I don't think that the internet would be what it is today (almost neutral) if it was first designed, developped, used as a commercial base by two or three companies.
Interesting point. Whither services like AOL (isn't it just another ISP now), Delphi, or Compuserve? To get some idea, In 1990 or 1991, I paid Delphi for access to it's online serves(*) (the 20/20 plan, $20/month, 20 hours of time). It was wholly text based. AOL was $10/month for 3 hours of access and then $3/hr thereafter. It had a GUI however. Compuserve was ungodly expensive.
Once the ISPs began distributing internet access, prices fell a lot. By 1995 or 96, you could get many hours of internet connection time for that $20. By 2000, it was "unlimited" time. Now, I'm just always connected (though sadly through comcast for $55/month because of a broadband addiction -- I'm sure I could lower that to $15 if I'd accept dialup).
Anyway, the internet is far cheaper, and far richer, than any of the closed systems ever provided. Of course, this relys on random people and companies making data available to others. But considering human vanity, there will always be some people who pay to stroke their ego. Including me.
(*) Young-uns: don't confuse "online services" with "internet access". These were wholly self-contained proprietary systems. Everything they had was located on the company servers. They were more like a BBS, but very big.
It's sort of a shame you used a car analogy because this being slashdot, everyone got on board with that. The really insightful part of your post, and the one that should be discussed is this:
the spectrum, as a common good, should be shared in an open manner.
That's the refutation to the argument that cell companies shouldn't play because they built the infrastructure. The deal is, they built the infrastructure on a property we all own. It reminds me of something I once heard Utah Phillips complain about (paraphrasing here): the federal government leases our assets to companies who then turn around and sell back to us the stuff we already own at a profit to themselves. He said it much better and more humurously.
That's reasonable. At my office in a building built in 1912, I had a computer with a power supply burn out in less than one year (decent $100 Antec case/supply). It was in a room where the lights flickered whenever the fax or printer powered up. Anyway, after I replaced the power supply, I put it on a UPS that protects against brownouts. I would imagine that bad electricity could easily be the culprit for a lot of failures.
Do you mean replace something out of warranty for free or for pay? I could see you complaining if they refused to make a repair that you were willing to pay for, but you know, when something is out of warranty why would you expect it to be fixed free? Not meaning to flame you if are the former, and meaning to flame you if the latter.
Case in point: I was firmly in the "no cell phone" camp until about 4 years ago when I started my own business. When I was a wage slave, the cell phone would have been an intrusion on my private time and I was wise to avoid it. Now that I'm not, it gives me the freedom to leave the office and yet remain available if something comes up. I'd be a fool not to have it now.
Would a Democrat Tree Hugger leave the heat turned on and notice that he's responsible for it being hot?
Yes. That was the point of the analogy -- the "tree hugger" upon recognizing his complicity in being uncomfortable, takes reasonable steps to minimize that discomfort. And of course, the warming deniers are largely from the right wing. If you feel it makes the right wing look foolish, well, that was the point. If you don't want to look like clowns, take off the squeeky noses.
I don't mind you nutballs driving insanely big trucks anymore. You're paying me some killer dividends. I make 2x more in dividends from my fossil fuel stocks than I spend on energy (fuel and electricity combined). Keep driving, I'll keep collecting.;-)
Well, there is some ice core evidence that the current rapid rate of overall increases is unusual. Whether humans are the total cause or not is probably debatable, but in some ways irrelevant. Let's try an analogy:
Imagine it is high summer with a temp approaching 85 degrees F.
You are inside your house with the heat on, windows closed.
You are sweating, uncomfortable, and wish it would be cooler
If you're a pickup truck republican wingnut, you go turn on your AC to counter the heat and ignore the fact you are partly at fault for the uncomfortable environment in your house.
If you are a rational person, you recognize that you are having an impact on the environment within your house. You turn off the heat and open the windows. After a while, you're still on the warm side because it's 85 out, but you aren't ridiculously uncomfortable.
Note: 85 feels hot to me, replace this figure with whatever you're aclimated to.
Don't worry, after they pay for the Forest Blog software, they'll... um... they won't be able to buy a corporate lunch. Not bankruptcy I suppose, but something.
Note, at present exchange rate, the permision to remove the links is $97.
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the particlar version of GM potato studied was more damaging than a certain type of unmodified potato. Your generalization of "GM potato" is just too broad. For example, would you say that all condensed tree sap is dangerous after watching mice die from ingesting concentrated hemlock sap? Obviously, that would be quite erroneous and our pancakes would be rather plain fare.
It's pretty easy to generate electricity from heat. I have a pottery kiln and one method of monitoring temperature is to use a thermocouple hooked up to a "pyrometer". A thermocouple is just two different kinds of metals connected. Somehow, when you apply heat, a voltage develops (I won't pretend to understand how). Now, I'm a cheapskate and because a pyrometer is nothing but voltmeter scaled for temperature, I just use a couple digital multimeters to monitor kiln temps (in the type of firing I do, the measured temperature isn't really relevant -- I'm more concerned with whether the temperature is rising or falling). I typically get 35 - 40 millivolts at my peak temperature (somewhere in excess of 2400 degrees F if I'm doing things right). The cheapo type-K thermocouples I use lose their accuracy as I approach peak temps, but no way am I spending over $200 each for platinum thermocouples.
Anyway, my point, after reading TFA, it became pretty obvious that this stuff would work like a thermocouple, but you could fit many of them over a large area. It's isn't so much "nano-magic", as it would be a miniaturization of an idea that sees daily application. It sure would be cool if they get it functional.
The subpoenas that got slammed were the ones that were signed by the clerk of the court in the absence of a filed court case. The solution, file a john doe suit and then issue the subpoena because then there is a filed court case.
You don't have to tell me that. The last Windows I owned or used was ME. But the existence of fringe OSes (and I don't mean "fring" to be any sort of insult, just an acceptance of market share data) doesn't mean that MS has not engaged in monopolistic pricing and practices.
Perhaps the better analogy would that there are several tofu burger joints giving out free lunches, and a meat burger joint charging $20 a meal. Nobody believes the tofu burgers are good, or somehow has managed to fail to notice the existence of these places, so people feel compelled to eat at the meat burger place and pay the crazy prices. Then there's lock-in, which I somehow can't fit into this lame meat burger analogy. The fact is, for most people, only Windows exists for one reason or another. Like how MS has coerced OEMs to put their OS on machines.
Terrible analogy. The fact that you have a choice to spend $10 or $6 on a burger means the price you paid was fair (if you thought the price was unfair, you would have gone elsewhere). Plainly, the more expensive burger joint thinks the merits of its burgers exceed those of the fast food joint's.
In contrast, the very point of monopoly litigation is that the is nowhere else to go. No competition.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks AC for identifying _________ as a great cell company. Or is it just phantom-ware of the cell variety?
Once the ISPs began distributing internet access, prices fell a lot. By 1995 or 96, you could get many hours of internet connection time for that $20. By 2000, it was "unlimited" time. Now, I'm just always connected (though sadly through comcast for $55/month because of a broadband addiction -- I'm sure I could lower that to $15 if I'd accept dialup).
Anyway, the internet is far cheaper, and far richer, than any of the closed systems ever provided. Of course, this relys on random people and companies making data available to others. But considering human vanity, there will always be some people who pay to stroke their ego. Including me.
(*) Young-uns: don't confuse "online services" with "internet access". These were wholly self-contained proprietary systems. Everything they had was located on the company servers. They were more like a BBS, but very big.
Bush was a senator? And I thought he was a coke-head, not a drunk. The things you learn on /. Amazing.
That's the refutation to the argument that cell companies shouldn't play because they built the infrastructure. The deal is, they built the infrastructure on a property we all own. It reminds me of something I once heard Utah Phillips complain about (paraphrasing here): the federal government leases our assets to companies who then turn around and sell back to us the stuff we already own at a profit to themselves. He said it much better and more humurously.
1. Get linked from slashdot.
2. Pay bandwidth overages.
3. ???
4. Profit
That's reasonable. At my office in a building built in 1912, I had a computer with a power supply burn out in less than one year (decent $100 Antec case/supply). It was in a room where the lights flickered whenever the fax or printer powered up. Anyway, after I replaced the power supply, I put it on a UPS that protects against brownouts. I would imagine that bad electricity could easily be the culprit for a lot of failures.
V
Do you mean replace something out of warranty for free or for pay? I could see you complaining if they refused to make a repair that you were willing to pay for, but you know, when something is out of warranty why would you expect it to be fixed free? Not meaning to flame you if are the former, and meaning to flame you if the latter.
Case in point: I was firmly in the "no cell phone" camp until about 4 years ago when I started my own business. When I was a wage slave, the cell phone would have been an intrusion on my private time and I was wise to avoid it. Now that I'm not, it gives me the freedom to leave the office and yet remain available if something comes up. I'd be a fool not to have it now.
Not when the first thing you should do is turn off the heater. Wow. You're proving the point.
Yes. That was the point of the analogy -- the "tree hugger" upon recognizing his complicity in being uncomfortable, takes reasonable steps to minimize that discomfort. And of course, the warming deniers are largely from the right wing. If you feel it makes the right wing look foolish, well, that was the point. If you don't want to look like clowns, take off the squeeky noses.
I don't mind you nutballs driving insanely big trucks anymore. You're paying me some killer dividends. I make 2x more in dividends from my fossil fuel stocks than I spend on energy (fuel and electricity combined). Keep driving, I'll keep collecting. ;-)
- Imagine it is high summer with a temp approaching 85 degrees F.
- You are inside your house with the heat on, windows closed.
- You are sweating, uncomfortable, and wish it would be cooler
If you're a pickup truck republican wingnut, you go turn on your AC to counter the heat and ignore the fact you are partly at fault for the uncomfortable environment in your house.If you are a rational person, you recognize that you are having an impact on the environment within your house. You turn off the heat and open the windows. After a while, you're still on the warm side because it's 85 out, but you aren't ridiculously uncomfortable.
Note: 85 feels hot to me, replace this figure with whatever you're aclimated to.
and I can't type tonight
Actually, we're both wrong. Somehow, I red the 25 pounds as 50. Since they're only running 1 commercial blog, the price is 25 pounds. http://www.hostforest.co.uk/Purchase/default.asp
Don't worry, after they pay for the Forest Blog software, they'll ... um ... they won't be able to buy a corporate lunch. Not bankruptcy I suppose, but something.
Note, at present exchange rate, the permision to remove the links is $97.
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that the particlar version of GM potato studied was more damaging than a certain type of unmodified potato. Your generalization of "GM potato" is just too broad. For example, would you say that all condensed tree sap is dangerous after watching mice die from ingesting concentrated hemlock sap? Obviously, that would be quite erroneous and our pancakes would be rather plain fare.
It's pretty easy to generate electricity from heat. I have a pottery kiln and one method of monitoring temperature is to use a thermocouple hooked up to a "pyrometer". A thermocouple is just two different kinds of metals connected. Somehow, when you apply heat, a voltage develops (I won't pretend to understand how). Now, I'm a cheapskate and because a pyrometer is nothing but voltmeter scaled for temperature, I just use a couple digital multimeters to monitor kiln temps (in the type of firing I do, the measured temperature isn't really relevant -- I'm more concerned with whether the temperature is rising or falling). I typically get 35 - 40 millivolts at my peak temperature (somewhere in excess of 2400 degrees F if I'm doing things right). The cheapo type-K thermocouples I use lose their accuracy as I approach peak temps, but no way am I spending over $200 each for platinum thermocouples.
Anyway, my point, after reading TFA, it became pretty obvious that this stuff would work like a thermocouple, but you could fit many of them over a large area. It's isn't so much "nano-magic", as it would be a miniaturization of an idea that sees daily application. It sure would be cool if they get it functional.
Ok ya got me. How did you figure this out? After going back to the site, there is little identifying information about "tastyresearch".
Surely if they are power users, then tick off the check box next to "kde-desktop", press apply, wait a little while, logout, and login to KDE.
offtopic mod is fair, but it is hilarious in an odd way.
The subpoenas that got slammed were the ones that were signed by the clerk of the court in the absence of a filed court case. The solution, file a john doe suit and then issue the subpoena because then there is a filed court case.
You don't have to tell me that. The last Windows I owned or used was ME. But the existence of fringe OSes (and I don't mean "fring" to be any sort of insult, just an acceptance of market share data) doesn't mean that MS has not engaged in monopolistic pricing and practices.
Perhaps the better analogy would that there are several tofu burger joints giving out free lunches, and a meat burger joint charging $20 a meal. Nobody believes the tofu burgers are good, or somehow has managed to fail to notice the existence of these places, so people feel compelled to eat at the meat burger place and pay the crazy prices. Then there's lock-in, which I somehow can't fit into this lame meat burger analogy. The fact is, for most people, only Windows exists for one reason or another. Like how MS has coerced OEMs to put their OS on machines.
Terrible analogy. The fact that you have a choice to spend $10 or $6 on a burger means the price you paid was fair (if you thought the price was unfair, you would have gone elsewhere). Plainly, the more expensive burger joint thinks the merits of its burgers exceed those of the fast food joint's.
In contrast, the very point of monopoly litigation is that the is nowhere else to go. No competition.