I worked for a power company many years ago. Every time we tired to expand or improve the system the "not in my backyard" crowd and the environmental whacko did everything they could to stop what ever we were planning to build. While I am sure the power grid design is part of the problem don't blame it all on company management/engineering. The amount of red tape is unbelievable. My advise: Get UPS systems on critical systems and obtain your own backup generation for work and home.
As a society we elected to pay taxes to support public libraries therefore they are not exactly free. In my community we renewed a levy to fund library operation. Considering the slim margin of the passing vote I am not sure the community really wants a library. If the community votes out such levies then three outcomes are possible: 1. The library goes away, 2. it degrades to the point of being useless, or 3. it becomes a fee based system. If society wants to fund an infrastructure like WestLaw and LexisNexis then so be it and we get their value add for the cost of the tax. Do you really think society would fund such an endeavor? I don't think so. The type of data on WestLaw/Lexis is rather specialized and when it gets down to it only a small percentage of people would actually use it. Mostly the legal types which is what the service was designed for in the first place.
I have to shake my head every time I see some weed head proposing the "information is free" concept. Yes, it would be nice if it was free along with everything else. The FACT OF LIFE is that is takes MONEY to put this information online. There are servers, payroll, facilities, etc, etc, etc. This all takes money. Companies like WestLaw and LexisNexis add value to this information making it worthwhile to pay for. This information would not even be available with out the dollars to keep it online. I will step off my soapbox now....
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I worked for a power company many years ago. Every time we tired to expand or improve the system the "not in my backyard" crowd and the environmental whacko did everything they could to stop what ever we were planning to build. While I am sure the power grid design is part of the problem don't blame it all on company management/engineering. The amount of red tape is unbelievable. My advise: Get UPS systems on critical systems and obtain your own backup generation for work and home.
As a society we elected to pay taxes to support public libraries therefore they are not exactly free. In my community we renewed a levy to fund library operation. Considering the slim margin of the passing vote I am not sure the community really wants a library. If the community votes out such levies then three outcomes are possible: 1. The library goes away, 2. it degrades to the point of being useless, or 3. it becomes a fee based system. If society wants to fund an infrastructure like WestLaw and LexisNexis then so be it and we get their value add for the cost of the tax. Do you really think society would fund such an endeavor? I don't think so. The type of data on WestLaw/Lexis is rather specialized and when it gets down to it only a small percentage of people would actually use it. Mostly the legal types which is what the service was designed for in the first place.
I have to shake my head every time I see some weed head proposing the "information is free" concept. Yes, it would be nice if it was free along with everything else. The FACT OF LIFE is that is takes MONEY to put this information online. There are servers, payroll, facilities, etc, etc, etc. This all takes money. Companies like WestLaw and LexisNexis add value to this information making it worthwhile to pay for. This information would not even be available with out the dollars to keep it online. I will step off my soapbox now....