Motorola has been doing this with devices, even pre-cell phone revolution.
Look at their old pager lines - i.e. the Pronto, Bravo, etc. They used to let providers "lock down" the pager with a programming PIN. Want to change the capcode? You need the PIN. Put the PIN in too many times, and you have to replace the code plug, which meant factory service. (Essentially, you had a dead pager.)
See here: http://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/projects/pager/pagerpw.txt
Elenco made all the old lab kits for Radio Shack. They still sell the spring-terminal ones. Here's a page where they describe them:
http://www.elenco.com/prolabs.htm
They are VERY nice, and the upper-end ones have the schematics only (no numbered diagrams) in later experiments to encourage you to learn how to wire the circuits based upon schematics.
Yep, it'll encrypt your home directory in an encrypted disc image that is automatically mounted when you log in. Pretty transparent to the users. I feel comfortable having it enabled on my MacBook, since it's AES 128 encrypted.
Now we just need wireless power!
on
Wireless USB hubs
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I wonder how this will affect iChat users. After all, we can use the AIM service, but I don't think we go through a AIM TOS, because iChat is an Apple product.
It'd be interesting to see.....
Let's see. $3,332,500 + $135,000 out of $9,250,000 = $3,467,500 or 36% of the settlement fee is going directly to the laywer's pocket.
(Sarcasm)Do you think the law firm filed this just to get almost 3.5 million out of Paypal?(/Sarcasm) No way in hell that this cost them $3.5 million to litigate. Guess what, this gets passed on to the customers in the form of higher fees and stuff eventually.
10. HOW WILL THE LAWYERS FOR THE CLASS BE PAID?
>From the inception of the litigation in early 2002 to the present, Class Counsel have not received any payment for their services in prosecuting the case, nor have they been reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses. If the Court approves the proposed settlement, Class Counsel will make a motion to the Court for an award of attorneys' fees of up to $3,332,500 and reimbursement of expenses of up to $135,000, to be paid from the $9.25 million settlement fund. Class Counsel will also seek reimbursement from the settlement fund on behalf of certain of the named plaintiffs in the litigation for reimbursement of their expenses related to their service as class representatives in the litigation, in an aggregate amount not to exceed $15,000. The motion will be heard at the settlement hearing described below in Section 11.
That's true - but if you look at the plain percentage for the whole account, Nextel was taxing me 27%, and Cingular only taxes me 19%. The same federal,state, and 911 taxes, but entirely different "optional" charges make up the 8% difference.
Bottom line: Nextel is charging me 8% more to make money.
Looking at my last Nextel bill:
Wife's phone plan charge was $17.59. "Taxes" were $6.66 to bring the total to $24.25. That's 37% in taxes. The * ones ("Fees Nextel elects to collect to recover its costs of funding and complying with Gov't mandates and initiatives") were $3.11, or a grand total of almost 18% of my wife's bill.
To break it down, the Federal TRS charge was only 0.073% (0.01). The Univ Serv Assessment was 1.25% (0.27). The Cost program recovery fee was a flat $2.83.
My account plan rate was $47.54. Taxes were $10.98 to bring the total to $58.52. That's 23% in taxes. The * ones were: TRS Charge: 0.073% (0.04), Univ Serv Assessment 1.25% (0.65) and Cost recovery fee ($2.83). Result? $3.52 in these charges, or only 7% of my bill.
What makes me sick is this:
I was paying $65.13 a month to Nextel plus a total of $17.64 in taxes and fees. (A 27% tax rate!!!!).
Take my last Cingular bill (I just switched). My monthly service charges were $47.97. The fees on the account were $6.52 on the line with a $38.98 charge, and $2.71 on the line with the $8.99 charge. That's only 19%! Cingular charged me 17% on one line and 30% on the other (well, the second one is skewed since it only has a $8.99 plan.)
Cingular charged me only $1.07 for the Federal USF, and 0.60 for the "Cost Recovery Fee". The rest was a Federal/State and 911 tax. On the other phone, they charged me.25 for the USF and 0.60 for the Regulatory cost fee.
I find it real sneaky how these providers are doing this.....
Both sides are throwing out complaint websites. I'd really like to see Dish succeed at this - the local cable company just told us it was raising rates $3/mo. Good to see Dish is standing up for the extortion Viacom is doing.
I know quite a few people with VoIP for their "long distance" or "second" phone line. (I'm one of them). The reason I got VoIP was to save some money, not to replace my local POTS service.
VoIP has the added bonus of:
1) Unlimited long distance for cheap
2) A second phone line in case my wife is chatting on the first one
3) Costs the same as my wife calling her mother multiple times a day.
If you're going to have VoIP for a "primary line", for goodness sake, find the 10 digit "backup" number to your 911 center and post it on the phone, fridge, whatever. Or better yet, just use your cell phone for 911 calls.
Tracing these calls with VoIP's portability is going to be a nightmare. The best I can see the providers doing right now is kind of what Vonage is doing (forwarding calls to your local PSAP.)
If you think about it, Cingular has lots of markets with just 1900Mhz spectrum (California comes to mind.) AT&T has lots of markets with 800Mhz spectrum (California comes to mind).
With control of the old A-B band 800Mhz spectrum *and* a PCS 1900Mhz spectrum, Cingular's coverage is bound to just get better with the acquisition.
There are plenty of spaces where Cingular has 800Mhz spectrum (i.e. Chicago) and AT&T has the PCS spectrum. From all the complaints I hear about Cingular in the Chicago area, coverage is just bound to get better.
I hate these broadcasts, but I agree. I believe they are not dependent upon having an active Skytel account. I too received them before I activated my watch.
Other Motorola pagers have a 'maildrop' function as well..
Slashdot Mirror
Motorola has been doing this with devices, even pre-cell phone revolution. Look at their old pager lines - i.e. the Pronto, Bravo, etc. They used to let providers "lock down" the pager with a programming PIN. Want to change the capcode? You need the PIN. Put the PIN in too many times, and you have to replace the code plug, which meant factory service. (Essentially, you had a dead pager.) See here: http://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/projects/pager/pagerpw.txt
Elenco made all the old lab kits for Radio Shack. They still sell the spring-terminal ones. Here's a page where they describe them: http://www.elenco.com/prolabs.htm They are VERY nice, and the upper-end ones have the schematics only (no numbered diagrams) in later experiments to encourage you to learn how to wire the circuits based upon schematics.
Yep, it'll encrypt your home directory in an encrypted disc image that is automatically mounted when you log in. Pretty transparent to the users. I feel comfortable having it enabled on my MacBook, since it's AES 128 encrypted.
All we need now is wireless power! Heh.
I wonder how this will affect iChat users. After all, we can use the AIM service, but I don't think we go through a AIM TOS, because iChat is an Apple product. It'd be interesting to see.....
Maybe this will make things such as region lockout on videogame consoles, cell phone unlocking services, etc, legal.
Then again, if you start taking the analogy this far, then you get into a paradox with DVD region encoding.
Thoughts?
(Warning: Rant ahead)
Let's see. $3,332,500 + $135,000 out of $9,250,000 = $3,467,500 or 36% of the settlement fee is going directly to the laywer's pocket.
(Sarcasm)Do you think the law firm filed this just to get almost 3.5 million out of Paypal?(/Sarcasm) No way in hell that this cost them $3.5 million to litigate. Guess what, this gets passed on to the customers in the form of higher fees and stuff eventually.
10. HOW WILL THE LAWYERS FOR THE CLASS BE PAID? >From the inception of the litigation in early 2002 to the present, Class Counsel have not received any payment for their services in prosecuting the case, nor have they been reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses. If the Court approves the proposed settlement, Class Counsel will make a motion to the Court for an award of attorneys' fees of up to $3,332,500 and reimbursement of expenses of up to $135,000, to be paid from the $9.25 million settlement fund. Class Counsel will also seek reimbursement from the settlement fund on behalf of certain of the named plaintiffs in the litigation for reimbursement of their expenses related to their service as class representatives in the litigation, in an aggregate amount not to exceed $15,000. The motion will be heard at the settlement hearing described below in Section 11.
You notice that there's no "opt out" anywhere on the locateplus.com website.
At least some other database companies, such as lexis-nexis.com will let you at least opt out.
I wonder how long before these private databases are mandated to respond to "opt out" requests.
That's true - but if you look at the plain percentage for the whole account, Nextel was taxing me 27%, and Cingular only taxes me 19%. The same federal,state, and 911 taxes, but entirely different "optional" charges make up the 8% difference.
Bottom line: Nextel is charging me 8% more to make money.
Looking at my last Nextel bill: Wife's phone plan charge was $17.59. "Taxes" were $6.66 to bring the total to $24.25. That's 37% in taxes. The * ones ("Fees Nextel elects to collect to recover its costs of funding and complying with Gov't mandates and initiatives") were $3.11, or a grand total of almost 18% of my wife's bill.
.25 for the USF and 0.60 for the Regulatory cost fee.
To break it down, the Federal TRS charge was only 0.073% (0.01). The Univ Serv Assessment was 1.25% (0.27). The Cost program recovery fee was a flat $2.83.
My account plan rate was $47.54. Taxes were $10.98 to bring the total to $58.52. That's 23% in taxes. The * ones were: TRS Charge: 0.073% (0.04), Univ Serv Assessment 1.25% (0.65) and Cost recovery fee ($2.83). Result? $3.52 in these charges, or only 7% of my bill.
What makes me sick is this:
I was paying $65.13 a month to Nextel plus a total of $17.64 in taxes and fees. (A 27% tax rate!!!!).
Take my last Cingular bill (I just switched). My monthly service charges were $47.97. The fees on the account were $6.52 on the line with a $38.98 charge, and $2.71 on the line with the $8.99 charge. That's only 19%! Cingular charged me 17% on one line and 30% on the other (well, the second one is skewed since it only has a $8.99 plan.)
Cingular charged me only $1.07 for the Federal USF, and 0.60 for the "Cost Recovery Fee". The rest was a Federal/State and 911 tax. On the other phone, they charged me
I find it real sneaky how these providers are doing this.....
Both sides are throwing out complaint websites. I'd really like to see Dish succeed at this - the local cable company just told us it was raising rates $3/mo. Good to see Dish is standing up for the extortion Viacom is doing.
Dish has two links to complain: Complain to CBS here with a web form
E-mail them directly here
Wonder if we could slashdot CBS's web form? (grin)
I know quite a few people with VoIP for their "long distance" or "second" phone line. (I'm one of them). The reason I got VoIP was to save some money, not to replace my local POTS service. VoIP has the added bonus of: 1) Unlimited long distance for cheap 2) A second phone line in case my wife is chatting on the first one 3) Costs the same as my wife calling her mother multiple times a day. If you're going to have VoIP for a "primary line", for goodness sake, find the 10 digit "backup" number to your 911 center and post it on the phone, fridge, whatever. Or better yet, just use your cell phone for 911 calls. Tracing these calls with VoIP's portability is going to be a nightmare. The best I can see the providers doing right now is kind of what Vonage is doing (forwarding calls to your local PSAP.)
Just another day on the ISS when...
(Carl) Hey, Herb - there's something floating outside
(Herb) Well, take a picture of it with the camera on the robotic arm, for goodness sake!
(Carl) Uh, Herb, we have a problem. It *IS* the robotic arm.
If you think about it, Cingular has lots of markets with just 1900Mhz spectrum (California comes to mind.) AT&T has lots of markets with 800Mhz spectrum (California comes to mind). With control of the old A-B band 800Mhz spectrum *and* a PCS 1900Mhz spectrum, Cingular's coverage is bound to just get better with the acquisition. There are plenty of spaces where Cingular has 800Mhz spectrum (i.e. Chicago) and AT&T has the PCS spectrum. From all the complaints I hear about Cingular in the Chicago area, coverage is just bound to get better.
I hate these broadcasts, but I agree. I believe they are not dependent upon having an active Skytel account. I too received them before I activated my watch.
Other Motorola pagers have a 'maildrop' function as well..