when you tried to cancel and ended up cancelling your credit card instead because no matter what you did they wouldn't stop billing you. It sucked when you tried to make them refund you for the months where you should have been cancelled but they just kept on billing. It sucked when you finally gave up and disputed the charge with your credit card company.
:D
;-)
that explains a lot there actually. I did some work for AOL MANY years ago before they switched from Quantum Link to AOL. They pulled a few fast ones and I left. I figured they weren't worth my time. Now I see the connection and WHY they acted so weird when they terminated the family's internet. It's the same mentality and work ethic.
In our case the company terminated our account because we used it too much. Seems they didn't like us pulling content from their competition instead of purchasing content from them. A conflict of interest I'd say.
Now that the year termination is over we're starting to receive flyers to resubscribe to them.
think we did?
Our Answer here
My kids had fun doing this. I helped put it together but it's from their minds. I guess Concast doesn't worry about pissing off the next generation of consumer. That's ok.
Keep up the good work Concast.
Wouldn't a literal photon torpedo simply be a nuclear weapon designed to emit extremely high amounts of light and heat, i.e. photons? If being sunburned to death is your idea of a humane weapon then go for it :)
;-)
.... ummm... Lawyers? ;-)
Oh you wanted a humane weapon? Well why didn't you guys say so
I'm voting for
Being scorched by molten metal at high velocity is not how I'd want to go.
;D
I wonder if this would be ruled inhumane. As if it's any worse than a nuke, just on a smaller scale.
I agree.
If I'm going to go... they need to invent Photon Torpedoes or missiles or whatever
Then I would die happy
Time for all of us to let our laptops boot up into obscure korean, sami or other languages when they are going to inspect them. Maybe a power supply requiring a 400VAC feed too - and no battery :-)
:D
;D
Odd operating systems like AROS or text only interfaces may also do well. You just can't fail the nerdity test then!,
I'm running Ubuntu Linux and I have the LVM encrypted using the alt install disk
So sure, have fun checking out the laptop. Let me know how it goes