Oh there are tons... of what I call independents. However, they ALL share either Bell or Rogers infrastructure.
We have already seen that Bell throttles the resources to these independents. They have taken some criticism, but to my knowlege nothing much has happened to them and I bet they are still doing it.
Rogers hasn't been under the same scrutiny (yet) but I would bet they do the exact same thing.
Bell only recently add dry dsl to their products, probably due to complaints and the independents competition, though it is not really advertised. Could this be because they want to sell phone lines?
Also 99% of those independents are DSL riding Bell lines, I think I have seen one provider in Ontario that is cable, and that was only a limited service area. If you play games and are all about latency, independent dsl may not be what you are looking for.
Bottom line is there is really only 2, and they seem to abuse their position. The stupid thing is, do you think they built all that infrastructure? I am pretty sure much of it was paid for by taxpayers and then custodianship was given over. We have put them in this position and they walk all over us. It is about time we took the reigns a bit and pulled...
We have had stupid caps up in Canada for at least a year now.
I am with Cogeco Ontario (Rogers Communications), for my cable internet, have been for years. I have a 60GB cap. They have 3 levels of service. Crap at 40GB. Normal at 60GB. Better than Normal at 80GB. They also implemented this cap pretty much without notice. So one day I had no cap, the next I did. I have even had my account disconnected due to going over cap (in fact it was the only way I found out I actually had one in the first place).
So don't cry about your 250GB a month cap please.
Ultimately unless the feds wake up and do something about these telecommunication giants taking advantage of markets and ripping consumers off not a bloody thing will happen. People are getting fed up, which will only become more apparent at time goes on. I would think it will only be a matter of years before the politicians start leveraging this for votes and then some sort of change will take place. However until then, it will be annoying, and we will all live in sucksville (at least if you stay in North America).
Bell can also stuff it as far as I am concerned. In Canada there is only Bell and Rogers, a duopoly, so there is not much choice. I hope the CRTC rips them all a new one and soon.
As someone who works in the industry somewhat, Canada and I am sure others have been storing Natural gas and Oil underground in VAST quantities.
To my knowlege two types of facilities exist. Old coral deposits and and old salt mines.
Basically deep under ground there are large petrified coral reefs from days of yor. These areas are HIGHLY porous. Yet surrounded by non-porous rock. So while its not really a big cavern you can inject whatever gas you like down there and plug it, and it will stay down there a long time. Did I mention these are big places that hold alot?
The other type are old salt mines that have been mine using solution mining. Which is basically injecting water, pumping the saline out, and then letting it evaporate. These produce large underground caverns. Suitable for storing all sorts of stuff including oil. You want the oil out, inject water, oil being lighter comes out the top... simple. Works for coral as well I think, but not sure.
In any case not sure if the geology is the same over there as it is here, but provided they aren't using them and they have some around why not?
The only concern I would have is what sort of process would be going on down there when the CO2 changes from liquid to gas again, and what sort of pressure you are atlking about. It will not stay at -20 for very long I am thinking so some sort of chemical change may take place while trying to inject it. Which may be dangerous.
Emmission through the ground as mentioned is probably not a big deal, its a known quantity. It also isn't explosive or flammable which is nice. Though you could suffocate someone if the blow was big enough.
Thing is depending on the amount of waste CO2, these facilities, while huge, are none the less finite. They WILL eventually fill up, and then what, unless there is a use for CO2. Also while using them for CO2 storage, you wouldn't be able to use them for gas or oil etc.... Now if you can figure out a good use for massive amounts of concentrated CO2 that won't bugger the environment, you might make some money!
Where is my Nano Solar Paint that has greater than 40% efficiency dammit!
That was years ago. Can I buy a bucket to paint my electric car? No.
I take this sort of BS with a huge grain of el salto.
Also who cares if you get 500% more absorption of it is 5000% more expensive to manufacture. Crap like that tends to matter in the real world.
Good for him he can generate interesting theoretical models at age 12. Hope he sticks with it, and it 10 years or so actually comes up with something. He will still only be 22, and that's not too bad either, provided he doesn't get side tracked by pesky girls or anything...
Substance abuse? Could that just be gamers smoking pot, 'cause you know like that never happens!
As for depression and the like well there could be a number of reasons for that.
However consider the demographic. Mostly boys, and mostly younger. That may skew the results a bit.
Also when making comparisons to the "average American" it might not make sense if the average American is a 50 year old as compared to a 25 year old average.
In any case not enough detail in the article to make it worth anything.
I have had a couple of test interviews that I thought were pretty silly.
I think the problem is likely that most interviews are conducted by non-technical people who really don't know what the job is about in the first place. Typical ones I have seen usually have 1-2 managers, and 1-2 HR types, they MIGHT invite along 1 staff that actually would know what is being talked about.
The last test I did for an entry level System Officer position they essentially handed me a piece of paper and a pencil and expected me to reproduce complex SQL and some coding.
I am sorry, I have been going it for 8 years and I still don't do that crap off the top of my head, with out reference, or computer, etc... Unless your job is to do that and only that for some extended period I don't think it is really that reasonable to expect it.
I heard later that they only interviewed 4 people, and didn't fill the position, go figure. I think this is also part of the commonly know idea that employers want someone with 10 years experience in a programing language that only actually existed for 5, and you better have a masters, and want to get paid at an entry level wage. Yeah good luck filling that position...
Zapp Brannigan: It was almost the perfect crime. But you forgot one thing: Rock crushes scissors. But paper covers rock...and scissors cuts paper! Kif, we have a conundrum.
[Kif sighs.]
Zapp Brannigan: Search them for paper. And bring me a rock.
I can't find the EULA (not surprising) on their website, but it is probably hidden there someplace. I remember reading it and it had a line something like this "at any time at the sole discretion of Cogeco Cable this agreement can be change in whole or in part" or something along those lines. It also followed that this would be done with "notification" to the user. When I called their support I discovered that "notification" really just meant they would update the hidden website EULA. I guess users are just supposed to check every other day and see if the deal has changed or something....
To quote Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
For more fun check this out, their Acceptable Use Agreement (that probably no one is aware about either).
I para phrase, but it basically says we will limit your use by various ways, and we will pretty much do what we damn please. I think tomorrow we will change schedule A so your download limit is 1mb, and then when you exceed it, we will cancel your service.
First off, the DRM will be broken in about 3 seconds, as has been pointed out by many.
Secondly, no one will have to break the DRM as no one is going to buy this POS.
What I was wondering is how much does the think cost? If you follow the link to buy:
Its 30$....
In British Pounds (60$ US).....
For Ghostbusters....
on a 2GB thumb drive that costs 10$ (maybe!) which is crippled by DRM.
and being only 2GB you know the resolution will crap. (By crap I mean certainly not HD, and probably not even up to DVD standards. I expect your standard 280x320 (or whatever the std is for TV) POS, good for an old school TV but not much else).
Seriously ghostbusters? I mean it is a classic and has a cult status, but really most people would expect to pay 5.99$ Canadian at Walmart for that.
Anyway a joke. What were they smoking when they came up with this idea! lol
Seriously though, if you wait until you are laid off, it might be a bit late. Of course if you are stealing passwords just in the off chance you may get laid off you are probably a bit cynical and perhaps defeatist enough that you will unwittingly construct that reality for yourself anwyay. Irony would dictate that you be laid off for stealing passwords I suppose...
I know this is a joke, but seriously it makes more sense.
Of course we are assuming that in 2000 years we will still have spaceflight and not be in some sort of virus zombie filled post apocalyptic mad max sort of existence.
Generally speaking getting any physical object to last 2000 years is a tough sell, particularly if you are trying to protect tiny (microscopic even!) details. This is largely due to the fact that we have this pesky atmosphere and weather (and geology to a certain extent).
On the moon however, there is none of those problems. The only problem would be getting something there, and likely it would be small size so you couldn't just place it anywhere otherwise someone might not find it.
If you did select someplace that would generally not be overlooked, say the highest mountain or the biggest creator or something like that it would be probably found.
Of course you would want to stop those 500 year doucebags from taking it, which would lend credibility to the idea of disbursing many copies all over the freaking' place, which given our current tech would be hard to do on the moon.
Of course as a proof of concept you might design a satalite to orbit the moon, and eject a capsule at the moon ever so often.
I guess to take this one step further, would be to design a spacecraft that has a sort of comet like orbit of earth and only comes around every 2000 years. Of course it would have to be a stable orbit that would not change even after the craft lost all power and just became an inert piece of junk with a large orbit.
Somewhat pun intended, but to blue sky here a bit, wouldn't it be interesting if this type of technology was not limited by a few meters, but rather could be translated a much higher distance?
I am thinking of orbital solar collectors sending power earth side, to solve our power woes, with no impact.
Or even a step farther, set up solar power generating stations on the moon to the same effect. Now I guess this technology uses magnetic fields to transport the power, so perhaps earths natural field may muck that up, also delivering accurately to a very small area on earth might also be rather hard to do.
Anyway interesting food for thought, if only for science fiction.
If I remember correctly when Banting and best invented insulin they patented it only to sell it for one dollar as they agreed that that everyone should have access to it, rich or poor.
From wiki: "Banting, Best and Collip subsequently shared the patent for insulin, which they sold to the University of Toronto for one dollar."
Damn Canadian socialized medicine again turning people into commies! Its the American way to let the market dictate that drug companies and Insurance companies can choose who lives and who dies. For is the market not America's real God?
Also while I am bashing, the aid that America traditionally sends to the poor people (to feel all fuzzy inside and look good) in the world is grain that is fantastically subsidized and paid for by the government, which they then dump on poor countries. Who already cannot feed their people, now cannot afford to create or maintain their own agriculture industry while all the subsidized free grain is being dumped on them. Negative feedback cycle repeat. I am no economist but this feedback (no pun intended) loop doesn't seem to be helping all that much. Perhaps it does some initial good in the short term, but it does nothing to help create a sustainable future, and perhaps that was never the intent. For poor countries under the boot, make great shoes.
For some time now Canadians have been paying a fee on every ipod, on every piece of digital media (CDR's and DVD-R's etc...) due to the supposed copying of music. These fees were then supposed to go to the Canadian version of the RIAA, which would then in turn disperse the monies to the artists.
That is my understanding anyway. I wonder how that is working? I wonder if a single cent has ever made it to the artists themselves, or if this has just been basically filling the lobbyist's war chest for lawsuits and paying off political officials.
By my tone you can probably guess how I think it will turn out.
I am not sure these blanket schemes are the way to go. Perhaps if the wording was stronger and the enforcement more profound, then perhaps.
I just hope the keep and improve on the multiplayer aspect of the game. It was the best part and why I loved the game and particularly why I played it for so long. It really gave the game long lasting legs on which to stand.
I hope the take note of Enemy Territory and the team based multiplayer. Quake Wars is good, but I remember ET was the best.
Slashdot Mirror
"They won't be making a pile of cash out of trees."
Ummm that's not entirety accurate.
I am pretty sure a pile of cash is made out of trees. Ba dum dum! Bing!
Oh there are tons... of what I call independents. However, they ALL share either Bell or Rogers infrastructure.
We have already seen that Bell throttles the resources to these independents. They have taken some criticism, but to my knowlege nothing much has happened to them and I bet they are still doing it.
Rogers hasn't been under the same scrutiny (yet) but I would bet they do the exact same thing.
Bell only recently add dry dsl to their products, probably due to complaints and the independents competition, though it is not really advertised. Could this be because they want to sell phone lines?
Also 99% of those independents are DSL riding Bell lines, I think I have seen one provider in Ontario that is cable, and that was only a limited service area. If you play games and are all about latency, independent dsl may not be what you are looking for.
Bottom line is there is really only 2, and they seem to abuse their position. The stupid thing is, do you think they built all that infrastructure? I am pretty sure much of it was paid for by taxpayers and then custodianship was given over. We have put them in this position and they walk all over us. It is about time we took the reigns a bit and pulled...
We have had stupid caps up in Canada for at least a year now.
I am with Cogeco Ontario (Rogers Communications), for my cable internet, have been for years. I have a 60GB cap. They have 3 levels of service. Crap at 40GB. Normal at 60GB. Better than Normal at 80GB. They also implemented this cap pretty much without notice. So one day I had no cap, the next I did. I have even had my account disconnected due to going over cap (in fact it was the only way I found out I actually had one in the first place).
So don't cry about your 250GB a month cap please.
Ultimately unless the feds wake up and do something about these telecommunication giants taking advantage of markets and ripping consumers off not a bloody thing will happen. People are getting fed up, which will only become more apparent at time goes on. I would think it will only be a matter of years before the politicians start leveraging this for votes and then some sort of change will take place. However until then, it will be annoying, and we will all live in sucksville (at least if you stay in North America).
Bell can also stuff it as far as I am concerned. In Canada there is only Bell and Rogers, a duopoly, so there is not much choice. I hope the CRTC rips them all a new one and soon.
Scissors sharp! Fire hot!
Q: But how will universities possibly calculate your relative academic value to the rest of the world?
A: /2
good luck with that.
As someone who works in the industry somewhat, Canada and I am sure others have been storing Natural gas and Oil underground in VAST quantities.
To my knowlege two types of facilities exist. Old coral deposits and and old salt mines.
Basically deep under ground there are large petrified coral reefs from days of yor. These areas are HIGHLY porous. Yet surrounded by non-porous rock. So while its not really a big cavern you can inject whatever gas you like down there and plug it, and it will stay down there a long time. Did I mention these are big places that hold alot?
The other type are old salt mines that have been mine using solution mining. Which is basically injecting water, pumping the saline out, and then letting it evaporate. These produce large underground caverns. Suitable for storing all sorts of stuff including oil. You want the oil out, inject water, oil being lighter comes out the top... simple. Works for coral as well I think, but not sure.
In any case not sure if the geology is the same over there as it is here, but provided they aren't using them and they have some around why not?
The only concern I would have is what sort of process would be going on down there when the CO2 changes from liquid to gas again, and what sort of pressure you are atlking about. It will not stay at -20 for very long I am thinking so some sort of chemical change may take place while trying to inject it. Which may be dangerous.
Emmission through the ground as mentioned is probably not a big deal, its a known quantity. It also isn't explosive or flammable which is nice. Though you could suffocate someone if the blow was big enough.
Thing is depending on the amount of waste CO2, these facilities, while huge, are none the less finite. They WILL eventually fill up, and then what, unless there is a use for CO2. Also while using them for CO2 storage, you wouldn't be able to use them for gas or oil etc.... Now if you can figure out a good use for massive amounts of concentrated CO2 that won't bugger the environment, you might make some money!
Captain O'Hagan: I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says, " Shenanigans."
Mac: Hey Farva what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
Farva: You mean Shenanigans?
Mac: OOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Thorny: OOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
[as they hand the Captain their pistols]
Where is my Nano Solar Paint that has greater than 40% efficiency dammit!
That was years ago. Can I buy a bucket to paint my electric car? No.
I take this sort of BS with a huge grain of el salto.
Also who cares if you get 500% more absorption of it is 5000% more expensive to manufacture. Crap like that tends to matter in the real world.
Good for him he can generate interesting theoretical models at age 12. Hope he sticks with it, and it 10 years or so actually comes up with something. He will still only be 22, and that's not too bad either, provided he doesn't get side tracked by pesky girls or anything...
Yeah its one thing to sue single moms, and grandparents...
Suing other lawyers, particularly those that litigate back probably won't be so much fun I am thinking.
Article is a bit light on the details...
Substance abuse? Could that just be gamers smoking pot, 'cause you know like that never happens!
As for depression and the like well there could be a number of reasons for that.
However consider the demographic. Mostly boys, and mostly younger. That may skew the results a bit.
Also when making comparisons to the "average American" it might not make sense if the average American is a 50 year old as compared to a 25 year old average.
In any case not enough detail in the article to make it worth anything.
I think the CEO of Google may be in need of a tattoo.
I have had a couple of test interviews that I thought were pretty silly.
I think the problem is likely that most interviews are conducted by non-technical people who really don't know what the job is about in the first place. Typical ones I have seen usually have 1-2 managers, and 1-2 HR types, they MIGHT invite along 1 staff that actually would know what is being talked about.
The last test I did for an entry level System Officer position they essentially handed me a piece of paper and a pencil and expected me to reproduce complex SQL and some coding.
I am sorry, I have been going it for 8 years and I still don't do that crap off the top of my head, with out reference, or computer, etc... Unless your job is to do that and only that for some extended period I don't think it is really that reasonable to expect it.
I heard later that they only interviewed 4 people, and didn't fill the position, go figure. I think this is also part of the commonly know idea that employers want someone with 10 years experience in a programing language that only actually existed for 5, and you better have a masters, and want to get paid at an entry level wage. Yeah good luck filling that position...
Zapp Brannigan: It was almost the perfect crime. But you forgot one thing: Rock crushes scissors. But paper covers rock...and scissors cuts paper! Kif, we have a conundrum.
[Kif sighs.]
Zapp Brannigan: Search them for paper. And bring me a rock.
Mine!
I can't find the EULA (not surprising) on their website, but it is probably hidden there someplace. I remember reading it and it had a line something like this "at any time at the sole discretion of Cogeco Cable this agreement can be change in whole or in part" or something along those lines. It also followed that this would be done with "notification" to the user. When I called their support I discovered that "notification" really just meant they would update the hidden website EULA. I guess users are just supposed to check every other day and see if the deal has changed or something....
To quote Darth Vader:
I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
For more fun check this out, their Acceptable Use Agreement (that probably no one is aware about either).
http://www.cogeco.ca/files/pdf/legal/HSI_PUA_on_en.pdf
I para phrase, but it basically says we will limit your use by various ways, and we will pretty much do what we damn please. I think tomorrow we will change schedule A so your download limit is 1mb, and then when you exceed it, we will cancel your service.
First off, the DRM will be broken in about 3 seconds, as has been pointed out by many.
Secondly, no one will have to break the DRM as no one is going to buy this POS.
What I was wondering is how much does the think cost? If you follow the link to buy:
Its 30$....
In British Pounds (60$ US).....
For Ghostbusters....
on a 2GB thumb drive that costs 10$ (maybe!) which is crippled by DRM.
and being only 2GB you know the resolution will crap. (By crap I mean certainly not HD, and probably not even up to DVD standards. I expect your standard 280x320 (or whatever the std is for TV) POS, good for an old school TV but not much else).
Seriously ghostbusters? I mean it is a classic and has a cult status, but really most people would expect to pay 5.99$ Canadian at Walmart for that.
Anyway a joke. What were they smoking when they came up with this idea! lol
Hell I am stealing passwords right now!
Seriously though, if you wait until you are laid off, it might be a bit late. Of course if you are stealing passwords just in the off chance you may get laid off you are probably a bit cynical and perhaps defeatist enough that you will unwittingly construct that reality for yourself anwyay. Irony would dictate that you be laid off for stealing passwords I suppose...
Initiating Autonomous Global Diagnostic Scan... ...Scan Complete Anomaly Found.
Matching with known database... Done. 1 Match Found.
Anomaly classified: Gammima.AG worm
Cleansing Procedure Initiated...
Self-Destruct in:
5
4
3
2
1
boom.
I mean seriously it was found on laptops used to monitor nutrition? On Noes!!!111!
"OMG the nutrition laptop is down!? How many carbs am I allowed today! HOW MANY!"
I know this is a joke, but seriously it makes more sense.
Of course we are assuming that in 2000 years we will still have spaceflight and not be in some sort of virus zombie filled post apocalyptic mad max sort of existence.
Generally speaking getting any physical object to last 2000 years is a tough sell, particularly if you are trying to protect tiny (microscopic even!) details. This is largely due to the fact that we have this pesky atmosphere and weather (and geology to a certain extent).
On the moon however, there is none of those problems. The only problem would be getting something there, and likely it would be small size so you couldn't just place it anywhere otherwise someone might not find it.
If you did select someplace that would generally not be overlooked, say the highest mountain or the biggest creator or something like that it would be probably found.
Of course you would want to stop those 500 year doucebags from taking it, which would lend credibility to the idea of disbursing many copies all over the freaking' place, which given our current tech would be hard to do on the moon.
Of course as a proof of concept you might design a satalite to orbit the moon, and eject a capsule at the moon ever so often.
I guess to take this one step further, would be to design a spacecraft that has a sort of comet like orbit of earth and only comes around every 2000 years. Of course it would have to be a stable orbit that would not change even after the craft lost all power and just became an inert piece of junk with a large orbit.
Somewhat pun intended, but to blue sky here a bit, wouldn't it be interesting if this type of technology was not limited by a few meters, but rather could be translated a much higher distance?
I am thinking of orbital solar collectors sending power earth side, to solve our power woes, with no impact.
Or even a step farther, set up solar power generating stations on the moon to the same effect. Now I guess this technology uses magnetic fields to transport the power, so perhaps earths natural field may muck that up, also delivering accurately to a very small area on earth might also be rather hard to do.
Anyway interesting food for thought, if only for science fiction.
If I remember correctly when Banting and best invented insulin they patented it only to sell it for one dollar as they agreed that that everyone should have access to it, rich or poor.
From wiki:
"Banting, Best and Collip subsequently shared the patent for insulin, which they sold to the University of Toronto for one dollar."
Damn Canadian socialized medicine again turning people into commies! Its the American way to let the market dictate that drug companies and Insurance companies can choose who lives and who dies. For is the market not America's real God?
Also while I am bashing, the aid that America traditionally sends to the poor people (to feel all fuzzy inside and look good) in the world is grain that is fantastically subsidized and paid for by the government, which they then dump on poor countries. Who already cannot feed their people, now cannot afford to create or maintain their own agriculture industry while all the subsidized free grain is being dumped on them. Negative feedback cycle repeat. I am no economist but this feedback (no pun intended) loop doesn't seem to be helping all that much. Perhaps it does some initial good in the short term, but it does nothing to help create a sustainable future, and perhaps that was never the intent. For poor countries under the boot, make great shoes.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy, and bruised
In a way Canada already does this.
For some time now Canadians have been paying a fee on every ipod, on every piece of digital media (CDR's and DVD-R's etc...) due to the supposed copying of music. These fees were then supposed to go to the Canadian version of the RIAA, which would then in turn disperse the monies to the artists.
That is my understanding anyway. I wonder how that is working? I wonder if a single cent has ever made it to the artists themselves, or if this has just been basically filling the lobbyist's war chest for lawsuits and paying off political officials.
By my tone you can probably guess how I think it will turn out.
I am not sure these blanket schemes are the way to go. Perhaps if the wording was stronger and the enforcement more profound, then perhaps.
I just hope the keep and improve on the multiplayer aspect of the game. It was the best part and why I loved the game and particularly why I played it for so long. It really gave the game long lasting legs on which to stand.
I hope the take note of Enemy Territory and the team based multiplayer. Quake Wars is good, but I remember ET was the best.
I believe this is the definition of Irony.