The government doesn't tell the ISPs what to charge for internet access
Of course, this isn't about the price of gas (services). Here's a better analogy:
I pay right now about $2.60/gallon for gas. Higher grades cost more. Similary, I pay about $40/month for a basic broadband connection. Higher speeds cost more. This I understand.
What the telecoms want to do is charge me (or Google) again for the same gas. They're saying if I want to actually get the 20 gallons I'm looking to buy, at least in a timely manner, I need to pay up again. This is wrong.
The telecoms' mistake is this: pull this on Joe Citizen, they might get away with it. Not so with Google. The 800-lb gorilla will rip off their arm and beat them bloody with it. And I will laugh when it happens.
When the first Playstation came out, it was way cheaper than even a modest PC. Now, consoles are going to end up costing more than many entry-level PC's. I know that any serious gaming PC will still cost more than these consoles, but come on...
is reading. Without this, nobody can develop a "voice" for writing. Unfortunately, too many engineering students I have known say that the only reading they do is what's required: textbooks, manuals, etc.
Also unfortunately, you can't force yourself to read because you think it's good for you. You read if you want, otherwise you do not. I read because I enjoy it, not because of some higher duty.
I am not sure what the stats are, but how many successful authors have also not been voracious readers?
What does owning the patent on an encryption system have to do with its strength? If I owned the patent on the one-time pad, does that mean I have somehow got a magical ability to crack it?
Not saying NSA owns DES (I don't know who does), but even if they did, its ownership doesn't necessarily confer any special abilities.
First time I've seen AOL, Urinal Cakes, and Lexmark mentioned in the same (digital) breath. Curiously appropriate for the topic of brazen government intrusion into our lives and Constitution (soon to be treated like a urinal cake).
I can't remember if he was calculating it or reciting it, but he was doing it all out of his head. No calculator, nothing. Took him several hours to complete. He also had a facility for learning foreign languages: he learned Icelandic over a period of a few days, went from zero to near-native speaking.
I saw this show on Discovery about the rare math genius who was also NOT otherwise mentally handicapped. He could calculate Pi to 40,000 decimals or something. He used play-doh to describe how he visualized different numbers. For instance, 637 was a green saddle-shaped thing. (Or whatever, I don't remember.)
He got that way after suffering (as a young child) a very specific brain injury as a result of a disease. No mention of any radioactive poisonous spiders, however.
I'm all for network neutrality, but if the re-introduction of the broadcast flag is the price we pay for it, I'm not sure what to think.
So either way, some evil bastards win. Broadcast flag gets in and the MPAA wins, or AT&T gets to extort money for not throttling bandwidth. And we all know that both parties will get what they want, sooner or later anyhow. If not this bill, then the next. They just haven't picked the right "campaign contributions" yet. Bitter? Yes.
the federal power grab of all decision making, the lack of decision making on important issues
So... the federal power grab of all unimportant decisions? Or maybe, the power grab of all decision making, they just don't do anything important with it.
I hear what you're saying, just that's the way it sounds.
If the NFL and UPS can strike, so can Google. One day without Google, and the telecoms' customers will go apeshit and fucking melt their switchboard in India.
We have a Congress whose only thought is to their lobbyists, not their constituents. So the rest of us are left to the law of the 800-lb. gorilla.
Well, Google is the 800-lb gorilla. I look forward to when Google sees fit to serve up some attitude correction: "Sit down, shut up, and don't MAKE ME come back there."
Behavioural interviewing is a very dodgy 'science'.
I took one of those damned tests applying for a job a couple weeks ago. One question asked if I ever lied. How the hell am I supposed to answer that? Of course I lie. But what answer do they want? Do they avoid hiring people who admit to lying, or those who say they never lie (which must be a lie)? Similar thing about stealing: who can honestly say they have never EVER stolen anything EVER in their lives, whether intentionally or by omission? And yet the tests want us to say we don't steal, and have never stolen.
When it comes to passing those tests, there's the honest answer, and then there's the "right" answer. They know they're bullshit questions, we know they know they're bullshit questions, but they want it clear that the price of entry is mouthing the "right" answer, that we should all admire the Emperor's new clothes, and never ever say BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!
is what they should have called it, and then bundled it with a copy of "God of War". Of course, Cerberus is harder to say than Triplehead, and then there's that great whooshing sound of it going over a whole bunch of people's heads.
How about who owns what? With DRM'd music, and Right-of-First-Sale compromised, downloading some music is not quite as clear cut an ownership as buying a toaster. (I can re-sell a toaster, or a CD, but how can I re-sell a DRM'd music download?)
I suppose they could just call it a service and put a sales tax on all services. Maybe some states already do this (?).
maybe they should offer some of these episodes the day *before* they air
I have seen this being done with some regular shows (such as "Thief") as a PPV event, 2 or 3 days before the normal airing time. Can't say there is any show I'm that anxious to see that I would actually pay money to see it early. Maybe some TF'ers would.
Imagine a/. account being in continuous use for 150 years. (Imagine/. being around that long.) Digital accounts obviously can have a life independent of their owners. I wonder how many low number/. accounts have actually been sold on Ebay.
Place a person in a totalitarian nightmare. He fights back.
Slowly or quickly, the result is the same. Where the analogy breaks down is that the society, though now oppressed, is not dead by metaphorical boiling. Can't be, or who's to suppress?
We tend to think that once we become totalitarian, that's it, it's too late. Well, it's too late for peaceful change. Eventually, maybe years or decades later, the pendulum will swing back.
And when it does, many people in this country, innocent and evil alike, will die. It's the sad Malthusian cycle of governments.
Either this is real and Exxon buys them out and stores the blueprints in a warehouse right next to the Arc of the Covenant and the 80mpg carburetor, or it's all bullshit.
Seriously, this would be the biggest thing since the invention of the AC dynamo, and as such would have a profound effect on the world's economy and socio-political power structure. And many folks out there hate change.
can go both ways. If the NFL and the Teamsters can strike, so can Google. Any ISP that threatens to try this multi-tiered shit, needs to have some attitude correction by having their Google shut off for a few weeks. Bad for the users, I know, and some would say grossly unfair to them, but it's the price of subscribing to an ISP with evil intent.
My only reservation is that it would signal a beginning to a fragmentation of the Internet. A kind of digital civil war where ISP's ban other ISP's over business squabbles.
The shady part to me is that Marvel and DC claim co-ownership of it.
I agree. If something like this were to stand, the USPTO should insist that only one of them can actually OWN the trademark. Then just stand back and watch the fur fly.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, this isn't about the price of gas (services). Here's a better analogy:
I pay right now about $2.60/gallon for gas. Higher grades cost more. Similary, I pay about $40/month for a basic broadband connection. Higher speeds cost more. This I understand.
What the telecoms want to do is charge me (or Google) again for the same gas. They're saying if I want to actually get the 20 gallons I'm looking to buy, at least in a timely manner, I need to pay up again. This is wrong.
The telecoms' mistake is this: pull this on Joe Citizen, they might get away with it. Not so with Google. The 800-lb gorilla will rip off their arm and beat them bloody with it. And I will laugh when it happens.
When the first Playstation came out, it was way cheaper than even a modest PC. Now, consoles are going to end up costing more than many entry-level PC's. I know that any serious gaming PC will still cost more than these consoles, but come on...
That's what the game needs. Watch everybody join the campaign just to get a wack at him: stab, slice, gouge, gore, garrote, immolate, and yes, impale.
I thought they were already dead. Or bankrupt. Whatever. (Yes, I know Ch.11 is not necessarily THE end.)
Also unfortunately, you can't force yourself to read because you think it's good for you. You read if you want, otherwise you do not. I read because I enjoy it, not because of some higher duty.
I am not sure what the stats are, but how many successful authors have also not been voracious readers?
for everybody pointing and laughing at his "chick" car with built-in flower vase. Now it's a jet-propelled chick car.
What does owning the patent on an encryption system have to do with its strength? If I owned the patent on the one-time pad, does that mean I have somehow got a magical ability to crack it?
Not saying NSA owns DES (I don't know who does), but even if they did, its ownership doesn't necessarily confer any special abilities.
See, it ties in.
Not sure about the spelling, but pretty sure of the what-me-worry? pedigree...
I can't remember if he was calculating it or reciting it, but he was doing it all out of his head. No calculator, nothing. Took him several hours to complete. He also had a facility for learning foreign languages: he learned Icelandic over a period of a few days, went from zero to near-native speaking.
He got that way after suffering (as a young child) a very specific brain injury as a result of a disease. No mention of any radioactive poisonous spiders, however.
So either way, some evil bastards win. Broadcast flag gets in and the MPAA wins, or AT&T gets to extort money for not throttling bandwidth. And we all know that both parties will get what they want, sooner or later anyhow. If not this bill, then the next. They just haven't picked the right "campaign contributions" yet. Bitter? Yes.
Allegedly. Diebold = High Treason. Like to see their heads on a spear.
So... the federal power grab of all unimportant decisions? Or maybe, the power grab of all decision making, they just don't do anything important with it.
I hear what you're saying, just that's the way it sounds.
We have a Congress whose only thought is to their lobbyists, not their constituents. So the rest of us are left to the law of the 800-lb. gorilla.
Well, Google is the 800-lb gorilla. I look forward to when Google sees fit to serve up some attitude correction: "Sit down, shut up, and don't MAKE ME come back there."
I took one of those damned tests applying for a job a couple weeks ago. One question asked if I ever lied. How the hell am I supposed to answer that? Of course I lie. But what answer do they want? Do they avoid hiring people who admit to lying, or those who say they never lie (which must be a lie)? Similar thing about stealing: who can honestly say they have never EVER stolen anything EVER in their lives, whether intentionally or by omission? And yet the tests want us to say we don't steal, and have never stolen.
When it comes to passing those tests, there's the honest answer, and then there's the "right" answer. They know they're bullshit questions, we know they know they're bullshit questions, but they want it clear that the price of entry is mouthing the "right" answer, that we should all admire the Emperor's new clothes, and never ever say BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!
is what they should have called it, and then bundled it with a copy of "God of War". Of course, Cerberus is harder to say than Triplehead, and then there's that great whooshing sound of it going over a whole bunch of people's heads.
How about who owns what? With DRM'd music, and Right-of-First-Sale compromised, downloading some music is not quite as clear cut an ownership as buying a toaster. (I can re-sell a toaster, or a CD, but how can I re-sell a DRM'd music download?)
I suppose they could just call it a service and put a sales tax on all services. Maybe some states already do this (?).
How do you pronouce that? Abacus?
I have seen this being done with some regular shows (such as "Thief") as a PPV event, 2 or 3 days before the normal airing time. Can't say there is any show I'm that anxious to see that I would actually pay money to see it early. Maybe some TF'ers would.
Imagine a /. account being in continuous use for 150 years. (Imagine /. being around that long.) Digital accounts obviously can have a life independent of their owners. I wonder how many low number /. accounts have actually been sold on Ebay.
Slowly or quickly, the result is the same. Where the analogy breaks down is that the society, though now oppressed, is not dead by metaphorical boiling. Can't be, or who's to suppress?
We tend to think that once we become totalitarian, that's it, it's too late. Well, it's too late for peaceful change. Eventually, maybe years or decades later, the pendulum will swing back.
And when it does, many people in this country, innocent and evil alike, will die. It's the sad Malthusian cycle of governments.
Harry Seldon would have predicted it.
Seriously, this would be the biggest thing since the invention of the AC dynamo, and as such would have a profound effect on the world's economy and socio-political power structure. And many folks out there hate change.
My only reservation is that it would signal a beginning to a fragmentation of the Internet. A kind of digital civil war where ISP's ban other ISP's over business squabbles.
I agree. If something like this were to stand, the USPTO should insist that only one of them can actually OWN the trademark. Then just stand back and watch the fur fly.