What stops them is my 10000/1000 connection that I pay $100/month to get and the additional fees (like $10/month to Netflix) to get a small selection of movies on top of that because the MPAA refuses to allow direct competition with new DVD releases.
I guarantee you that if someone did some digging they'd find serious collusion with Blockbuster and the MPAA over Redbox and thus why Redbox isn't allowed to get the cheap new release DVDs it once did. God forbid we have cheap access to movies right away. If you have to pay $6/rental for them you'll think they're worth so much more money than $1/day.
Oh nevermind, this is why I no longer go to the movies either. If it's not on Redbox for $1 or Hulu for free I'm not going to watch it. Now if only I could get the rest of the world to do that too maybe the MPAA would really be worried.
Ok, this is wicked great in theory. Our programs have become bloated. We do have them taking up too much RAM, HD space, and CPU time. But after reading through this in-depth analysis I have to wonder if it's all worth it.
If we're willing to leave behind all pretenses of portability, we can make our program exit without having to link with anything else. First, though, we need to know how to make a system call under Linux.
Or I can just write it the old way, making the file size larger and not have to concern myself with portability and how to make system calls under Linux. After all that's what the whole point of this all was right?
Seriously? We can't handle the various cultures we live in relative close proximity too, do we really need to bring other races here to see the embarrassment we call Earth?
School board members are elected but they aren't necessarily as dumb when you see them on the ballot (remember, most people do no research into these people). Hell, a local school board here recently wanted to ban their members from using social networking to discuss board business because it might go counter to the groupthink: http://www.lazylightning.org/isd-192-school-board-hates-twittering-members
I think the point of this is that you shouldn't be showing public searchers your friend lists under any circumstances--especially Facebook.
Although for me most of the people on Facebook that I am "friends" with are people I knew in college. That doesn't necessarily mean we shared like interests, lived together or even were close. They added me and I wasn't so revolted by their existence that I said, "meh," and approved it.
As far as Twitter goes...most of the people that I follow on there are trimmed frequently. I go through and drop off the people I don't care for. I do a lot of water testing. Most of the people I do happen to follow I have never met in person nor do I plan to. I just happen to find what they say interesting whether I agree with it or not.
I guess I'm one of those people that causes this to go down to 80%.
I've tried the numerous broadband speed testers out there. Depending on where they are and who they are I have received results as low as 1/5th my actual bandwidth to twice as much. Sometimes I wondered if they were really trying at all. I generally judge my downstream on an average of what I get when I do an aptitude update ; aptitude upgrade as it seems to be inline with my actual advertised speeds. As far as downstream, I use my machine via SSH daily and the speeds I get through that. Pretty consistent.
This test was pretty much dead on accurate. I was 9993/975 (I have 10/1). The test was painless, easy, and the only thing I didn't particularly care for was the fact that they wanted your exact address. Wouldn't a simple portion of your address work well enough (e.g. 1xx Main St 90210) instead of the entire thing? Even if they were looking to aggregate the information by Zip+4 that should be enough, right? Who needs it any lower than that?
Or maybe they'll cave and have another button to "tab" between applications or just holding down the one they have will do it. I'm sure they'll come up with something but in the mean time I'll probably switch to Verizon and the Droid because it'll cost less and do more.
When Netflix offers a streaming only option for a reasonable price ($2.95 would be that price) then I would agree. Until then, Netflix is too expensive for me.
What business model are you talking about? I run *my* website out of my home--not other people's. I realize that for most people VPS is a great option, it's not for me. I like have 100% complete control over my machine including physical access to it.
Your cable bill is so high because consumers continue to allow cable companies to charge what they do. I dropped "cable" TV (I had DirecTV for a couple of years too) in 2008 and I have been much better off for it. We read more, we listen to more music, and we don't spend hours in front of the TV. I find it to be a win but I understand that entirely too many people do love their TV. Thankfully there are options:
1. OTA
This is what we have now. We watch some shows there and the quality is fine, when it works, and when the dog isn't walking in front of the antenna (I still don't understand how digital TV "upgrade" was a good compromise--at least when the signal didn't come in for the old way you could still see something or at least hear something).
2. Hulu/other streaming availability by network
We watch the majority of what we want to watch via Hulu. Yeah, I realize it's not the greatest option and not every show is on there but to be completely honest, you shouldn't be watching as much TV as you are anyway. Go outside or something;)
3. Movies/Internet
We used to spend $60 a month on TV. Now we have upgraded cable Internet (I run a website out of my home and needed business class anyway) and we use the Internet a lot more (my masters program is all online) and we spend about $3 a month on Redbox. $57 extra dollars is worth it people.
---
As for the bitching about not being able to catch the Oscars... Go to a friend's house, go to a bar, get an antenna, or just wait till the next day. Believe me, you're probably not missing much.
The public sector has the same motivation for shifted reasons. By increasing the time required for work they can rationalize additional funding for their department/human capital.
Is because there's no consequence for them doing a bad job, so they can take their own sweet time. You have to screw up pretty badly to get fired by the Federal government.
More than likely there are several reasons for this (not necessarily all at the same time--but perhaps):
1. They want to continue to increase staffing in their department. By proving that they are "swamped" with work they have more ability to do so. This increases the budget and thus the clout that the particular department has.
2. The process to upgrade the systems, and fill in all the historical information, would be too difficult on all levels (financial, training, and time) to do. It's easier to continue the antiquated processes.
3. The staff hired has been done so at a specific level of understanding. Upgrading the systems will create issues for these older unionized employees and thus they would need to be moved to another job, retrained and given a new job description and pay increase, or outright let go. Unions protect the employees against any kind of common sense options here and thus the status quo is preserved.
4. Some random political reason that we are not privy to.
5. The new system will not work nearly as well as the old because of various reasons including malice, incompetence, and bugs.
---
As a student of public administration, someone who lived through unionized state employment, and someone who tries to ensure the taxpayers are insulated from rising costs, I understand the desire for change to increase productivity and decrease time but the costs involved (human and otherwise) are much bigger than you'll ever care to think about.
Seriously, sometimes it's just better to live in the current world than bother screwing with something that "works".
It's easier to make an ass out of them on the Internet. Twitter is an effective tool (especially with Google indexing it in real time) in the fight against these assholes.
I eventually did get paid by a newspaper (include late charges) after three months. I have not been so successful with other businesses using my images in their marketing materials w/o my permission.
Oh and debt collection (when it's $300) isn't worth my time--neither is small claims.
And in the process find all the commercial sites using my copyrighted Flickr photos for their own purposes without my permission or payment. I'm tired of sending invoices and dealing with companies who tell you that your photo wasn't worth the $300 you charge and instead send you $50 thinking that it will clear up the matter.
I love the hypocrisy of all of this. They are just as much at fault as any of those aggregation blogs. They just have more money to be a pain in the ass.
95% of my content isn't just local, it's hyperlocal. Thank for asking about this as I did limit the analysis to those who I put into an "Advanced Segment" where the visitors' region was Minnesota.
maybe I just suck, I don't know, but it seems like it takes a week or two before people start really reading what I write, they always seem to read what I wrote a week or so ago instead of the new content.
As you write more often (say on a specific time schedule and daily) the people who don't read via RSS (which in my case is the majority of my readers) will learn to make going to your site a part of their daily routine and thus your visits on new material will go up.
I watched visiting trends, by hour, over the last two years in Google Analytics and picked 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM as the times to post material. It seemed as if most people were checking once in the morning when they got to the office and once at breaktime/lunchtime around 11 AM. To account for some of the time variance seen across those two years I went with 15 minutes earlier than the stats showed. Seems to work for me.
Slashdot Mirror
What stops them is my 10000/1000 connection that I pay $100/month to get and the additional fees (like $10/month to Netflix) to get a small selection of movies on top of that because the MPAA refuses to allow direct competition with new DVD releases.
I guarantee you that if someone did some digging they'd find serious collusion with Blockbuster and the MPAA over Redbox and thus why Redbox isn't allowed to get the cheap new release DVDs it once did. God forbid we have cheap access to movies right away. If you have to pay $6/rental for them you'll think they're worth so much more money than $1/day.
Oh nevermind, this is why I no longer go to the movies either. If it's not on Redbox for $1 or Hulu for free I'm not going to watch it. Now if only I could get the rest of the world to do that too maybe the MPAA would really be worried.
Ok, this is wicked great in theory. Our programs have become bloated. We do have them taking up too much RAM, HD space, and CPU time. But after reading through this in-depth analysis I have to wonder if it's all worth it.
If we're willing to leave behind all pretenses of portability, we can make our program exit without having to link with anything else. First, though, we need to know how to make a system call under Linux.
Or I can just write it the old way, making the file size larger and not have to concern myself with portability and how to make system calls under Linux. After all that's what the whole point of this all was right?
No non-profit organizations in the United States have to pay taxes.
Sometimes it's easier to pay the damn tax than fuck around with the paper work not to.
Seriously? We can't handle the various cultures we live in relative close proximity too, do we really need to bring other races here to see the embarrassment we call Earth?
School board members are elected but they aren't necessarily as dumb when you see them on the ballot (remember, most people do no research into these people). Hell, a local school board here recently wanted to ban their members from using social networking to discuss board business because it might go counter to the groupthink: http://www.lazylightning.org/isd-192-school-board-hates-twittering-members
Seriously, watch the video. It's classic.
Wow, white collar. I'm a bigger dumbass than usual today.
you have the right to be fired for no reason and have no recourse.
You mean like any at-will employee--like it should be because white color unions shouldn't exist in the first place?
I think the point of this is that you shouldn't be showing public searchers your friend lists under any circumstances--especially Facebook.
Although for me most of the people on Facebook that I am "friends" with are people I knew in college. That doesn't necessarily mean we shared like interests, lived together or even were close. They added me and I wasn't so revolted by their existence that I said, "meh," and approved it.
As far as Twitter goes...most of the people that I follow on there are trimmed frequently. I go through and drop off the people I don't care for. I do a lot of water testing. Most of the people I do happen to follow I have never met in person nor do I plan to. I just happen to find what they say interesting whether I agree with it or not.
I guess I'm one of those people that causes this to go down to 80%.
Worked fine in Chrome for me *shrug*.
I've tried the numerous broadband speed testers out there. Depending on where they are and who they are I have received results as low as 1/5th my actual bandwidth to twice as much. Sometimes I wondered if they were really trying at all. I generally judge my downstream on an average of what I get when I do an aptitude update ; aptitude upgrade as it seems to be inline with my actual advertised speeds. As far as downstream, I use my machine via SSH daily and the speeds I get through that. Pretty consistent.
This test was pretty much dead on accurate. I was 9993/975 (I have 10/1). The test was painless, easy, and the only thing I didn't particularly care for was the fact that they wanted your exact address. Wouldn't a simple portion of your address work well enough (e.g. 1xx Main St 90210) instead of the entire thing? Even if they were looking to aggregate the information by Zip+4 that should be enough, right? Who needs it any lower than that?
Or maybe they'll cave and have another button to "tab" between applications or just holding down the one they have will do it. I'm sure they'll come up with something but in the mean time I'll probably switch to Verizon and the Droid because it'll cost less and do more.
What is this? A late night infomercial?
Depends on your timezone I guess.
When Netflix offers a streaming only option for a reasonable price ($2.95 would be that price) then I would agree. Until then, Netflix is too expensive for me.
1995 called, they want their business model back.
What business model are you talking about? I run *my* website out of my home--not other people's. I realize that for most people VPS is a great option, it's not for me. I like have 100% complete control over my machine including physical access to it.
I have business class. There are no such restrictions.
Your cable bill is so high because consumers continue to allow cable companies to charge what they do. I dropped "cable" TV (I had DirecTV for a couple of years too) in 2008 and I have been much better off for it. We read more, we listen to more music, and we don't spend hours in front of the TV. I find it to be a win but I understand that entirely too many people do love their TV. Thankfully there are options:
1. OTA
This is what we have now. We watch some shows there and the quality is fine, when it works, and when the dog isn't walking in front of the antenna (I still don't understand how digital TV "upgrade" was a good compromise--at least when the signal didn't come in for the old way you could still see something or at least hear something).
2. Hulu/other streaming availability by network
We watch the majority of what we want to watch via Hulu. Yeah, I realize it's not the greatest option and not every show is on there but to be completely honest, you shouldn't be watching as much TV as you are anyway. Go outside or something ;)
3. Movies/Internet
We used to spend $60 a month on TV. Now we have upgraded cable Internet (I run a website out of my home and needed business class anyway) and we use the Internet a lot more (my masters program is all online) and we spend about $3 a month on Redbox. $57 extra dollars is worth it people.
---
As for the bitching about not being able to catch the Oscars... Go to a friend's house, go to a bar, get an antenna, or just wait till the next day. Believe me, you're probably not missing much.
If people were not insulating from the rising costs, they would pay more attention to what is happening around them politically.
Thanks for taking my comment out of context and twisting what I meant (although I suppose you may have been confused).
This is a perfect example of why people dislike unions, and why they are so unpopular in the US.
It's just one of the reasons.
The public sector has the same motivation for shifted reasons. By increasing the time required for work they can rationalize additional funding for their department/human capital.
Is because there's no consequence for them doing a bad job, so they can take their own sweet time. You have to screw up pretty badly to get fired by the Federal government.
More than likely there are several reasons for this (not necessarily all at the same time--but perhaps):
1. They want to continue to increase staffing in their department. By proving that they are "swamped" with work they have more ability to do so. This increases the budget and thus the clout that the particular department has.
2. The process to upgrade the systems, and fill in all the historical information, would be too difficult on all levels (financial, training, and time) to do. It's easier to continue the antiquated processes.
3. The staff hired has been done so at a specific level of understanding. Upgrading the systems will create issues for these older unionized employees and thus they would need to be moved to another job, retrained and given a new job description and pay increase, or outright let go. Unions protect the employees against any kind of common sense options here and thus the status quo is preserved.
4. Some random political reason that we are not privy to.
5. The new system will not work nearly as well as the old because of various reasons including malice, incompetence, and bugs.
---
As a student of public administration, someone who lived through unionized state employment, and someone who tries to ensure the taxpayers are insulated from rising costs, I understand the desire for change to increase productivity and decrease time but the costs involved (human and otherwise) are much bigger than you'll ever care to think about.
Seriously, sometimes it's just better to live in the current world than bother screwing with something that "works".
It's easier to make an ass out of them on the Internet. Twitter is an effective tool (especially with Google indexing it in real time) in the fight against these assholes.
I eventually did get paid by a newspaper (include late charges) after three months. I have not been so successful with other businesses using my images in their marketing materials w/o my permission.
Oh and debt collection (when it's $300) isn't worth my time--neither is small claims.
And in the process find all the commercial sites using my copyrighted Flickr photos for their own purposes without my permission or payment. I'm tired of sending invoices and dealing with companies who tell you that your photo wasn't worth the $300 you charge and instead send you $50 thinking that it will clear up the matter.
I love the hypocrisy of all of this. They are just as much at fault as any of those aggregation blogs. They just have more money to be a pain in the ass.
95% of my content isn't just local, it's hyperlocal. Thank for asking about this as I did limit the analysis to those who I put into an "Advanced Segment" where the visitors' region was Minnesota.
maybe I just suck, I don't know, but it seems like it takes a week or two before people start really reading what I write, they always seem to read what I wrote a week or so ago instead of the new content.
As you write more often (say on a specific time schedule and daily) the people who don't read via RSS (which in my case is the majority of my readers) will learn to make going to your site a part of their daily routine and thus your visits on new material will go up.
I watched visiting trends, by hour, over the last two years in Google Analytics and picked 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM as the times to post material. It seemed as if most people were checking once in the morning when they got to the office and once at breaktime/lunchtime around 11 AM. To account for some of the time variance seen across those two years I went with 15 minutes earlier than the stats showed. Seems to work for me.
Good luck.
My site is by no means something high traffic but Googlebot indexes my pages (and shows them in search results) within three minutes:
crawl-66-249-65-232.googlebot.com - - [04/Mar/2010:10:33:34 -0600] "GET /current-crime-decline-to-cause-public-safety-cuts HTTP/1.1" 200 47330 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
I really don't see a need for something to be any more "real time" than that for someone's blog. Do you?