if the regulator turned round and said 'the user can set a bill cap, and if you let them go over that, then it is your problem' then you can bet that the networks would pretty quickly find a way to get real-time, or near-real-time accounting working.
at the moment, there is no incentive for them to treat the customer reasonably; they just send the bill.
from reading at wikipedia (so must be true!) the block happens at the routing level, so simply using a different DNS server like open dns doesn't help.
That's kinda what we do in the UK with the house of Lords. Some folks (fewer now than before) get to inherit their position and ability to influence government.
people complain about unelected lords passing judgement, but there are advantages to having folks who never need to stand for election in a position to delay or modify laws. As an example, recently the house of lords has been instrumental in stopping the government proposal to allow 42 days detention without charge.
to be fair to palm, they have been very careful about avoiding the term 'iPhone killer'
From Newsweek: >>> So: is it an iPhone killer? McNamee wishes people wouldn't ask that question. "Everyone in the cell-phone business has missed the point. They're all trying to make an iPhone killer. I don't want to compete with Apple. Why the hell would you want to get in the way of that machine? I look at the guys who are trying to compete with Apple and I think, Are you guys crazy? I just want to learn from Apple's experience." >>>
Can anyone tell me why metered broadband isn't a good idea?
At the moment we have the crazy system where ISPs say that they are providing unlimited broadband, but then limit it. There is limited incentive for them to improve their networks as they'll just end up charging the same price and will still be unable to differentiate their service from the next 'unlimited' broadband provider.
With metered broadband, they would have a clear economic incentive to make sure you got exactly as much bandwidth as you want.
Throttling your service or messing with your bittorrent traffic would start costing them money instead of simply reducing your service at no cost to them.
ps: don't go for the classic problems (fibbonaci, prime numbers, etc) they're boring.
One reason people teach them is that they only require simple text output.
Scratch lets you use multimedia easily.
Start with a ball that bounces round the screen. Then add a bat or two for pong. Perhaps you'll add some different physics with gravity next or a timer of a life counter, or some blocks to bash.
you'll still be teaching loops, conditions, etc - but you'll really engage imaginations.
It is a brilliant graphical environment that focusses on multimedia projects - but which introduces standard concepts like variables, loops, conditions, etc.
e.g. to do a loop, you drag a loop graphic from the side. It looks a bit like a clamp and graphically wraps round 'blocks' of code.
There is no possibility of syntax problems like semi-colons at end of line, mis typed commands, etc - so it is a great way to introduce the concepts without the pain of precise syntactical communication (obviously, the programming ideas have to be precise)
Another major plus is that kids can easily make fun and significant programs rather than having to go through hours of boring text output programs.
Start here, show the kids how much fun it is to play when programming and the joy of creating applications. Then when they understand (and have used/debugged) the structural concepts, show them how to do the same in a text based language.
There is more; The programs will always compile and run (though may not do what the user expects). You can change the program while it runs. The environment is built for sharing programs (upload your app, download someone else's and change it). It is simple enough for 7 yr old kids to play meaningfully and rich enough that a bright 14 year old has plenty of scope to challenge themselves.
Give it a try, it is aimed exactly at your group, and I think it hits the mark brilliantly.
There have been cases. More specifically, there have been cases where person x is arrested. Their dna matches closely a crime. They are able to demonstrate a good alibi, so the police then find and convict a relative who had never been arrested or had DNA taken.
There is no arguing that this ruling will result in more people getting away with crimes. This is a bad thing.
Similarly, if everyone in the country had to submit a DNA profile - then there would be more valid convictions. That would be a good thing.
The question is 'Would it be worth it'?
I don't think it would be - I am naturally suspicious of the state and believe that if you give it too much power then that is likely to be abused.
It is quite possible that Wallmart lawyers said that they would have to give refunds, and that Wallmart have just decided to take the hit on the chin.
Given that only a tiny percentage of purchasers would ask for refunds - it might be a lot cheaper and simpler to shut down, give refunds where requested (or perhaps offer 'store credit') and move on rather than paying folks to maintain the DRM servers ad-infinitum.
It isn't just about whether they could make profit. It is about whether they would make more profit overall.
Let's say that a basic tower could make apple $100 of profit. Now imagine that a Mac Pro makes them $1000 of profit.
There are 10 customers. If the tower exists, then 10 of them buy it.
If the tower doesn't exist, then one of them folds and buys the Mac Pro.
Apple makes the same profit.
clearly, these numbers are out of my a**, but the product lineup is pretty clear. Apple will merrily do a great deal on a mini - but as soon as you want anything that hints that you are a pro (multi monitor? extra drives?) then they absolutely will not let you avoid the pro.
'It's typically inappropriate photos like holding up a can of beer at a party,' Saracino said.
I'm willing to bet that over 90% of student applicants have held up a beer at a party. I'm willing to bet that 90% of admission officers held beer at a party before going to college.
Only a tiny tiny minority of the population of the USA wait until they are 21 to start drinking. (from my informal research, most folks seem to start some time round 14-16 which is much as they do in the UK)
Why must everyone pretend nonetheless that they have never drunk alcohol at a party?
you might find that when you try Ubuntu, you start appreciating windows xp. Specifically the way it 'just works' with a huge variety of hardware.
I tried to switch recently and just ran into a series of problems which are presumably related to ubuntu not liking my 4yr old laptop.
The forums were moderately unhelpful - folks just wanted to assume that I had some standard problems (which I didn't) and so my threads disappeared.
The only updates to my threads recently have been a few folks piling on with 'we have that problem too' or 'yes, some folks have that problem, it doesn't seem to be fixed'.
I have ended up with a much older verison of ubuntu which doesn't support wpa (or at least not without much config editing and command line tomfoolery - and I don't know if that would work or not)
It's great that folks build Ubuntu and give it away - but for me it some way away from being able to reliably replace Windows XP
you might be downloading torrents at max speed day and night, but for most folks they care about the speed for time they are actually using their connection.
if they get 6mbit/sec for the couple of hours a day when they are online - then it really is a 6mbit/sec connection.
so comcast has published their cap. That means that your total monthly bandwidth is capped - it doesn't mean it is no longer a 6mbit/sec connection.
why does 'taking responsibility' have to mean going to jail?
the kid _did_ plead guilty. He paid a fine. If he is now going to move on and become a productive member of society (possibly even using his 'skillz' for good) then that seems like a perfect outcome.
naively, it seems that all you'd need to do to recover state after hibernation would be to repopulate the ram. So the time to load 3gigs of memory from disk to ram should be your wake-up time.
what else _has_ to happen before I can start using my pc?
(e.g. I'm happy for my network connection to take a couple of extra seconds to negotiate a lease from my router after I start work)
forget the address requirement - I'm still keen to know why I am asked
'Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with nazi Germany or its allies?'
I'm assuming that the dangerous kind of terrorist or spy will have had enough training to know that ticking the 'No' box is the best way to continue about their business...
My understanding is that you just have to be classed as an enemy combatant to lose the whole habeas corpus etc. - though of course there would be more fuss if a white middle class chap was arrested in chicago and sent to Guantanamo.
In theory, it doesn't take much to be classed as an enemy combatant.
T-Mobile builds supports/manages the network and infrastructure T-Mobile charges folks to use the network and then gives x% of that revenue to starbucks (x is probably a fairly small number).
5ish years ago, that looked like a pretty sweet deal to starbucks. They're not in a position to train staff at every store to manage / support the network (not without large cost anyway), so this way they got all their shops kitted out with a useful service for free, plus they make some extra cash.
Now they're giving away the access, and t-mobile are unsurprisingly pissed off. They built a great big network and now they aren't getting paid for it's use. Moreover, t-mobile still have to provide a call centre to deal with people who can't connect and maintenance for hotspots that break.
this gives them a financial incentive to not meddle. If they make it easy for you to torrent large files, they make it easy for you to run up bigger bills and pay more.
there is certainly room for gaining, but this is much closer to well-aligned incentives.
Slashdot Mirror
if the regulator turned round and said 'the user can set a bill cap, and if you let them go over that, then it is your problem' then you can bet that the networks would pretty quickly find a way to get real-time, or near-real-time accounting working.
at the moment, there is no incentive for them to treat the customer reasonably; they just send the bill.
please share - how can we avoid this block?
from reading at wikipedia (so must be true!) the block happens at the routing level, so simply using a different DNS server like open dns doesn't help.
That's kinda what we do in the UK with the house of Lords. Some folks (fewer now than before) get to inherit their position and ability to influence government.
people complain about unelected lords passing judgement, but there are advantages to having folks who never need to stand for election in a position to delay or modify laws. As an example, recently the house of lords has been instrumental in stopping the government proposal to allow 42 days detention without charge.
UK judges are not elected. The selection process is designed to be non-political.
to be fair to palm, they have been very careful about avoiding the term 'iPhone killer'
From Newsweek:
>>>
So: is it an iPhone killer? McNamee wishes people wouldn't ask that question. "Everyone in the cell-phone business has missed the point. They're all trying to make an iPhone killer. I don't want to compete with Apple. Why the hell would you want to get in the way of that machine? I look at the guys who are trying to compete with Apple and I think, Are you guys crazy? I just want to learn from Apple's experience."
>>>
Can anyone tell me why metered broadband isn't a good idea?
At the moment we have the crazy system where ISPs say that they are providing unlimited broadband, but then limit it. There is limited incentive for them to improve their networks as they'll just end up charging the same price and will still be unable to differentiate their service from the next 'unlimited' broadband provider.
With metered broadband, they would have a clear economic incentive to make sure you got exactly as much bandwidth as you want.
Throttling your service or messing with your bittorrent traffic would start costing them money instead of simply reducing your service at no cost to them.
ps: don't go for the classic problems (fibbonaci, prime numbers, etc) they're boring.
One reason people teach them is that they only require simple text output.
Scratch lets you use multimedia easily.
Start with a ball that bounces round the screen.
Then add a bat or two for pong.
Perhaps you'll add some different physics with gravity next or a timer of a life counter, or some blocks to bash.
you'll still be teaching loops, conditions, etc - but you'll really engage imaginations.
MIT released scratch a while back
http://scratch.mit.edu/
It is a brilliant graphical environment that focusses on multimedia projects - but which introduces standard concepts like variables, loops, conditions, etc.
e.g. to do a loop, you drag a loop graphic from the side. It looks a bit like a clamp and graphically wraps round 'blocks' of code.
There is no possibility of syntax problems like semi-colons at end of line, mis typed commands, etc - so it is a great way to introduce the concepts without the pain of precise syntactical communication (obviously, the programming ideas have to be precise)
Another major plus is that kids can easily make fun and significant programs rather than having to go through hours of boring text output programs.
Start here, show the kids how much fun it is to play when programming and the joy of creating applications. Then when they understand (and have used/debugged) the structural concepts, show them how to do the same in a text based language.
There is more; The programs will always compile and run (though may not do what the user expects). You can change the program while it runs. The environment is built for sharing programs (upload your app, download someone else's and change it). It is simple enough for 7 yr old kids to play meaningfully and rich enough that a bright 14 year old has plenty of scope to challenge themselves.
Give it a try, it is aimed exactly at your group, and I think it hits the mark brilliantly.
not only can everyone in the country get a mobile phone. Terrorists can too!
Quick - more laws needed. Terrorists should not be able to get phones.
There have been cases.
More specifically, there have been cases where person x is arrested. Their dna matches closely a crime. They are able to demonstrate a good alibi, so the police then find and convict a relative who had never been arrested or had DNA taken.
There is no arguing that this ruling will result in more people getting away with crimes.
This is a bad thing.
Similarly, if everyone in the country had to submit a DNA profile - then there would be more valid convictions.
That would be a good thing.
The question is 'Would it be worth it'?
I don't think it would be - I am naturally suspicious of the state and believe that if you give it too much power then that is likely to be abused.
shouldn't that be
"6% more reliable over the course of a year?"
what with 94.4%/88.8% = 1.06
open as in 'you can see/mess with the source code'
not open as in 'when the software is built and installed on your device, you can do whatever you like with the device'.
the devices are less locked down then the iPhone - but apps aren't allowed to do just any old thing.
It is quite possible that Wallmart lawyers said that they would have to give refunds, and that Wallmart have just decided to take the hit on the chin.
Given that only a tiny percentage of purchasers would ask for refunds - it might be a lot cheaper and simpler to shut down, give refunds where requested (or perhaps offer 'store credit') and move on rather than paying folks to maintain the DRM servers ad-infinitum.
It isn't just about whether they could make profit. It is about whether they would make more profit overall.
Let's say that a basic tower could make apple $100 of profit. Now imagine that a Mac Pro makes them $1000 of profit.
There are 10 customers. If the tower exists, then 10 of them buy it.
If the tower doesn't exist, then one of them folds and buys the Mac Pro.
Apple makes the same profit.
clearly, these numbers are out of my a**, but the product lineup is pretty clear. Apple will merrily do a great deal on a mini - but as soon as you want anything that hints that you are a pro (multi monitor? extra drives?) then they absolutely will not let you avoid the pro.
'It's typically inappropriate photos like holding up a can of beer at a party,' Saracino said.
I'm willing to bet that over 90% of student applicants have held up a beer at a party. I'm willing to bet that 90% of admission officers held beer at a party before going to college.
Only a tiny tiny minority of the population of the USA wait until they are 21 to start drinking. (from my informal research, most folks seem to start some time round 14-16 which is much as they do in the UK)
Why must everyone pretend nonetheless that they have never drunk alcohol at a party?
you might find that when you try Ubuntu, you start appreciating windows xp. Specifically the way it 'just works' with a huge variety of hardware.
I tried to switch recently and just ran into a series of problems which are presumably related to ubuntu not liking my 4yr old laptop.
The forums were moderately unhelpful - folks just wanted to assume that I had some standard problems (which I didn't) and so my threads disappeared.
The only updates to my threads recently have been a few folks piling on with 'we have that problem too' or 'yes, some folks have that problem, it doesn't seem to be fixed'.
I have ended up with a much older verison of ubuntu which doesn't support wpa (or at least not without much config editing and command line tomfoolery - and I don't know if that would work or not)
It's great that folks build Ubuntu and give it away - but for me it some way away from being able to reliably replace Windows XP
oh come on.
you might be downloading torrents at max speed day and night, but for most folks they care about the speed for time they are actually using their connection.
if they get 6mbit/sec for the couple of hours a day when they are online - then it really is a 6mbit/sec connection.
so comcast has published their cap. That means that your total monthly bandwidth is capped - it doesn't mean it is no longer a 6mbit/sec connection.
one benefit of seperating the two is that it forces customers to stay aware of what/how they are being taxed.
there is a difference between knowing that vat is 17.5% and seeing an extra line item appear on your bill every time.
This whole thread is about how companies use bundling to hide charges. The US doesn't allow the government to hide the tax by bundling !
why does 'taking responsibility' have to mean going to jail?
the kid _did_ plead guilty. He paid a fine. If he is now going to move on and become a productive member of society (possibly even using his 'skillz' for good) then that seems like a perfect outcome.
why _Does_ it have to take so long?
naively, it seems that all you'd need to do to recover state after hibernation would be to repopulate the ram. So the time to load 3gigs of memory from disk to ram should be your wake-up time.
what else _has_ to happen before I can start using my pc?
(e.g. I'm happy for my network connection to take a couple of extra seconds to negotiate a lease from my router after I start work)
forget the address requirement - I'm still keen to know why I am asked
'Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with nazi Germany or its allies?'
I'm assuming that the dangerous kind of terrorist or spy will have had enough training to know that ticking the 'No' box is the best way to continue about their business...
My understanding is that you just have to be classed as an enemy combatant to lose the whole habeas corpus etc. - though of course there would be more fuss if a white middle class chap was arrested in chicago and sent to Guantanamo.
In theory, it doesn't take much to be classed as an enemy combatant.
That's the problem with consumers today. They'd rather "lease" a discounted phone and pay more in the longer term with higher locked in rates.
Cell phone buyers are the worst for this, they more or less destroy the market for buying phones seperately.
The deal will have been something like this:
T-Mobile builds supports/manages the network and infrastructure
T-Mobile charges folks to use the network and then gives x% of that revenue to starbucks (x is probably a fairly small number).
5ish years ago, that looked like a pretty sweet deal to starbucks. They're not in a position to train staff at every store to manage / support the network (not without large cost anyway), so this way they got all their shops kitted out with a useful service for free, plus they make some extra cash.
Now they're giving away the access, and t-mobile are unsurprisingly pissed off. They built a great big network and now they aren't getting paid for it's use. Moreover, t-mobile still have to provide a call centre to deal with people who can't connect and maintenance for hotspots that break.
this gives them a financial incentive to not meddle. If they make it easy for you to torrent large files, they make it easy for you to run up bigger bills and pay more.
there is certainly room for gaining, but this is much closer to well-aligned incentives.