Saving money and being green tends to go hand in hand these days. Walmart is pushing hard on many fronts to make things happen. Their other big project is reducing how much fuel they burn with their trucks. Does it make them angels, well no, but I'll give them credit for at least heading heading in the right direction. I'll take that any day over the whole "It's too expensive/impractical to be green" excuse that has been the mantra of big business for as long as I can remember. Small changes by big companies can have a profound affect on the world.
Edwards AFB in California is one of the largest single purchasers of alternate energy in the country. Not sure how long ago it became law, but federal institutions have to when available make such purchases, just like they have to buy recycled paper for the office, as long as the prices aren't too far out of wack. The result is 96% of the electricity they use, somewhere in the tune of $1 million dollars per month was being bought from the local Tehachapi power company's wind farm. Well with the massive new monthly investment, in the span of 6 years they went from a patchwork of various sizes of and types of windmills to a massive farm of the latest and the greatest beheamoths, drastically driving down the costs and increasing the amount of wind generated electricity available.
Walmart in a Global corporation and if they set their minds to becoming more efficient and more green to make more money, the affect they could have on just about every other corporation out there that compete with them or emulate them would be just that global. Something we've been needing to happen if a sustainable future is to ever be achieved.
You need to shop around to find the ones that are not the classic white. The set I have in my house now are whiter than incadecents but warmer than your standard florcent tube. So I'm pretty happy.
The warm-up period does bite especially if it's pretty cold, but that was their solution for instant on and start ups when at low temperature. For lights I turn on and leave on it's acceptable.
My mom's house I've gone through and completely replaced everything with florecents since I got tired of coming home on the hollidays to find half her lights burnt out, she won't get up on a stool to change them. She hated the slow turn on as well for some lights, so I went through and replaced those again with screw in enclosed halogen bulbs. They don't save as much in electricity, but they can be dimmed and still last several orders of magnitude longer than the incadencnts. Just make sure you buy a smaller bulb than they are rated at, they are quite bright, but since they are enclosed (a bulb within a bulb) they don't get any hotter than a typical incadecent of the same wattage.
They are talking about needing 10mg of positrons (Anti-matter) to make it to Mars in a new engine. They said it should take about 250 million dollars worth of this fuel to do so and that they could make the trip in 180 days. All of it should be ready in ten years.
Even if you add in the normal NASA mark-up 250million = 25 billion. I didn't realize we were that close to something this advanced. What the hell are we waiting for? Cut off medicare and wellware and put the war on hold for a couple of weeks and let's get this thing funded!
It is kind of funny, the "iPod generation" started along time before iPods were even around. Back in my day it was all those damn kids with a walkman or headphones on. We ignored our elders and were "wasting" our potential just as much as the latest generation does now.
Of course I think they don't specifically mean iPods, this latest generation of teenager has far more electronic gadgets then any other in history. Whether it be a PSP, a cell phone, Nintendo DS, etc you don't often spot the young generation without the electronic portable in hand..
The fun thing is with all the talk about space exploration, most of these portable devices today have more memory and more computing power than anything that NASA had back in the 60's. Too bad we can't find a better way of harnessing all that untapped potential to push things along.
You are correct they are giving up privileges, as in the privilege of discussing information concerning their employment. The government does not have the right, once you sign the non-disclosure agreement, to monitor or filter everything you might say or how you might say it, just the ones covered by the agreement.
You are also correct to believe that there are people in government that believe that it is possible to waive one's rights with a contract and threats of criminal penalties, but there are also laws in place to protect people from reprisals from corporations or the government which are called "whistle blower" laws. If they go public with information that they swore to keep secret that proves criminal action on the part of a company or the government then they can't be held to the penalties of the agreement. Which in turn goes back to keeping people from signing away their rights and adds a needed check to those that would try to do so.
It would help people understand if you had explained it out further. They were correct in their statements, but they were using the wrong termanolgy for what they were saying.
Ah the single person on/dot that actually understands what declassification means.
This is nothing more than the government cleaning out the closet, time to throw out all the old Christmas cards and receipts for toothpast and toilet paper from Walmart. Important stuff stays classified for a long time. Of course what seems important 20-30 years ago usually ends seeming pretty silly in the present. Occasionally something turns up, but still tends to only be interesting trivia for history buffs.
No it's not, my perspective is just fine thank you.
I was mearly making fun of people that hyperventilate over the numbers killed in Iraq when while at the same time they don't even bat an eyelash over the staggering numbers killed and maimed everyday in every portion of the US and for that fact the world.
I bet if you made a cool movie about a secret agent that drives really fast in small European cars while fighting an Evil Genuis who has "frinkin sharks with frikin lasers beams attached to their heads" it would lead to millions if not BILLIONS running out and buying these automobiles and in turn spell their doom.
It's funny how numbers seem to be everything to everyone. Especially those strongly against or for the war, since they just wonn't shut up about them.
Here is a fun fact for you, more people in the US military die each year in auto and motorcycle accidents at home station than die in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined during the same time period. Here is another fun fact to go along with it. They also tend to kill family members or friends when they do it. Last time I checked not too many kids and spouses getting blown up by IED over inb Iraq.
Perspective + numbers are very important. One without the other is pretty much pointless.
Ah I am pleased at least one out of the mulitudes of the unwashed masses here on/dot understands. I feel there is a glimmer of hope for humanity yet.
For those of you who are still confused. The Iraq War is just a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
Blaming Bush for the whole mess is nothing more than scape goating and frankly is incorrect and unproductive. If you want to see who really started the Iraq war then all you have to do is but look in a mirror. (Nice little rippoff from V4V)
It's the unavoidable truth. I suggest you do something about it if you don't like it. If you aren't willing to make some changes then shut the fuck up about the war.
He must have forgot Heikell, that you were on his Presidential Cabinet and should have access to everything the President knows. What a jerk keeping you out of the loop like that!
Oh wait that's right he's the President and you're not, funny how that works isn't it?
Sadam killed everyone in Iraq...everyone that stood against him. Terrorists, Muslims, Christians, football (soccer) players, left handed people, right handed people, . So what exactly is your point?
Bush never said Iraq was behind 9-11, he said that Iraq had weapons of mass distruction like 50 million times and said places like Iraq were part of the Axis of Evil (Iraq, Iran, and North Korea). Countries that all sought WOMD or supported terrorism. Which so happens to have been correct. Iraq has been pursuing such things for decades even though it turns out he was just bluffing the last few years to keep all his neighboors cowed. This was all part of the great "WAR ON TERROR" and so it was and is today.
Oh wait I forget there for second I thought I was responding to someone with a braincell or two beyond the
"I HATE BUSH BECAUSE HE IS A BAD BAD BAD MAN." "See he must be very bad because I said Bad three times".
It somewhat forgiveable that most of the slashdot crowd doesn't have a clue about events that occured more than fifty years ago in the world, but for god sakes 9/11 was only 5 years ago.
So that must mean you have been living under a rock and just recently dialed into current events, or are a highly informed 18-22 years old (aka uninformed good little robot that parrots every anti-gov't thing they hear or read), or are an idiot?
All that is required for anything is willingness and maybe ability, justifactions be damned. Justifications are the details we use to paint a pretty picture we paint for ourselves to make events appear moral or imoral, but since there are no such thing as morals, only things we are willing or unwilling to do, we end up right back where we started.
My whole point was to make fun of people who go on and on about how the President missled everyone, which was horseshit. They all went along with it because they were more than willing and that's exactly how wars begin.
Personally I think the war in Iraq is a big mess at the moment. Hussein kept a lid on the multiple groups by using heavy handed tactics. If that is what is going to be required to keep peace there, then we should just split up the country along factions and give the pieces to the neighboring countries that have similar factions and get the hell out. It either that or we are going to have to pick one of the three sides then wipe out the other two. Based on precidence in other countries in the middle east we are going to be there for decades if we think we can hold onto the situation until things calm down. The only other option is to let Hussein go back into power and let the Iraqi's have the kind of leader they seem to deserve/need.
But what the fuck do I know? I'm not from Iraq or the Middle East.
There was plenty of justification for attacking Iraq.
The president said "Hey let's attack Iraq" and Congress said "America!...Fuck Yea!" and then Congress said to Americans "Hey let's attack Iraq" and they said "America!...Fuck Yea!" and that's all there is to it.
There are no bench-marks or justfications for war just details and more importantly the willingness to goto war.
,i.in other words, it takes the government a few months to go over every line on every page with a black marker. The pages might be declassified (but see if you can read the information!)
Yes but the real reason for the slow up is not the actual marking out things with a black marker, but the bidding process to provide the government with the correct mil-spec markers.
On average 120 Americans were killed just yesterday. Men, women, the young, the old, hell even family pets. There is no grand government conspiracy there, it's called the automobile.
Let's not just be US snobs, in the time it took me to bang this short reply out 10 people died globaly due to the dreaded four wheeled machine of death. Where is the outrage? Where is the horror?
Sure war is a terrible thing, but try to get a little perspective here folks.
I'd see the HD disc ripping being the same as DVD's I rip from rentals. I only put them on there in the first place so I can rent 5-10 at a time and take them back the next day. They only stay on there long enough for me to watch them at my leisure. Any permanent residents on my harddrives are movies that I've watched a hundred times and still aren't sick of them, which in that case I've gone out and purchased them so I always have a backup.
I bet you could knock a big chunk out of the size of the HD movies by just dumping all the extra junk on them, the extras, menus, spanish and french audio. On regular DVD that represents anywhere from 1-5 gb of the space (Most movie DVD's are dual layer.) So on HD-DVD that's probably somewhere around 3-8gb and Blue-Ray 5-10gb. That still leaves some pretty big files behind, but then I remeber when ppl used to rip MP3's to lower qualities to save space. These days there's not much of a point in doing that anymore. By the time these formats become saturated in the market, by format I mean the video resolution, not the crappy plastic discs they are being served on, I would think the same would be true of harddrives for video as well.
That is why the movied pirate god's invented DVD decryptor and shrink. Rip it, shrink it, and then watch it, with no warnings, no previews, no region codes, no commercials, no retarded extras, no control lock outs, excessive menus, etc etc. The movie simply starts playing and still has the convience of chapters still in place.
The best part in my opinion is that you don't even have to reburn it to a DVD if you don't want to. Plays quite well straight off the harddrive with no issues. Love it.
They also use the fake deer to fine people that hunt from cars. It was funny one story my uncle told me, he's was a warden and they've been using fake deer for decades to fine rule breakers.
They had the fake deer out on the edge of the trees near the road, it didn't have all the motion stuff just a stuffed dear. An old guy in a pick-up truck saw it, pulled over, put on his hunting vest(orange safety) got out of the truck, got his rifle, moved the minimum distance from the road and vehicle, and proceeded to take a bead on it. He shot it and was surprised that it didn't fall down or run away, before he could take a second shot all the rangers busted out laughing and then he realized what was up.
They didn't fine the old man because he did everything he was supposed and had a license to hunt the deer, they just wanted to see if he could figure out whether or not he'd fall for a completely still fake deer (This was some 30 years ago.).
Doesn't matter if they are former or current. If the article is about anything doing with their job past or present the boss get's a say. That's how it goes when you work for the DOD or other security branches of government. That is also how it is in many civilian jobs in the tech industry as well. The moment you sign a non-disclosure or non-competition aggrement you pretty much are giving up your rights within the framework of the agreement. It's as simple as that.
She was injured because McDonalds kept their coffee at an unsafe temperature
McDonald's appealed and she lost. Someone got her on a talk show and got her to blab about the case. The host also had a slew of coffee makers and places tested for coffee temp. Turns out Mc Donald's didn't serve their coffee any hotter than anyone else, including her own home personal coffee maker. That along with the fact that the lawyer was taking something like 80% of the claim, which at the time was considered outrageous, ended up getting the whole thing reduced to her medical expenses plus a much smaller reward for pain and suffering of which the lawyer got his 80%, in other words very little.
There was one thing that did change about the whole thing, the togo coffee cups were improved quite a bit. The lids pre-lawsuit were pretty crappy, the ones now you can drop and expect the lid to stay on most of the time.
It still boils down to one thing you shouldn't put near boiling liquids down by your privates. (She had it held between her legs.)
Yes buying them is faster, heck mail order is usually faster than downloading, they did a study for fun not long ago comparing the bandwidth of the postal service to the internet based on AOL and Netflix discs being mailed. It was quite the eye opener on the potential bandwidth of physical media. I don't remember the exact results, but what it ammounted to was more data was moving through the postal service in a month than what was moving around the internet in a year, and that was just DVD's and CD's. Imagine what it would be with larger media.
I think discs still are a great way to move it around, but I don't think anyone is actually going to be using them to play anything back in a year or two. So the whole concept of "the next great thing" in media format is kind of pointless. We could have HD 1080p movies on DVD's now if they really wanted it, sure a movie would be on 3-5 discs(yes I realize HD needs more bandwidth to play than DVD is capable of delivering), but it's not the format that's important just how portable and usefull it is. Due to the advancements in playback and storage, disc aren't good for much of anything beyond being the transfer mechanism to get it to your media center. Keeping DVD's around as your playback media is a waste of space.
Now as far as downloading movies I think that is going to displace the disc even faster than the crappy hardware being peddled by HD-DVD and Blue-ray. It will start with TV. As it is now it doesn't take that long to download a fairly good quality copy of a tv, something that could be easily accomplished on a modest connection while you are at work or school. As far as the costs go for bandwidth, the only reason they are high is because of the foot dragging by communication companies. It's much easier and more profitable if they can keep it priced as if it were a scarce. I live in England at the moment and the prices here are cheaper for faster connections than in the States simply because have litterally dozens of choices for ISP's in all the major markets. Even out here in farm country I have a good 4-5 to pick from. Where in the states you'd be lucky to have more than 1-3 or two choices even in major cities. I'm paying less for a 4mb connection than I was for a 1.5mb connection back in California. For a measely 10 pounds more, about $19 US, I could jump up to a 10mb connection something that you just won't find in the States. A 10mb connection would easily make short work of anything but the Lord of the Rings super duper secret director's extra extended cut trillogy in HD 1080p.
There is no reason not to offer IP delivered content on demand. It's already happening through the cable companies, it's only a matter of time before it is everywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Edwards AFB in California is one of the largest single purchasers of alternate energy in the country. Not sure how long ago it became law, but federal institutions have to when available make such purchases, just like they have to buy recycled paper for the office, as long as the prices aren't too far out of wack. The result is 96% of the electricity they use, somewhere in the tune of $1 million dollars per month was being bought from the local Tehachapi power company's wind farm. Well with the massive new monthly investment, in the span of 6 years they went from a patchwork of various sizes of and types of windmills to a massive farm of the latest and the greatest beheamoths, drastically driving down the costs and increasing the amount of wind generated electricity available.
Walmart in a Global corporation and if they set their minds to becoming more efficient and more green to make more money, the affect they could have on just about every other corporation out there that compete with them or emulate them would be just that global. Something we've been needing to happen if a sustainable future is to ever be achieved.
The warm-up period does bite especially if it's pretty cold, but that was their solution for instant on and start ups when at low temperature. For lights I turn on and leave on it's acceptable.
My mom's house I've gone through and completely replaced everything with florecents since I got tired of coming home on the hollidays to find half her lights burnt out, she won't get up on a stool to change them. She hated the slow turn on as well for some lights, so I went through and replaced those again with screw in enclosed halogen bulbs. They don't save as much in electricity, but they can be dimmed and still last several orders of magnitude longer than the incadencnts. Just make sure you buy a smaller bulb than they are rated at, they are quite bright, but since they are enclosed (a bulb within a bulb) they don't get any hotter than a typical incadecent of the same wattage.
They are talking about needing 10mg of positrons (Anti-matter) to make it to Mars in a new engine. They said it should take about 250 million dollars worth of this fuel to do so and that they could make the trip in 180 days. All of it should be ready in ten years.
Even if you add in the normal NASA mark-up 250million = 25 billion. I didn't realize we were that close to something this advanced. What the hell are we waiting for? Cut off medicare and wellware and put the war on hold for a couple of weeks and let's get this thing funded!
Of course I think they don't specifically mean iPods, this latest generation of teenager has far more electronic gadgets then any other in history. Whether it be a PSP, a cell phone, Nintendo DS, etc you don't often spot the young generation without the electronic portable in hand..
The fun thing is with all the talk about space exploration, most of these portable devices today have more memory and more computing power than anything that NASA had back in the 60's. Too bad we can't find a better way of harnessing all that untapped potential to push things along.
If the Chinese didn't want their rulers so bad then they'd get rid of them, there's only like a billion Chinese. I think they can take them.
You are also correct to believe that there are people in government that believe that it is possible to waive one's rights with a contract and threats of criminal penalties, but there are also laws in place to protect people from reprisals from corporations or the government which are called "whistle blower" laws. If they go public with information that they swore to keep secret that proves criminal action on the part of a company or the government then they can't be held to the penalties of the agreement. Which in turn goes back to keeping people from signing away their rights and adds a needed check to those that would try to do so.
It would help people understand if you had explained it out further. They were correct in their statements, but they were using the wrong termanolgy for what they were saying.
This is nothing more than the government cleaning out the closet, time to throw out all the old Christmas cards and receipts for toothpast and toilet paper from Walmart. Important stuff stays classified for a long time. Of course what seems important 20-30 years ago usually ends seeming pretty silly in the present. Occasionally something turns up, but still tends to only be interesting trivia for history buffs.
Well that's the trick now isn't it?
Ignorance got us into the war, now the ignorant are screamming for us to get out. How are is one supposed to deal with that?
I was mearly making fun of people that hyperventilate over the numbers killed in Iraq when while at the same time they don't even bat an eyelash over the staggering numbers killed and maimed everyday in every portion of the US and for that fact the world.
I bet if you made a cool movie about a secret agent that drives really fast in small European cars while fighting an Evil Genuis who has "frinkin sharks with frikin lasers beams attached to their heads" it would lead to millions if not BILLIONS running out and buying these automobiles and in turn spell their doom.
http://www.devilducky.com/media/42544/
It's funny how numbers seem to be everything to everyone. Especially those strongly against or for the war, since they just wonn't shut up about them.
Here is a fun fact for you, more people in the US military die each year in auto and motorcycle accidents at home station than die in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined during the same time period. Here is another fun fact to go along with it. They also tend to kill family members or friends when they do it. Last time I checked not too many kids and spouses getting blown up by IED over inb Iraq.
Perspective + numbers are very important. One without the other is pretty much pointless.
For those of you who are still confused. The Iraq War is just a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
Blaming Bush for the whole mess is nothing more than scape goating and frankly is incorrect and unproductive. If you want to see who really started the Iraq war then all you have to do is but look in a mirror. (Nice little rippoff from V4V)
It's the unavoidable truth. I suggest you do something about it if you don't like it. If you aren't willing to make some changes then shut the fuck up about the war.
Oh wait that's right he's the President and you're not, funny how that works isn't it?
Bush never said Iraq was behind 9-11, he said that Iraq had weapons of mass distruction like 50 million times and said places like Iraq were part of the Axis of Evil (Iraq, Iran, and North Korea). Countries that all sought WOMD or supported terrorism. Which so happens to have been correct. Iraq has been pursuing such things for decades even though it turns out he was just bluffing the last few years to keep all his neighboors cowed. This was all part of the great "WAR ON TERROR" and so it was and is today.
Oh wait I forget there for second I thought I was responding to someone with a braincell or two beyond the
"I HATE BUSH BECAUSE HE IS A BAD BAD BAD MAN." "See he must be very bad because I said Bad three times".
It somewhat forgiveable that most of the slashdot crowd doesn't have a clue about events that occured more than fifty years ago in the world, but for god sakes 9/11 was only 5 years ago.
So that must mean you have been living under a rock and just recently dialed into current events, or are a highly informed 18-22 years old (aka uninformed good little robot that parrots every anti-gov't thing they hear or read), or are an idiot?
So which is it?
All that is required for anything is willingness and maybe ability, justifactions be damned. Justifications are the details we use to paint a pretty picture we paint for ourselves to make events appear moral or imoral, but since there are no such thing as morals, only things we are willing or unwilling to do, we end up right back where we started.
My whole point was to make fun of people who go on and on about how the President missled everyone, which was horseshit. They all went along with it because they were more than willing and that's exactly how wars begin.
Personally I think the war in Iraq is a big mess at the moment. Hussein kept a lid on the multiple groups by using heavy handed tactics. If that is what is going to be required to keep peace there, then we should just split up the country along factions and give the pieces to the neighboring countries that have similar factions and get the hell out. It either that or we are going to have to pick one of the three sides then wipe out the other two. Based on precidence in other countries in the middle east we are going to be there for decades if we think we can hold onto the situation until things calm down. The only other option is to let Hussein go back into power and let the Iraqi's have the kind of leader they seem to deserve/need.
But what the fuck do I know? I'm not from Iraq or the Middle East.
hahaha, great minds think a like I guess. :D Maybe they'll give me a job?!
The president said "Hey let's attack Iraq" and Congress said "America!...Fuck Yea!" and then Congress said to Americans "Hey let's attack Iraq" and they said "America!...Fuck Yea!" and that's all there is to it.
There are no bench-marks or justfications for war just details and more importantly the willingness to goto war.
Yes but the real reason for the slow up is not the actual marking out things with a black marker, but the bidding process to provide the government with the correct mil-spec markers.
Let's not just be US snobs, in the time it took me to bang this short reply out 10 people died globaly due to the dreaded four wheeled machine of death. Where is the outrage? Where is the horror?
Sure war is a terrible thing, but try to get a little perspective here folks.
I bet you could knock a big chunk out of the size of the HD movies by just dumping all the extra junk on them, the extras, menus, spanish and french audio. On regular DVD that represents anywhere from 1-5 gb of the space (Most movie DVD's are dual layer.) So on HD-DVD that's probably somewhere around 3-8gb and Blue-Ray 5-10gb. That still leaves some pretty big files behind, but then I remeber when ppl used to rip MP3's to lower qualities to save space. These days there's not much of a point in doing that anymore. By the time these formats become saturated in the market, by format I mean the video resolution, not the crappy plastic discs they are being served on, I would think the same would be true of harddrives for video as well.
The best part in my opinion is that you don't even have to reburn it to a DVD if you don't want to. Plays quite well straight off the harddrive with no issues. Love it.
They had the fake deer out on the edge of the trees near the road, it didn't have all the motion stuff just a stuffed dear. An old guy in a pick-up truck saw it, pulled over, put on his hunting vest(orange safety) got out of the truck, got his rifle, moved the minimum distance from the road and vehicle, and proceeded to take a bead on it. He shot it and was surprised that it didn't fall down or run away, before he could take a second shot all the rangers busted out laughing and then he realized what was up.
They didn't fine the old man because he did everything he was supposed and had a license to hunt the deer, they just wanted to see if he could figure out whether or not he'd fall for a completely still fake deer (This was some 30 years ago.).
Doesn't matter if they are former or current. If the article is about anything doing with their job past or present the boss get's a say. That's how it goes when you work for the DOD or other security branches of government. That is also how it is in many civilian jobs in the tech industry as well. The moment you sign a non-disclosure or non-competition aggrement you pretty much are giving up your rights within the framework of the agreement. It's as simple as that.
McDonald's appealed and she lost. Someone got her on a talk show and got her to blab about the case. The host also had a slew of coffee makers and places tested for coffee temp. Turns out Mc Donald's didn't serve their coffee any hotter than anyone else, including her own home personal coffee maker. That along with the fact that the lawyer was taking something like 80% of the claim, which at the time was considered outrageous, ended up getting the whole thing reduced to her medical expenses plus a much smaller reward for pain and suffering of which the lawyer got his 80%, in other words very little.
There was one thing that did change about the whole thing, the togo coffee cups were improved quite a bit. The lids pre-lawsuit were pretty crappy, the ones now you can drop and expect the lid to stay on most of the time.
It still boils down to one thing you shouldn't put near boiling liquids down by your privates. (She had it held between her legs.)
I think discs still are a great way to move it around, but I don't think anyone is actually going to be using them to play anything back in a year or two. So the whole concept of "the next great thing" in media format is kind of pointless. We could have HD 1080p movies on DVD's now if they really wanted it, sure a movie would be on 3-5 discs(yes I realize HD needs more bandwidth to play than DVD is capable of delivering), but it's not the format that's important just how portable and usefull it is. Due to the advancements in playback and storage, disc aren't good for much of anything beyond being the transfer mechanism to get it to your media center. Keeping DVD's around as your playback media is a waste of space.
Now as far as downloading movies I think that is going to displace the disc even faster than the crappy hardware being peddled by HD-DVD and Blue-ray. It will start with TV. As it is now it doesn't take that long to download a fairly good quality copy of a tv, something that could be easily accomplished on a modest connection while you are at work or school. As far as the costs go for bandwidth, the only reason they are high is because of the foot dragging by communication companies. It's much easier and more profitable if they can keep it priced as if it were a scarce. I live in England at the moment and the prices here are cheaper for faster connections than in the States simply because have litterally dozens of choices for ISP's in all the major markets. Even out here in farm country I have a good 4-5 to pick from. Where in the states you'd be lucky to have more than 1-3 or two choices even in major cities. I'm paying less for a 4mb connection than I was for a 1.5mb connection back in California. For a measely 10 pounds more, about $19 US, I could jump up to a 10mb connection something that you just won't find in the States. A 10mb connection would easily make short work of anything but the Lord of the Rings super duper secret director's extra extended cut trillogy in HD 1080p.
There is no reason not to offer IP delivered content on demand. It's already happening through the cable companies, it's only a matter of time before it is everywhere.