Honestly, you don't get much engagement on the weekends, so this really should be something that is exposed on the weekdays. Having it come out during the weekend just sucks, really.
Muni broadband fails in most areas because states have granted monopolies to the telco's and cable companies. The only reason the fiber behind my house isn't lit is because the telco for the area said they'd sue if it was. It doesn't matter that the Public Utilities District owns the lines, it's because it would provide the service that the state granted to the telco/cable company. There was a big deal when cable started allowing two-way communications over it's network in the late 90's because the telcos believed they were the only ones allowed to provide bi-directional services such as the internet.
Until the monopolies on telecommunications via any device are broken up, that's the story for anyone who doesn't live in a densely populated enough region. It's also why I seem to have higher taxes and service fees for the same internet my friends and family get, just because I live in a rural area and they live in a city.
I can't use my cell phone for all the computers in my home to get online, so that's not competition. I have 2 choices where I live, slow DSL from the phone company or fast cable connectivity with a cap based on some arbitrary number. Neither is the best option, and fiber will likely never be available where I'm at due to it being a rural area without thousands of people to sign up to it.
Until ALL lines are available to ALL providers without lease requirements from the incumbents who can drop lessees, there is no real competition. If the cable company came out tomorrow and said all users in my zip code now have to pay 1000% more for internet, we'd have to just suck it up and pay.
How is it naive to think that? Comcast punches into people's browsing all the time when they get close to their data cap. You get warning after warning, and then you're told that you've been charged. They already interfere with your HTTP or HTTPS streams to put that info there.
You make requests against their DNS servers, your header information still goes across their network, so they can see the entirety of the URL. How else do you think the whole 3-strikes copyright rule was supposed to work. They can see the necessary unencrypted data that requests the encrypted data to know what's going on.
Funny, I live in a fairly populated county. I have 2 choices and one of those is >5 Mbps.
Until there is a choice in who I get to use as my provider, then the company providing service has no right determining what I can and cannot see. If they can, then they are most definitely no longer a provider of the internet and are no better than AOL was back in the early 1990's.
If I order a product from Amazon (I'm also in WA State) and ship it to my house, I get charged the 8.8% sales tax that includes my city/county taxes. If I ship that same package to my daughter's dorm, I get charged 8.3% sales tax. It doesn't matter that Amazon is in Seattle, it matters where the final product will be delivered.
IIRC, you pay the state, along with a report of where the goods were sold to just like a photographer does when they shoot at different locations, as it's based on where the photos are delivered to. The state then distributes the city and county portions of sales tax to those municipalities.
The problem is that it's not 50 different tax rates. It's sometimes several hundred per state. If I drive one town over and purchase a 99c taxable item, it'll cost me $1.07 due to taxes. If I drive two towns over and by the same 99c item, it'll cost me $1.08 because the tax rate is different due to city and county taxes. Unless the rules state that it needs to be the base state tax, and the local municipalities are not going to get their share, you're looking at a large number of tax districts.
Look at Seattle and their sugary drink tax. If I drive a little further to Tukwila, I don't have to pay that extra tax. So, if I have that same bottle of Pepsi or Coke delivered to my house, will I have to pay that tax or not?
That's where it will get interesting. Photographers have been dealing with this for as long as sales tax has been around. If you take a picture that you plan to sell, you have to collect the sales tax based on where the photo was taken a lot of the time.
But that doesn't mean we won't prioritize someone else over you.
I could care less if they don't block and don't throttle, but they will still prioritize those that pay ahead of all others. That's part of the problem. Paid prioritization is just as bad as throttling the other guys. If someone searches a video and it's glitchy because the version on YouTube is faster, then they accomplish the same goal.
The *ONLY* exception to prioritization should be life saving services. E911 calls should be given priority on all networks that carry VoIP. Telemedicine should also be given priority. As should traffic from first responders in an emergency situation.
However, that's where it should end. There shouldn't be a reason that HBO can deliver 4k content without buffering from time to time, yet Showtime can't. There's no reason I should be able to watch an NFL game on Amazon and have it look, sound, seem better than the same game on Twitter (unless of course they have insufficient bandwidth on their end, then that's up to them to fix as a part of doing business).
Because you live in an area where that is feasible. Rural communities, in many areas, still don't have anything better than 56k dialup or slow DSL. There are still areas that I drive in where no cell service exists. Companies only put money where populations are, and therefore can skip other areas because the "average" coverage for the state, county, or region is enough.
This is why you see municipal broadband taking off in areas where it can (e.g. Colorado). The big telco/cable monopolies don't want to run wire where they think it won't be profitable within a very short time, so they just neglect that area.
I'd like to see more communities nullify the monopoly deals that a large provider has and be allowed to set up their own networks. There's no reason the PUD in my area couldn't offer broadband, except for the fact that CenturyLink and Comcast have agreements with too many cities in the area and it gives them monopolies in coverage.
Mine has that on it, as well, as do my kids' SSN cards. To my knowledge, it's on all SSN cards, though I haven't seen any that are newer than 11 years ago.
I've had my credit frozen for 2 years now and haven't had an issue getting a loan. I go to the site of the reporting agency they use, request a pin, give the pin to the lender, then done. Not sure where there'd be an issue. I highly recommend a freeze. It's been the most painless thing I've had to deal with in getting a refinance on my mortgage, 2 car loans, a personal loan, and a new credit card.
Granted, you won't be able to simply go to Best Buy and request a new card, but if you need to do that, then you should re-check your finances before getting a new gadget from them.
I agree. If you're a company such as the big 3 creditors, even without a breach, you should be required to provide these services free of charge to those whose data you hold. You have that data, it's your responsibility to ensure it is not misused. If you can't do that, then you shouldn't be a provider of a service that is as critical to life in the US as the air that is breathed by those that live there.
The second is only usb 1.1, but for a mouse and keyboard you probably don't need much more than that. You would need to wire each end directly to each side using CAT6 and there might be other devices to run USB 2.0/3.0 over CAT, but these work fine for me. I run them about 85' between my kids' room and the living room so they can watch netflix and play minecraft.
The problem with that is where I am at, there's typically no voice coverage, either. There are huge areas in rural Western, WA that you can't get a cell signal because there's hills and mountains between you and any towers. What's even more funny is that when I'm at home, I get service from one tower that is 40 miles away. If the power goes out, there's no other tower nearby to take the calls, and there's no plan for any of the telco's to put one in. Heck, the one tower that feeds 4 towns (one having a population of 4 - 5000) is typically down for a total of about a month out of the year. Instead of putting a little money into upgrading it and it's capacity, they simply put money into fixing an EDGE tower, where a 3G or LTE tower would make more sense.
The problem isn't that they can't upgrade the tower, it's that they don't want to because the other company that uses their bands would also reap the benefits of the newer tower and access due to sharing agreements. For them, keeping us on limited voice + EDGE is the best way to go, I guess.
I thought Money was retired in 2008. I know you couldn't purchase a 2009 version of it, as they didn't make it.
The saddest thing about that is that Money was actually one GOOD piece of software, especially compared to Quicken and the other bill management software that's been out there.
Actually, it's not that bad. I use Windows as my HTPC box because I can't get reliable Blu-Ray support on Linux. I turned off UAC, set every notification icon to minimize and not display notifications, and pretty much leave Windows Media Center up on the screen or switch to VLC. In the rare instance I have to use a webbrowser to watch a show (CBS... I'm looking at you), I have the option available, and can still get pretty good quality out of it.
Now if only I could get a better video card that has an intel chipset on it (nvidia and ati suck for this), so it would fit my screen without requiring me to change the zoom settings and HD audio. As it sits right now, the older intel chipset only supports 2 channel audio over HDMI.
The other major difference is that Hulu on PS3 will play at 720 & 1080, on the PC it's capped at 480 for the majority of programs. It's much nicer to be able to watch some of the shows on Hulu in full HD that I have until recently missed because I won't pay almost $100/mo for cable.
This is my biggest gripe with Linux. I love tinkering with it, and I would really like to use it, but I can understand why companies that would bring users over won't support it.
Think about it, with Windows and Mac, you have one major codebase that is used. With linux, you have a commonality in some packages, but then you have every manufacturer changing whatever they want, however they want, and in order to provide a product that works best for the users, you'd have to ensure that too many things were the same.
Linux is just too fragmented, which is the nature of the beast that it is. There's such a thing as customizable, but in many cases, being too customizable more a lot more than too much of a good thing.
I like my linux boxes, and I use them quite regularly, but the only real purpose I can consistently use them for is server tasks.
Slashdot Mirror
Honestly, you don't get much engagement on the weekends, so this really should be something that is exposed on the weekdays. Having it come out during the weekend just sucks, really.
Muni broadband fails in most areas because states have granted monopolies to the telco's and cable companies. The only reason the fiber behind my house isn't lit is because the telco for the area said they'd sue if it was. It doesn't matter that the Public Utilities District owns the lines, it's because it would provide the service that the state granted to the telco/cable company. There was a big deal when cable started allowing two-way communications over it's network in the late 90's because the telcos believed they were the only ones allowed to provide bi-directional services such as the internet.
Until the monopolies on telecommunications via any device are broken up, that's the story for anyone who doesn't live in a densely populated enough region. It's also why I seem to have higher taxes and service fees for the same internet my friends and family get, just because I live in a rural area and they live in a city.
What competition?
I can't use my cell phone for all the computers in my home to get online, so that's not competition. I have 2 choices where I live, slow DSL from the phone company or fast cable connectivity with a cap based on some arbitrary number. Neither is the best option, and fiber will likely never be available where I'm at due to it being a rural area without thousands of people to sign up to it.
Until ALL lines are available to ALL providers without lease requirements from the incumbents who can drop lessees, there is no real competition. If the cable company came out tomorrow and said all users in my zip code now have to pay 1000% more for internet, we'd have to just suck it up and pay.
The problem is, there's too much money going directly to the FCC and several congress people to make sure that doesn't happen.
Until corps aren't allowed to make the necessary donations that allow them to be treated like people, it won't change.
How is it naive to think that? Comcast punches into people's browsing all the time when they get close to their data cap. You get warning after warning, and then you're told that you've been charged. They already interfere with your HTTP or HTTPS streams to put that info there.
You make requests against their DNS servers, your header information still goes across their network, so they can see the entirety of the URL. How else do you think the whole 3-strikes copyright rule was supposed to work. They can see the necessary unencrypted data that requests the encrypted data to know what's going on.
Funny, I live in a fairly populated county. I have 2 choices and one of those is >5 Mbps.
Until there is a choice in who I get to use as my provider, then the company providing service has no right determining what I can and cannot see. If they can, then they are most definitely no longer a provider of the internet and are no better than AOL was back in the early 1990's.
Exactly this!
If I order a product from Amazon (I'm also in WA State) and ship it to my house, I get charged the 8.8% sales tax that includes my city/county taxes. If I ship that same package to my daughter's dorm, I get charged 8.3% sales tax. It doesn't matter that Amazon is in Seattle, it matters where the final product will be delivered.
IIRC, you pay the state, along with a report of where the goods were sold to just like a photographer does when they shoot at different locations, as it's based on where the photos are delivered to. The state then distributes the city and county portions of sales tax to those municipalities.
see: Washington Photography Tax Guide
Bring up tax evasion charges, then request that MO arrest you on said charges and extradite you to NM?
The problem is that it's not 50 different tax rates. It's sometimes several hundred per state. If I drive one town over and purchase a 99c taxable item, it'll cost me $1.07 due to taxes. If I drive two towns over and by the same 99c item, it'll cost me $1.08 because the tax rate is different due to city and county taxes. Unless the rules state that it needs to be the base state tax, and the local municipalities are not going to get their share, you're looking at a large number of tax districts.
Look at Seattle and their sugary drink tax. If I drive a little further to Tukwila, I don't have to pay that extra tax. So, if I have that same bottle of Pepsi or Coke delivered to my house, will I have to pay that tax or not?
That's where it will get interesting. Photographers have been dealing with this for as long as sales tax has been around. If you take a picture that you plan to sell, you have to collect the sales tax based on where the photo was taken a lot of the time.
True, but most states require it quarterly at a minimum, which can be a pain.
But that doesn't mean we won't prioritize someone else over you.
I could care less if they don't block and don't throttle, but they will still prioritize those that pay ahead of all others. That's part of the problem. Paid prioritization is just as bad as throttling the other guys. If someone searches a video and it's glitchy because the version on YouTube is faster, then they accomplish the same goal.
The *ONLY* exception to prioritization should be life saving services. E911 calls should be given priority on all networks that carry VoIP. Telemedicine should also be given priority. As should traffic from first responders in an emergency situation.
However, that's where it should end. There shouldn't be a reason that HBO can deliver 4k content without buffering from time to time, yet Showtime can't. There's no reason I should be able to watch an NFL game on Amazon and have it look, sound, seem better than the same game on Twitter (unless of course they have insufficient bandwidth on their end, then that's up to them to fix as a part of doing business).
Because you live in an area where that is feasible. Rural communities, in many areas, still don't have anything better than 56k dialup or slow DSL. There are still areas that I drive in where no cell service exists. Companies only put money where populations are, and therefore can skip other areas because the "average" coverage for the state, county, or region is enough.
This is why you see municipal broadband taking off in areas where it can (e.g. Colorado). The big telco/cable monopolies don't want to run wire where they think it won't be profitable within a very short time, so they just neglect that area.
I'd like to see more communities nullify the monopoly deals that a large provider has and be allowed to set up their own networks. There's no reason the PUD in my area couldn't offer broadband, except for the fact that CenturyLink and Comcast have agreements with too many cities in the area and it gives them monopolies in coverage.
Mine has that on it, as well, as do my kids' SSN cards. To my knowledge, it's on all SSN cards, though I haven't seen any that are newer than 11 years ago.
I've had my credit frozen for 2 years now and haven't had an issue getting a loan. I go to the site of the reporting agency they use, request a pin, give the pin to the lender, then done. Not sure where there'd be an issue. I highly recommend a freeze. It's been the most painless thing I've had to deal with in getting a refinance on my mortgage, 2 car loans, a personal loan, and a new credit card.
Granted, you won't be able to simply go to Best Buy and request a new card, but if you need to do that, then you should re-check your finances before getting a new gadget from them.
I agree. If you're a company such as the big 3 creditors, even without a breach, you should be required to provide these services free of charge to those whose data you hold. You have that data, it's your responsibility to ensure it is not misused. If you can't do that, then you shouldn't be a provider of a service that is as critical to life in the US as the air that is breathed by those that live there.
that will get you the HDMI over a distance using CAT6
Then you would use something like:
http://www.monoprice.com/Produ...
The second is only usb 1.1, but for a mouse and keyboard you probably don't need much more than that. You would need to wire each end directly to each side using CAT6 and there might be other devices to run USB 2.0/3.0 over CAT, but these work fine for me. I run them about 85' between my kids' room and the living room so they can watch netflix and play minecraft.
The problem with that is where I am at, there's typically no voice coverage, either. There are huge areas in rural Western, WA that you can't get a cell signal because there's hills and mountains between you and any towers. What's even more funny is that when I'm at home, I get service from one tower that is 40 miles away. If the power goes out, there's no other tower nearby to take the calls, and there's no plan for any of the telco's to put one in. Heck, the one tower that feeds 4 towns (one having a population of 4 - 5000) is typically down for a total of about a month out of the year. Instead of putting a little money into upgrading it and it's capacity, they simply put money into fixing an EDGE tower, where a 3G or LTE tower would make more sense.
The problem isn't that they can't upgrade the tower, it's that they don't want to because the other company that uses their bands would also reap the benefits of the newer tower and access due to sharing agreements. For them, keeping us on limited voice + EDGE is the best way to go, I guess.
Good old "Sokka-ism" with that one.. makes it nice and fitting.
The last thing Java tried to install on my machine other than itself was the Bing toolbar, but I haven't seen that with the later 1.6 updates.
I thought Money was retired in 2008. I know you couldn't purchase a 2009 version of it, as they didn't make it.
The saddest thing about that is that Money was actually one GOOD piece of software, especially compared to Quicken and the other bill management software that's been out there.
Actually, it's not that bad. I use Windows as my HTPC box because I can't get reliable Blu-Ray support on Linux. I turned off UAC, set every notification icon to minimize and not display notifications, and pretty much leave Windows Media Center up on the screen or switch to VLC. In the rare instance I have to use a webbrowser to watch a show (CBS... I'm looking at you), I have the option available, and can still get pretty good quality out of it.
Now if only I could get a better video card that has an intel chipset on it (nvidia and ati suck for this), so it would fit my screen without requiring me to change the zoom settings and HD audio. As it sits right now, the older intel chipset only supports 2 channel audio over HDMI.
The other major difference is that Hulu on PS3 will play at 720 & 1080, on the PC it's capped at 480 for the majority of programs. It's much nicer to be able to watch some of the shows on Hulu in full HD that I have until recently missed because I won't pay almost $100/mo for cable.
This is my biggest gripe with Linux. I love tinkering with it, and I would really like to use it, but I can understand why companies that would bring users over won't support it. Think about it, with Windows and Mac, you have one major codebase that is used. With linux, you have a commonality in some packages, but then you have every manufacturer changing whatever they want, however they want, and in order to provide a product that works best for the users, you'd have to ensure that too many things were the same. Linux is just too fragmented, which is the nature of the beast that it is. There's such a thing as customizable, but in many cases, being too customizable more a lot more than too much of a good thing. I like my linux boxes, and I use them quite regularly, but the only real purpose I can consistently use them for is server tasks.